Introduction Of Tesco Plc 203s1m

The report below provides an insight into the supermarket company Tesco, with emphasis on the company’s internal analysis of resources, competence and competitive advantage, whilst also considering its external environment. Tesco are the chosen company for this report as they are the market leader within the supermarket industry, Tesco controls over 30 percent of the UK grocery market, a figure which is almost double the combined share of nearest rivals Asda and Sainsbury’s. This provides the report with an excellent basis for analysis of competitive advantage. The statistical evidence for the company’s performance over the last five years can be seen in the table and graphs, within in the appendix. Tesco Chairman Sir Richard Broadbent states that Tesco’s core competencies are that “it has outstanding operational effectiveness; it understands deeply what it means to orientate a business around the customer; it is ionate, and successful, about developing talent from within; and it manages a complex operating environment with great team work.” (TescoPlc, 2013). Tesco state that their core values and strategic objectives are meeting customer needs through innovation and change and treating colleagues with a culture of trust and respect (TescoPlc, 2013). When Tesco competes to gain a competitive advantage, it is not just the environment that distinguishes them from their competitors but their internal strategic capabilities (Oxtoby et. al, 2002). For Tesco to gain an advantage over its competitors, it must use its resources and capabilities that enable it to manage a superior performance compared with its competition (Bolivar-Ramos et. al, 2012). It must have distinctive core competencies, which are the skills, and abilities by which resources are deployed through activities and processes that allow it to deliver the value to the customer (Grewal and Slotegraar, 2007). For these recourses to be used in order to