strategic planning of Tesco and Sainsburys

Introduction

Critical comparison between two organisations is effective to evaluate the activities of the firms and understand which firm is more profitable, more efficient and effective in managing their business in the market (Lancaster and Massingham, 2017; Haddock-Millar, and Rigby, 2015). In his study, it is possible to choose two areas of business, which are strategic planning of the organisations and management of people at the workplace in the context of the organisations, where the companies are Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Both the firms are operating in the retail industry in the UK and the market share if the firms in the UK retail market are 27.1% and 14.9% respectively in the last year. Hereby, the organisation Tesco is operating efficiently in the UK retail market by delivering quality products to the customers across the country (Tesco, 2019a). This analysis is very important for students who are seeking business dissertation help, as it provides valuable insights into strategic planning and people management within retail organizations.

Figure 1: Organisational logos

In this regard, Tesco is a British multinational grocery and retail merchandise, founded in 1919. It has been 100 years, the company is efficient to generate profit and sales volume where the total revenue in 2019 is more than £63,911 million and total numbers of employees are 450000 (Tesco, 2019b). On the other hand, Sainsbury’s is the second largest retail chain in the UK after Tesco, and it has been founded in the year of 1869. Total revenue of the company is approximately £28,456 million and total number of employees is 186900 (Sainsbury’s, 2019b). Both the companies are operating efficiently to gain high market share and expand their business by retaining more long run customer for their organisational quality products and services.

Evaluating the activities and performance of Tesco and Sainsbury’s

Strategic planning of the organisations:

The strategic planning of the organisations need to be evaluated in order to understand the tactics of the firm in gaining high competitive advantage in the retail market. In this regard, Tesco focuses on the strategies of managing the customers, social communities, operations and people management and financial management, so that the business operational activities can be done perfectly. In this regard of creating values for the customers, the organisation focuses on delivering quality products at lowest possible price, giving efficient services to the customers with low waiting time and instant support and after sales service (Hood, Clarke and Clarke, 2016; Keogh, 2016).

Figure 2: Tesco’s strategic planning

For managing the operations, the company focuses on deliver the quality products at right place within right time by maintaining warehouse and also focuses on finance by revenue generation and investment on equipment, production of quality products and service improvement (Tesco, 2019d).

On the other hand, Sainsbury’s focuses on creating values for the customers delivering great products and services at fair price, managing the colleagues and supporting the customers always. These are the major values to serve the customers and create values for the overall social communities (Sainsbury’s, 2019c).

Figure 3: Sainsbury’s strategy in creating values

Hereby, the strategic actions of Tesco is more relevant and valid in order to create values of all the stakeholders by understanding the customer, meeting their needs and acting responsibly for the social communities as a whole. Additionally, the strategic planning of helping to reduce food waste globally by ensuring surplus food goes to those in need, sourcing heart quality, affordable and sustainable, making positive contribution in the communities and making easier to live more healthily (Tesco, 2019e).

Management of the people:

Managing the people in the workplace is one of the major contributing factors for both the companies, where the employees are the main stakeholders, who are contributing positively in creating values or other stakeholders such as government, customers and social communities. In the organisation Tesco, the major approaches to manage the people are competitive reward, training and development opportunities, inclusion and diversity and health and wellbeing. The organisation focuses on managing the health and wellbeing of the individuals and in this regard the management team provides safe environment to work as well as provide health insurance for the benefits of the employees in case of any accidents (Tidy, Wang and Hall, 2016; Souza Monteiro and Hooker, 2017). Inclusion and diversity is another approach to manage their people, where the issue of cultural diversity and internal conflicts can be resolved positively.

In this regard, the leader focuses on managing balance in employee’s life, and in this regard freedom to work from home, and choosing the working hours as well as giving harmony and freedom to work at the workplace are creating values for the staff. Greater flexibility, managing transparency and accountability, treating all the employees fairly as well as non-discriminatory policies and practice further provides a scope to greater inclusion and diversity where the organisation is successful in managing their diversity in a positive manner (Haleem and Jehangir, 2017). The training and development program of Tesco is also effective where the company offers online training as well as offline training program and apart from that it offers over 1200 apprenticeships in the UK for the benefits of future employment. Additionally, the reward package is beneficial to fulfil the monetary needs of the staff where the payment is increasing by 10.5% yearly and there is yearly bonus and performance related pay which motivates the employees to contribute positively for fulfilling the organisational aim (Tesco, 2019e).

On the other hand, Sainsbury’s also focuses on creating values for the employees in order to retain them for long run. Sainsbury’s mainly focuses on giving suitable environment to work as well as provide proper training and development program for the employees so that they can share their experience and gather more knowledge and skill to serve the customers in a better way (Sainsbury’s, 2019e). In this regard, the company also focuses on standard employment payment and provide proper structured salaries to the people in the organisation. Hereby, it can be stated that, the management strategy of Tesco is more specific and efficient to handle all their colleagues across the globe.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the organisation Tesco develops their strategies more efficiently to gain high competitive advantage and market share as compared to Sainsbury’s.

Reference List

Haddock-Millar, J. and Rigby, C., 2015. Business Strategy and the Environment: Tesco PLC’s Declining Financial Performance and Underlying Issues. Review of Business & Finance Studies, 6(3), pp.91-103.

Haleem, F. and Jehangir, M., 2017. Strategic Management Practices by Morrison PLC, UK. Analysis, Lessons and Implications. Middle East Journal of Business, 12(3).

Hood, N., Clarke, G. and Clarke, M., 2016. Segmenting the growing UK convenience store market for retail location planning. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 26(2), pp.113-136.

Keogh, C., 2016. A study critically analysing the CSR activities of UK Supermarkets and how they compare when evaluated using a framework based on ISO 26000 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Huddersfield).

Lancaster, G. and Massingham, L., 2017. Evaluating and controlling strategic marketing. In Essentials of Marketing Management (pp. 381-401). London: Routledge.

Souza Monteiro, D.M. and Hooker, N.H., 2017. What Initiatives Are British Food Retailers Taking to Improve Children’s Health and Nutrition?. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 23(2), pp.209-220.

Tidy, M., Wang, X. and Hall, M., 2016. The role of Supplier Relationship Management in reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions from food supply chains: supplier engagement in the UK supermarket sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, pp.3294-3305.

Take a deeper dive into Strategic Planning and Innovation Enhancement with our additional resources.