Tesco Supermarket

Introduction

Tesco is one of the world’s leading supermarket and retailers that is under a British group. Currently, the company is the UK’s largest retailer based on the overview on their domestic and international markets. Tesco has more than 2,000 combined stores of supermarkets, superstores, and conveniences stores in United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, and in Asia that adds to the sales and revenue of the organization yearly. Because of the success of the organization in the industry and the business, many organizations desire the throne of Tesco. With the use of the case studies, organizational reports and other contexts, the organization that operates in either domestic or international market gained some important ideas that can help them drew closer to the core operation of the organization.

TESCO

Tesco currently holds the 30% share in the UK grocery market. The nature and operation of the organization centers in food and drinks that promises the value and finest products. On the other hand, the organization also became a major player in the range of non-food markets including the consumer electrical, clothing, financial services, telecoms, fuel, internet services, and even the music retailing. In addition, the company also offers the financial products such as the insurance and other banking services. Because of the growing number of range of services managed by the organization, there is no doubt that the success and being the leader in the retailing industry can be in their hands.

However, the corporate social responsibility of the organization is not being neglected because of the growing job opportunities they offer. Naturally, the organization needs people to accommodate the offers of the organization in different aspects. And unlike the other organization, the employment within this organization is continuously growing even in the midst of the economic turbulent and financial crunches. The motivation of the organization to hire the people is to serve the widening markets. Therefore, they need flexible and well-trained staff that can recognize the needs and wants of the customers, and if possible gain their trust and surpass their expectations.

Organizational Culture, Structure, and Strategy

With a core purpose to create the value for the customers and earn their loyalty, Tesco craft and shaped their objectives and can be mirrored on their culture, organizational structure, and strategies.

As a well-established organization, it is important for Tesco to pay attention on their respective strategies that can accommodate their growth. Through the integration of the various strategies, the organization can strengthen their core products and services. Because of the advantages they have against their competitors, the organization can drive in the expansion for new markets. The underpinning principle of this strategy is to broaden the scope of the organization to enable the business in a sustainable long-term growth and gaining more advantages.

The idea of expansion became popular among the business entrepreneurs because it allows the business to grow according to the flow of environment in the foreign land. However, the idea of Tesco in utilizing its advantages in expansion does not stop in one expansion or two. They followed the expansion strategies with another that makes the organization expand more and reach the markets effectively by offering the products and services the country truly needs. In addition, the diversification on the products and services of the organization is identified as another success of the organization in their business. The continuous development of the organization in reaching the unsaturated markets is strength of the organization towards the competitiveness and profitability.

The ongoing practices and strategic management of the organization reflected in the five elements in which the retailers and other organizations around the world are attempting to gain.

1. To be a successful international retailer
2. To grow the core UK business
3. To be as strong in non-food as in food.
4. To develop retailing services - such as Tesco Personal Finance, Telecoms and Tesco.com
5. To put community at the heart of what TESCO do.

The Strategy on the New Markets

The reason on why the Tesco is successful in their business venture is not only because on their leaders’ wise decisions but because of the good foundation of research. The expansion of the organization can be traced on their ability to search for the unsaturated markets across the globe and aim to be the first international retailer to reach the market.

Conclusion

The long-term commitment of the organization in the community and environment are important aspects in which the countries are benefited while on the other hand, there is a growth in the group even in the economic downturn.

References:

Gwyne, R.N., (2008). “UK Retail Concentration, Chilean Wine Producers and Value Chains”, The Geographical Journal, 174(2).

Tidd, J., Bessant, J., & Pavitt, K., (2001). “Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change”, John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Yoruk, D.E., & Radosevic, S., (2000). “International Expansion and Buyer-Driven Commodity Chain: The Case of Tesco”. Accessed 03 Aug 2010, from http://profesores.ie.edu/enrique_dans/TESCO/international%20expansion.pdf

Importance Customer Relationship in the Current Retail Market

Introduction

Maintaining the customers and searching for the potential clients can be the most desirable framework in a business. The system and the daily operation of the firm which focuses on the maintaining the relationship resembles in the attempt of the firm to success in the industry with the application of customer’s tastes and preferences. Due to the challenges in terms of globalization and economic changes, the position of business changes as well. In addition, maintaining the trust of the existing customers and finding looking for potential market can be troublesome. Still, many business leaders believe that the market needs to see the connection between the business retailers and the customers. Therefore, the creation of the customer relationship in the management is a great step for every business.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Organizations in all over the world understand the meaning of CRM that stands for the Customer Relationship Management which focuses on the needs of their customers. The creation of CRM in every organization can be successfully implemented with the aid of the technology. CRM can be an organizational factor that ensures the revenue through maximizing their customers and can push the continuing effort of the organization to develop their products, operation process, services, etc. (Wahab, Noor, and Ali, 2009). Globalization challenges the firms and tends to establish strong approach to maintain and retain the customer effectiveness. The impact CRM in the firm can be very crucial to the success for it is qualified as the solution in long-term goal of their business (SAP, 2002; Liu, 2007).

CRM, as designed to focus on the competitiveness, is also applied in government and their associated agencies to coordinate the services across the multiple customers. CRM practices bound to explain the key areas in terms of customer insights, customer offerings, customer interactions, organization performance, and networks or channels. The development in the CRM is currently recognized as the key intelligence in business’s problems (Accenture, 2002).

Importance of CRM

In retail market, CRM is important to deliver the profitability of the business that is mostly based on paying the effort in high-valued customer (Ponsonby, 2002). Accordingly, the application of CRM creates an impact particularly on the business to understand the customer behavior as to their reaction in the challenges presented in the economy. Based on the effectiveness of CRM, customers can request specialized products (for manufacturing businesses) and high quality of service (for service-focused businesses). Such requirements are important to increase the effectiveness of the business and reinforce the confidence in competition and within the industry. For example, the application of CRM in banks can both applied the strategic approach in products and services for the continuous growth and improvement of banking business. In addition, through the use of CRM, every organization can review their businesses past performances and consult the customers as their step in crafting potential future plans (Ernst and Young, 2010).

In the application of the CRM with the technology, the organization can find some trouble because of the lack of training among their staff, lack of technological support, inappropriate market target, and other minor problems. Other than that, the adaptation of CRM in the every organization proposes to be part of the internal function of the management to help the business leaders create sound decisions. The combination of CRM and IT can be described as another modernized communication, but it is more than just ordinary software. The essence of building the link between CRM and IT is to appropriate touch the customers without any delay. The application of CRM deals with the monitoring of the current and future needs. This is a great innovative approach to every organization for it continuously adds value on their customers and corresponds to their market effectiveness. Although, it is difficult to pin down directly the demand of the customers, it still believed that the strong relationship between the company and their clients can help dictate the flow of the competition as well as influencing the customers’ buying and decision behaviors.

Conclusion

CRM is the firm’s way in thinking systematically about the needs of the customers and how the needs can be successfully met. The impact of CRM in every business positively increases the profitability in the industry because the main concept of CRM is focused in maintaining the customer effectiveness of the organization in the market. In a modern way, the CRM can be applied with the support of information technology to broadly touch the customers across the globe.

References:

Accenture (2002) “Customer Relationship Management--A Blueprint for Government”, The Government Executive Series, pp3-20, Accessed 21 May 2010, from www.accenture.com

Ernst and Young, (2010) “Understanding Customer Behavior in Retail Banking –The Impact of the Credit Crisis across Europe”, EYGM Limited, Accessed 21 May 2010, from http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Customer_behavior_report/$FILE/Customer%20behavior%20report.pdf

Liu, H., (2007) “Development of a Framework for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the Banking Industry”, International Journal of Management, Vol. 24, No. 1

Ponsonby, R., (2002) “Customer Relationship Management – the Importance of Market Segmentation and Appropriate Measurement”, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation Global Services, Accessed 21 May 2010, from http://www.themarketingprocessco.com/document_downloads/march2002seminar/CRM_the_importance_of_segmentation_and_appropriate_customer_measurement.pdf

SAP, (2002) “CRM for the Banking Sector”, Accessed 21 May 2010, from http://www.sap.com/southafrica/industries/banking/pdf/BWP_CRM_banking.pdf

Wahab, S., Noor, N., & Ali, J., (2009) “Technology Trust and E-Banking Adoption: The Mediating Effect of Customer Relationship Management Performance”, The Asian Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 2, No. 2, Accessed 21 May 2010, from http://www.sbm.itb.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Technology-Trust-and-E-Banking-Adoption-The-Mediating-Effect-of-Customer-Relationship-Management-Performance.pdf