Business at work

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C) Data
Over 10 million customers, over 60,000 products and 586 stores
Current Management Information
Data held on mainframe, PC or on paper
Internal data analysed using SAR reports and MAS analysis tool (see below)
External data received by EDI or on paper
Planned Data Warehouse
Data collected from Tesco operational systems and external sources, and stored centrally to provide one consistent source of information
Data is stored on customer behaviour, product performance, branch performance supplier performance, depot performance
Data held at lowest level to enable ad hoc groupings,

e.g. salt sales in stores by the seaside last Easter.

D) Analytical tools
Current Management Information
Mainframe based
FOCUS - report generator
SAR - report viewer
MAS - Tesco-written multi-dimensional analysis tool
PC Lotus suite - spreadsheet and database applications
Planned Data Warehouse
A simple interface with the information using the score card concept, with top level measures and capability to "drill" to the level of information required to support decisions
IT populate the Information Warehouse and users control their reporting requirements
Logical access to information, with user choice of level, groupings, stores, products, measures, and other parameters

ICT systems used in store operations.
IT is essential to the running of a modern store. It is used for planning, monitoring and auditing store operations. In fact, the logistics of running a major store would be severely hampered without IT, and the expansion to
Superstores and Hypermarkets would have been difficult without modern IT developments.

Tesco stores vary greatly in size, from small Express stores covering 2,500 square feet to giant hypermarkets covering 120,000 square feet. The product range depends on the size of the store, and varies from 2,000 lines in a small store up to about 40,000 lines in the biggest. Computerised Store
Merchandising and Planning systems ensure that Tesco get the right products to the right store, and get the right amount of space on each shelf within a store. This allows Tesco to get optimum sales for the space allocated to the product, and gives the customer the most appropriate range of products.

A store can monitor what has been sold through the scanning operation at the checkout. The introduction of barcodes and scanners not only allows items to be checked out more easily, but it provides information that is constantly fed back to the store's computer for the monitoring of sales, both in terms of stock depletion and money taken.

Barcodes and scanners provide several benefits to company’s customers:
As purchases are no longer entered manually into a cash register, accurate pricing is guaranteed.
The scanning till is faster, reducing the time for which customers have to queue by about 15%.
Produce is now weighed at checkouts, removing the need to queue twice (once for weighing and once at the checkout) as used to happen.
Improved promotions may be offered, such as Multisavers.
The customer gets an itemised till receipt giving details of the product purchased, price, weight (if weighed), total cost and method of payment. It also shows the store telephone number, plus details which will trace the sale quickly if a customer has an enquiry.

Tesco benefits as much as the customer from the new systems. Notably:
Improved transaction accuracy: operator error is removed; fraud is limited as there is no opportunity to enter a lower price on the keyboard.
Improved customer service - customers are important!
Improved productivity. There is no need to label each item with its price, which can now be displayed on the shelf edge near to the product. Removing separate weighing stations removes the need for a manned point in the produce department; customers move through the checkout faster.
Selective promotions can be initiated.
Stock levels can be reduced as the exact quantity held is always known and re-ordering can be made more accurate
Wastage of perishable goods is reduced, as they too can be ordered more accurately.
Monitoring sales analysis and the effectiveness of promotions provides valuable information for Tesco buyers and also the company's suppliers.

Every product has a unique number, the European Article Number or EAN.
This number is allocated to each product by the Article Number Association, which oversees the operation of the numbers for all businesses in the UK.
The number can be found below the bar code. The bar code is a representation of that number in a binary form that can be read by a scanner. The scanner uses a laser and measures the difference in reflection to the laser of the bars and spaces.
The EAN and barcodes normally consist of 13 digits, although there may be only eight on smaller products. The first two digits are a national code, representing the marketing country. The next five digits identify the supplier of the product and the following five identify the product itself.
The final figure is a "check digit" based on the other twelve numbers, which allows the computer to validate the code.

The introduction of IT in shopping has been matched by banks. This has resulted in new developments in payment. The simplest of these is that cheque details can be printed out by the till, based on the information used to produce the receipt. Credit card vouchers can be printed similarly, and credit card details read electronically from the card.
A further advance has come with Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale
(EFTPOS). This allows Tesco to transfer money from a customer's bank account or credit card account automatically. Two developments that have come from this are the debit card and "cashback".
Debit cards are a means of purchasing without cash or a cheque. Unlike cheques, there is no limit to the amount a customer can spend with a debit card as the transaction is automatically checked at the customer's bank and, providing there are sufficient funds in the customer's bank account, the payment is then guaranteed to Tesco. Unlike credit cards, the customer pays at the time of the sale.
The facility to give customers up to Ј50 in cash also comes from being able to check the customer's bank or credit card account, and has proved a popular innovation with customers, who are saved the necessity of a trip to a bank or cashpoint.

Within a store there are two crucial systems that enable Tesco to sell products. These are the front-end system, called ProgreSS, and the replenishment system, SBO.
The ProgreSS system holds pricing details of the 60,000 different products that Tesco sells, their description, and details of any special offers on them. It records details about each sale, not just the amount of each item sold, but whether the price has been reduced, the amount of money tendered and the change given. It also controls Clubcard processing, registering the points earned on the card. Whilst the system manages the main grocery tills, it also has the ability to be aligned to specific business functions. So different "personalities" are used within the garage, pharmacy, hot chicken counter and pizza areas.
The system is also used to control the back office and cash areas. During a normal day's operation the system will transmit batches of information to the mainframe systems at Head Office. This is primarily sales data, but also includes details on reduction sales and Clubcard details, together with daily totals and so on. In return it receives price changes, and new and delisted product information.
The ProgreSS system runs on an RS6000 machine.
The stock replenishment system is called Sales Based Ordering (SBO). As its name implies, it orders new stock on the basis of what has been sold. It also manages in-store stock control and the central ranging and ordering process.
Whilst there are some 60,000 products sold by Tesco, even the biggest hypermarket will stock only about 40,000 of them. Some Express stores will stock only 2,000 lines. The system keeps track of what products are stocked and how much is in the store, and is then able to use this information, together with the sales data, to calculate how much more should be ordered.
Most products have to be calculated every day, on a one or two day lead time (the time between ordering and delivery).
The SBO system also manages the recording of all store-based stock movements (for example damaged goods, out-of-code waste, transfers to other stores), stock count scheduling and validation. The stores also use the system to influence their orders, for example factoring up expected sales of ice cream when a hot spell is forecast.

ICT systems used by Customer Service Centre.
The centre provides a central customer service operation for the company; it handles requests for information and customer enquiries. It also handles the management and administration of Tesco Clubcard, and the processing of orders for the Baby Catalogue and the Home Shopping service.
The scale of the operation, and the efficient organisation of staff to provide exceptional customer service, requires the extensive use of IT both in telephone and information systems.
To give you an idea of the scale of company operation, Tesco employs over
400 staff, both full and part-time. The Clubcard loyalty scheme has over 10 million customers. In a typical week Tesco get 100,000 telephone calls,
5,000 letters, and 1,500 e-mails from customers, and company generates
7,000 outbound letters to customers.
Tesco uses IT to manage 100,000 calls a week, both to organise the calls efficiently and to provide information on the timing and length of calls for planning and monitoring purposes. Among the systems Tesco uses are:
ACD - Automatic call distribution (Meridian)

This system manages the way calls get routed to Customer Service Centre staff. Calls into the centre are distributed to ensure that call queues are managed effectively. Real time monitoring facilities provide information on service levels.
Call forecasting and scheduling system (QMax)

The distribution of calls varies significantly throughout the week. This system is used for forecasting when calls are likely to be made. The information is then used to schedule staff availability so that they are there to take the calls.
IVR - Interactive voice response

This is a menuing system on the telephone to filter out those calls that can be handled without an operator. The customer selects various options so that calls can be transferred directly to the appropriate service or person.
There are many ways in which IT provides and organises information for
Tesco. For example :
Customer services have systems to assist in logging customer enquiries, handling responses and tracking progress on outstanding issues.
Tesco has an addressing system, based on the Post Office Address File, that enables accurate addresses to be captured quickly.
Tesco has a knowledge base on an intranet to help staff deal with customer queries. This contains frequently asked information about the company’s stores, products, services and policies, as well as general information about nutrition and healthy eating.
Management reporting is used extensively to provide information to the business on customer concerns. Tesco is now looking at new technology as a way of pro- actively reporting on any serious issues that emerge requiring close, urgent attention.
Orders from Home Shopping customers may be received over the telephone, by fax or via the Internet. These are collated by store and go through a delivery scheduling system which plans the most efficient delivery route, and are then transmitted to the stores for packing and delivery.
The Clubcard system enables staff to deal with customer queries related to the service. This involves managing a large number of routine calls with regard to changes of address, lost cards, and so on. IVR systems are used to intercept these routine calls so that they can be handled automatically.

Alternative approaches which might enable the business to better meet its objectives.
The retail grocery market is intensely competitive today and no serious contender can afford to rest on its past achievements. This should encourage Tesco to pioneer many new ideas. By listening and responding to customer needs, Tesco will continue to bring in new ideas and services. Its latest venture, with the Royal Bank of Scotland, launched in November 1997, is to offer customers competitive financial services through its stores. It is fifty years since Jack Cohen opened his first self-service shop, and we expect Tesco stores in fifty years' time to be as different from those we know today as Tesco’s current stores are to the stores of fifty years ago.
Non-food retailing is a major part of Tesco strategy. Tesco is increasing competition and offering customers real value and choice in all areas from sportswear to software, electricals to spectacles. By introducing these ranges to more of company’s stores Tesco also offer customers the convenience of shopping for great value non-food along with their food and household goods.
More choice in-store includes many new lines for the home and garden, motoring and leisure, fashion and cosmetics. Opticians, mobile phones and health and beauty are examples of departments that have been expanded to meet customer demand. Tesco relaunched its clothing range to offer better value, quality and choice.
In this year Tesco should continue to bring its customers big names at competitive prices. Last year, for example, Tesco sold 14-inch Bush TVs and
Vodafone, Orange, One 2 One and Cellnet mobile phones at record low prices.
Film and batteries came down by 30% and cuts of between 15% and 50% are being made on stationery, pet accessories, video tapes, CDs and DVDs and many other popular products.
The convenience of shopping for non-food alongside food is what Tesco should offer customers. At the start of the year Tesco already had 90 stores trading with full non-food offer in the UK. During the year Tesco should increase this as much as possible through extensions, refits and new store development programmes.
Through these programmes Tesco will have more Tesco Extra stores including its newest at Newcastle upon Tyne. It is Tesco’s first UK store to be designed and built to hypermarket blueprint, using many of the elements which Tesco has found to be successful in European and Asian stores. It has given to the company the opportunity to introduce a much wider range of non-food products to the UK, giving its customers even more choice when they shop at Tesco.

Through innovating and investing for its customers Tesco is leading the way in new forms of retailing. Tesco is the largest on-line grocer in the world, and through the rapid development of its e-business Tesco is now offering customers real choice and value on the internet.
Tesco.com is new 100% subsidiary company that runs company’s e-commerce business, which is an important part of company’s future strategy. Tesco should ensure that it has a real focus, the relevant resources and can move quickly.
Grocery home shopping business offers customers shopping on-line choice, value and convenience. Hundreds of new customers are registering every day and Tesco has the capacity to grow this business at a significant rate.
On the internet Tesco is not constrained by space as the store can be as large as you like. Company’s Internet customers now have an exciting range of non-food offers beyond food shopping - just a few clicks away. Tesco’s new book store offers a choice of 1.2 million titles, with 50% off top lines and Tesco has an entertainment store selling over 300,000 CD, video and DVD titles.

Tesco’s European business is focused on the Republic of Ireland and the four Central European countries of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and
Slovakia accessing a population of 68 million people. In Ireland the business is progressing well as Tesco near completion of rebranding programme. And in Central Europe Tesco continue its rapid hypermarket roll- out opening 11 stores and 1.3 million square feet in the year.
Regional focus and market leadership is a key objective of Tesco’s strategy in Central Europe. Tesco is the only retailer in all four countries -
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Company’s portfolio now includes 19 hypermarkets totalling two million square feet of retail space.
Tesco is meeting and stimulating demand in these markets as customers begin to recognise the better choice, quality and value that Tesco offers.
Tesco is pursuing an active programme of store openings which will take the company to 69 hypermarkets by the end of 2002, and will make the company the market leader across the region.
The hypermarket blueprint is the focus of Central European activities. At
100,000 square feet or more, hypermarkets give Tesco the space to offer customers extensive food and non-food ranges at outstanding prices.
Tesco is learning all the time. The format is internationally transferable and adaptable to different regions, and part of the success has been to supplement UK skills in grocery retailing and customer service with international expertise.
In the Republic of Ireland Tesco should continue to make good progress.
Without the benefit of any new stores, sales increased by 6.1% in the year.
Cumulative sales growth since acquisition is now 20%, moving market share to 23.3%.
Ireland and Central Europe are already a significant part of the Group employing 27,000 people which will grow even further as Tesco move forward.

Asia is the second international region where Tesco is expanding. The Tesco
Lotus business in Thailand now has 17 hypermarkets and is well on the way to market leadership. In South Korea, through Tesco’s partnership with
Samsung, Tesco now has two outstanding hypermarkets which are among the highest turnover stores in the Tesco Group. Now Tesco should open its store in Taiwan. These three markets will give to the company access to 130 million people.

In South Korea, a country where 50% of households own a PC and 78% a mobile phone, the retail industry has huge growth potential. In 1999 Tesco invested Ј142m in a partnership with Samsung, which brought two world-class hypermarkets operating under a top retail brand as well as a number of sites that Tesco will now develop. Tesco should t expand more hypermarkets in next years.
Tesco now should move rapidly towards global sourcing, which will enable company to buy quality products at the best prices and deliver them at the lowest cost. Tesco has already set up three sourcing centres in Hong Kong,
India and Thailand. These now source 30% of Tesco non-food products
(excluding Health and Beauty). Tesco should move this higher in next years, with the opening of a fourth sourcing centre in Central Europe.
As a student from Russia (I live in Kazakstan) I would like to see Tesco further expand its activities in Eastern Europe, and therefore why not
Russia? At the present time there is nothing similar to Tesco on the
Russian market, so I think Tesco won’t have any problems to get into it.
It is difficult to suggest alternative approaches for Tesco’s strategy because the firm is evidently doing very well. I would suggest however that
Tesco continues to seek markets overseas to further develop its growing global presence.

As mentioned above, Tesco has been very successful over recent years, and it is therefore quite difficult to suggest “Alternative strategies”.
However, from my I might suggest the following:
. Expansion overseas – e.g. Russia.
. Increase market share – e.g. merge with Safeway. If Walmart took over

Asda, why can’t Tesco take over Safeway, for example.
. Expand into new market / product – e.g. cars, travel.
. Rewards to staff, introduce a widespread – bonus or share ownership (if

Tesco doesn’t do it yet)

Evaluation of the effects that the alternative approaches might have on the structure and functions of the business, and how it achieves its objectives.
Alternative approaches, suggested in A1 can affect the functions of the organisation and how it achieves its objectives very much, but they won’t really affect structure of the organisation, because Tesco’s organisation structure is very good and there is no point of changing it.

Expand to Russia

If Tesco expands to Russia, in general, it is going to be only benefit to the company. Of course first Tesco will have to spend some money to build and open new supermarkets, but it is not going to be very difficult because there are no other companies like Tesco. Big advantage of expanding Tesco into Russian market is that straight way after it Tesco will definitely become a dominant firm on market, because there are not very strong competitors and very soon Tesco can become a monopoly on the Russian market. Disadvantage of expanding is that Tesco can get failure as well.
Russian prices and British prices are very different, so if Tesco retails goods, which are more expensive then in others stores, not many people will by it.

Increase market share

Every single organisation wants to increase its market share, and the best way of doing it is to merge or take over another company. And I suggest that Tesco also could increase its market share by merging another retailer, for example Safeway. Safeway is not as big as Tesco, so it is not going to be very difficult to merge it or take it over. The advantage of the merger is that Tesco will increase its market share very much (by 10%) and two dominant firms of UK’s market joined together can easy become a monopoly. The disadvantage of it that it is not very easy to do, because now Tesco has 35% market share, and if it merges Safeway, Tesco’s market share will be increased up to 45%. But British law says that firm which has
45% of market share is monopoly, so competition commission won’t be happy about it and it will never agree with this merge.

Expand into new market

Non-food retailing now becoming a major part of Tesco strategy. As I said before, Tesco is increasing competition and offering customers real value and choice in all areas from sportswear to software, electricals to spectacles. But still, I think Tesco didn’t get into one very perspective market – cars. Cars are very important in our time and there is a very high demand for cars in the UK. I think for Tesco it is won’t be very difficult do get into this market, because Tesco is known as cheapest retailer in the
UK, therefore people will continue to by everything from Tesco, and cars as well. But it could be easy and could be not, because currently there are many different firms on this market, and what I think is that there are could be some barriers to entry.

Rewards to staff – introduce a widespread

At the present time, many successful firms introducing new types of rewarding to staff. What I suggest is that Tesco also should introduce a widespread of rewarding to staff, for example employees could be awarded an annual bonus, which they can take in cash, vouchers or shares. The advantage of this type of payment is that if employees take shares, they will be interested in good work of the company and if they take vouchers, they will have to spend all salary in Tesco stores. So I think that it is very good way of rewarding with all benefits to the company.

Affects of the alternative approaches

As I mentioned before, alternative approaches, suggested in A1 can affect the functions of the organisation and how it achieves its objectives very much, but they won’t really affect structure of the organisation, because
Tesco now has very good organisation structure with very good consultative and democratic management style.
If Tesco expands to Russia and merges Safeway, there are will be “Operation
– Russia” department in the organisation chart. More people will be involved to work for Tesco, so Human Resources department will become bigger. After expanding to Russia Tesco easy can expand to other countries of Soviet Union such as Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgiztan and so on. It also will definitely help Tesco to prove itself as very strong multinational firm.

List of resources

1. The main resource was Tesco’s own web site: www.tesco.com.

2. I asked Tesco for some information and they sent me it.

3. Web site: www.bized.ac.uk

4. Business for Vocational A level – book.

5. Newspapers

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Finance department

. accountants

. account technicians

. account clerks

Records all financial data

Chases up slow payers

Collects payments from customers

Provides information to external bodies

Advises managers and budget holders

Monitors and analyses financial data

Advises board of directors

Analyses costs

Production activities

Finance department

Research and development department

Marketing department

Corporate objectives

Demand of labour

. numbers of workers needed
. skills required
. location of employees

Supply of labour

. existing workforce
. skills shown through skills audit
. changes in productivity and working week

Human resources plan

This may require the use of one or more of the following:

. recruitment

. training

. redundancy and redeployment

BUSINESS ACTIVITY

Marketing

Finance

Administration

Human resources

Research & Development

Production

LAND

Labour

Capital

Enterp-rise

GOODS

OR SERVICES

WASTE

Chairman (non executive)

Chief Executive

Deputy Chairman

Company
Secretary

Marketing Department

Finance Department

Retail Department

Commercial Department

Distribution Department

Operations:

Ireland

Business
Activity

Managing director

Research and development director

Finance director

Marketing director

Production director

Human resource director

Production manager

Plant manager

Quality control manager

Production control manager

Assistant plant manager

Supervisor: materials

Supervisor: buildings

Supervisor: mechanical

Supervisor: electrical

Section manager

Supervisor

Operatives

Deputy

Chairman

(non executive)

Chief

Executive

Marketing

Director

Finance

Director

Retail Director

Commercial Director

Distribution Director

Head of

Operations

Ireland

Company

Secretary

Section managers

Supervisors

Operatives

Dynamic/innovative culture

BUSINESS
CULTURE

Customer driven culture

Bureaucratic culture

Task culture

Risk averse culture

Technological culture

Person culture

Negative culture

Positive culture

Competitive culture

Power culture.

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Board of directors

Marketing Department

Distribution Department

Retail

Department

Employees in Retail Department

Employees in Distribution Department

Employees in Marketing Department

Mission statement

Business objectives

Divisional/departmental objectives

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Business at work

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