Research Korner: UK Sample Papers

Critical Evaluation on the Concept of Marketing

Introduction             There are two marketing topics to be discussed in this paper.  The first part is a critical evaluation on the concept of marketing as taught to students on a typical marketing course.  In dealing with this, sample universities in the United Kingdom (UK) with marketing courses are used: namely, Lancaster University (LU), University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and University of Lincoln (UL).  In the second part, the importance of being a market-led organization in producing and implementing marketing plans will be discussed.       The Concept of Marketing in (UK) Classroom Situations             Generally, the three universities have similar teaching methods which include lectures, tutorials, simulation, role playing, case analysis and live marketing research ().  With this, they are using partnership approach in teaching ( 2002 ).  In lectures and tutorials, teachers are the center of learning with minimal recourse to student’s motivation while the later coursework are provided for students to express their own interests not on general terms but on specific marketing exercises.  Due to this, this teaching mode suggests that marketing is a social science and a discipline that is also being influenced by other social sciences like economics, psychology, philosophy and management (2003).    There is less need to apply intensive teacher-centered approaches because there is not enough collection of exact cause-effect relationships between marketing strategies and customer responses.  Teachers are not in the position to provide an “enclosed” discussion where their expertise and experience can strictly apply.  Loopholes in such teaching method can be eminent and questioned.  Due to lack of scientific basis rather market research which is affected by numerous factors, the teacher has to give independence to students on how the latter can identify the most significant factors throughout market conditions.  If any, teacher-centered approaches can be most effective when instilling marketing theories and concepts which will form the framework for student’s coursework selection.                              For example, market data can change over time due to changes in population demographics or economic situation.  If students are fixed to learn under strict conditions of lectures and tutorials, their creativity to solve marketing problems that arise with market dynamism may not be fully-developed.  Perhaps, they will rely on theories whose effectiveness is eclipsed by historical as well as abrupt market developments.  However, through simulation and live research, their reactive problem-solving skills can be polished through the direction of real business environment.  Further, as they rationalize marketing concepts and teacher discussions using the lens of market current reality, they can widen their pro-active abilities which can aid in formulating marketing strategies later.               In addition, the annual progress of the marketing courses of these universities is exemplified by an inverted pyramid ( ). This is because at the first year of the course, students are exposed to foundations of marketing which includes theories, principles and their connections to other business-related functions such as management, accounting, law, economics, etc.  As mentioned earlier, they are equipped with the framework for initial market analysis which is polished as they go through the course.  In effect, their prospectus embodies a favorable way for students to improve their long-term memory (LTM) and retrieve past knowledge or experiences through meaningful learning ( 2000).  As LTM is like an organized closet which specifically classifies shirts to pants ( ), initial exposure to theories will build the necessary closet for students to easily grasp, store and retrieve succeeding marketing learning.                For the three universities, the first year implies a marketing concept under the managerial school of marketing of 1950s (2003).  This concept views marketing as the job of a manager.  Since management responsibility highly involves conceptual ability or seeing the whole picture, the first year concerns for wider concept of marketing (in UCLAN), alerting to marketing (in LU) and marketing in context (in UL) are synonymously conceding to the significance of managerial outlook to the course.  On the second year, the three universities are basically in chorus to introduce operational tasks under marketing.  They are offering lectures and simulation in the topics covering consumer behavior (LU), buyer behavior (UCLAN), product development (UL) and other specific marketing disciplines.  In this setting, the concept of marketing under schools of thought from post-1950s onwards are covered which include buyer behavior of , social exchange by and service excellence by (2003 ).               In the third year, which is the last year of the course (except for UL that offers optional work experience adding one year in the prospectus), the operational/ specific nature of the second year is infused in strategic setting.  The third year is generally characterized by dissertation writing.  As students are exposed to live research in their second year, it is conceded that they have enough rationalized tools in preparing meaningful and substantial dissertations.  The concept of strategic marketing is introduced.  This phase of the course necessitates students to prove that they already have enough rationalized tools for analysis as they undergone the second year (operational/ application) that eventually enforces/ redefine the first year (theories).  Without this growth, students may not know when to use several approaches in formulating strategy such as rational (model-based)), flexible (scenario planning), creative (imaginative planning), behavioral (people-based) and incremental (improvement-based) ( 2000).  Due to this, the final year is the ultimate evaluation test for students if considerable learning and understanding about marketing theories and realities become part of the LTM.                      In comparison, on the other hand, these universities also have course specific deviations from one to another making their marketing courses distinct.  In terms of geographical emphasis to customer needs, UL has greater international focus due to the inclusion of exporting and international marketing strategy in its course ().  This makes marketing concept more complex as customer behavior are affected by different macro-, micro- and global factors.  In contrary, this can also improve the tolerance base of students to consider marketing issues in a more detailed and careful analysis.  Unlike LU in which the focus is a general pursuit for customer satisfaction and UCLAN in searching and serving “real” customers (), UL course limits the effectiveness and workability of marketing concepts within a certain locale in which sharing of environmental and social influences including the nature of industries are considered.               However, UCLAN has its own way to brief students in the importance of international marketing and adaptability of strategies.  In the second year, students have an option to spend their operational learning in other European countries ( ).  Although regional rather international exposure is involved, conversing alongside marketers and spending time under consultancy type scenarios make the endeavor to have simulation and practicing environments at the same time.  In addition, unlike other universities like LU that assesses students by at least 50% on examinations (), UCLAN puts no weighing on exams rather results of research papers, presentations and other simulation activities ().  In doing so, UCLAN effectively administers the inverted pyramid type of teaching in which specific/ experiential/ dynamic knowledge are encouraged to rationalize marketing theories and concepts.  This is confirmed by the fact that UCLAN course seemingly is learner-centered because students are given the opportunity to choose to study in other European countries and aspects that they want to be developed whether to an entrepreneur or pursue a career (second year) or choice to be a strategic marketer or specialized one (third year) ().   Conclusion             In summary, the concept of marketing as taught to students in a typical (UK) marketing course is basically described as customer-driven.  The way how universities encourage students to actively participate in actual and practical marketing conditions ultimately leads to a state of dynamic thinking.  The undermining of theories in the later stages of the course also serves as evidence to accept that all teaching strategies, student independence and course progression are intended for students not only to continuously innovate, but more importantly, to angle such innovation in relation to complexities and ever-changing aspects of customer behavior.  The lack of science in marketing is a disincentive for students to passive learning but an incentive to actively impart solutions in what they view is appropriate based from real-life experience, theoretical background and conceptual abilities.  This is why sample universities are teaching effectively under similar course characteristics while varying aspects of their prospectus imply that some are devising ways to boost dynamic thinking.   The Importance of a Market-Orientation in Accomplishing Marketing Plans             According to  (2006), a marketing plan is a highly detailed and heavily researched document.  On the other hand, an organization that intends to produce a plan could be constrained by time, manpower and funding due to the urgency of satisfying customer needs.  In general, this is where the first advantage of being a market-led organization can be seen.  It makes the plan writer/ researcher to focus his attention to the ultimate indicator of marketing factors which is the consumer themselves.  By doing so, the analysis of PESTEL and five forces can be approached with emphasis on key and relevant issues.  The writer can simplify the task.               Most common external issues to be researched would be changes in wage and tax levels (for consumers) or interest rates and industry indicators (for business customers).  Basically, the plan can undermine political, technological and environmental factors except for revolutionary incidences like an corporate oil spill or change in presidency.  Nevertheless, extensive research would likewise not necessary because such occurrences tend to be obvious to all competitors which makes the market knowledge mere industry adjustments and not a value-creating strategy.  With regards to a broader spectrum of customers under social factors, changes in preferences or demographics can be easily understood through a market-led plan preventing redundancy and adopting segmentation strategy.                                         With regards to five forces, activities of potential and current competitors are indirectly resolved within acceptable level in the entire industry markets and within valuable level in specific target markets.  This is possible as market-orientation makes the firm strategies aligned with the requirements of the market as well as attracting/ keeping valuable customers (2003 ).  Due to this, even though the firm is less knowledgeable on the actions of competitors, due to niche marketing it is able to keep its customers.  Alternatively, it will be able to understand the significance and impact of such actions depending on the movements of customer demand and status of market base.  As an example, the inability of Ford models to address the need of customers for extra door cost it $560 million to rectify advantages lost to  ().  The adverse effects of customer shift due to innovation is proved to be costly not solely indicative of competitor action but more significantly on customer response.               Further, as market-orientation is the key in defining the operation of the business (2000 ), the purpose, mission and internal analysis parts of the marketing plan are made consistent to what the organization is capable of doing.  In comparing a product- versus market-led description of the nature of business, the “we run an airline” tagline of the former is expanded to “we transport people and their goods anywhere in the world” by the latter.  As observed, the succeeding statement is more particular in highlighting the capabilities of the firm and suggesting where it positions its competitive advantage.  The preceding, however, sounds less valuable and differentiable to customers due to its generalization and standardization implications.  In this respect, the affected initial and core parts of the plan tends to be straightforward that can immediately call for corporate or departmental attention.               As the plan basically involves market and product compatibility, the inability to satisfy customer needs by the available offerings would only result to a futile strategy, tactics and budgeting.  The weakness tends to be contagious since products are not adjusted to the market or vice versa.  However, when a firm is market-oriented, it can easily identify and act in terms of the difference of B2B and B2C relationships (2003 ).  This inclination has critical role in rationalizing (if not, classifying) effective programs relating to four Ps of marketing.  For example, B2C relationships emphasize more of the pricing aspect of the product (except for high-end, specialty ones) while B2B is on informative nature in promotions.  With such distinction, the plan can avoid misleading analysis and proposals.  For example, there is a statement on the plan that relationship marketing is important to a certain program success.  As B2B largely depends on personal relations not on well-defined product features in B2C, market-led cognition makes the firm aware on the extent of the program and its impact to individual as well as group customers including the associated costs and benefits.                                                On the verge of plan approval, funding requirements to the plan proposals are also resolved by a market-led organization.  Since market-orientation gives the firm the ability to align vertical functions and horizontal processes (2003), the plan is basically prepared under the conditions of value-creating and cost-saving framework.  This is because when the value chain is made lean but mean, it develops integrated links where knowledge can be shared, quality is standardized and inefficient associate is improved.  On the other hand, similar chains can achieve economies of scale when processes are done in a coordinating manner.  Operational defects, wastes and mediocrity are resolved in a choral manner.  The motivation to do so come from the awareness of every organizational member that the end-result of what they do is intended to satisfy customer needs, boost sales and receive benefits from result outcomes.  This scenario makes the market-led plan financially and strategically feasible.               At the tip of the discussion, the post-approval and implementation strengths of the plan are still unknown.  However, it should be clear that the ability of a market-led organization to make the plan simple, straightforward, consistent with organizational competencies and efficient to funding makes the plan effective in the implementation stage as it provides managerial ease to discover SWOT and organizational stance to the validity of the plan.  This not only makes the plan time and financially conscious but more importantly avoids the resistance to changes that would result to implementation on managerial and staff levels.  With a comprehensive plan, it obtains flexibility to allow contingent actions to dominate in the tactical aspects.  It also alters the possibility for the firm to end up in situations being “oblivious to market”, “customer compelled” or “ignoring the customer” ( 2003 ) as it is prepared with relevant and updated market data on hand.  Finally, it saves the firm from being risk-averse due to overly researched conditions of the environment, industry and the entire market.           Conclusion             The organization derives methodological incentives for being market-driven in producing and implementing marketing plans.  However, the extent of the importance being in such cognition is affected by several factors such as the industry the firm belongs (high-end or low-end), product life cycles (highly innovative or commodity-type), among others.  For example, market-orientation in preparing/ executing plans can be more suited in specialty products where customers have already employ loyalty.  This results from high switching cost to change brands enabling the plan to address questions of simplicity by undermining external analysis.  This is because the customer, although affected with economic factors or new competitor offerings, cannot easily shift brands due to experiential and emotional attachment with the current brand.  The firm can focus the bulk of the plan towards product improvement which is more controllable and measurable than external improvements which are hardly possible.

Critical Evaluation on the Concept of Marketing

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Explore and address cultural competent in social work practice

Cultural competent in social work practice in delivering social care services to older people from black and ethnic minority   The essence of research investigation lies in the exploration and addressing of cultural competent presence in social work practice relating to social care services delivery focusing older people from black and ethnic minorities, United kingdom perspective. The need to address concerns and issues of social work practice, social care services, its delivery stance as placed in culture competence of social workers working in to provide effective service delivery to older people mostly concerning to health status of the latter.   <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%"> What is meant by cultural competent in social work practice? How is it manifested and realized in the UK?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%"> What comprise of social care service delivery? What are the ways of delivering social care services? </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%"> How social care services are being delivered to older people? Explain from within black and ethnic minority groups in the UK</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%"> How to address and explore culture competence in UK social work practice? Elaborate and discuss with direct information</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%"> What are the ways and how culture competence will be measured for social work? Provide situations </li>   Preliminary literature organization, assessment routes will be achieved through research papers critiquing as one ideal method of the study, a total of three to six reviewed articles/journals will be in utilization this will be evaluated by the researcher based on the topic specifically on cultural competent domain of social work and such causal relationship to social care services in accordance to delivery pathways accordingly. Thus, case survey method will be an effective tool in gathering first hand information, this will be in survey statement format that will be in composition of various statement sections as the following:   I.                   Relevant Profiling II.                Main Statements   1.1 Cultural Competence of Social Work Practice     No STATEMENTS           1 Cultural competence requires knowledge of varied elements within the larger cultural matrix of social work and those of better practices 1 2 3 4 5 2 Social work need to make competent adjustments to work effectively in cross cultural situations 1 2 3 4 5 3 Skilled social workers can help remedy the situation by developing partnerships with social networks and traditional healers along the person's normal pathway to care 1 2 3 4 5   1.2 Cultural Competence of Delivering Social Care Services     No STATEMENTS           1 Cultural biases in interpretation of care delivery functioning result in conflicting modalities for care delivery 1 2 3 4 5 2 Social services help workers form partnerships with delivery based systems, social care policy must allow social work to achieve success in minority groups 1 2 3 4 5 3 Despite recommendations concerning cultural competencies and standards in the service professions, little attention has been given to development of sound and anchored instrumentation for evaluating cultural competence 1 2 3 4 5   The need to explore the extent to which nature of social work practice with older people from black and ethnic minorities in UK. The outlining of core theories of profession and applicability to social work as well as to critically analyze the impact of delivery within social services areas. Thus, to examine nature of the social workers practice with older people following culture competence into social care legislation for continuation of social work role in relation to services delivery for older people, development of social care is often perceived to be problematic like, older people in minority ethnic communities are socially and economically disadvantaged and might lack the resources to provide care to the level that is needed. Planning and delivery of care services for people in minority communities can leave much to be desired. Among other problems, racism and institutional discrimination can result in services which neglect the needs of minority communities. Examining argument by focusing on care of older people, accepting that problems of racism in the planning and delivery of health and social services are serious and lead to limited access to social services by some. Thus, evident that some minority communities are in better position than others to meet the care needs of older people. Social care services are being provided by social service agencies in the absence of any clearly identified criteria for culturally competent practice. The need to describe development of checklist of agency characteristics that are believed to represent cultural competence to be derived by sampling articles/journals from compilation of relevant literature. Good presence of literature describe existing services for minority groups and provide case examples of specific programs. Systematic case survey procedures will be used to select articles/journals, abstract characteristics from and cluster the characteristics. Pilot applications in social service program provide evidence for observer reliability and concurrent validity, provide context for checklist definition of cultural competency (1992). Cultural competence is crucial to sound social work practice is widely accepted in the profession and existing gap between achievement of the goal of developing culturally competent practitioners through social work education and the ability to measure such competence. A second gap exists between education and the providing of culturally appropriate services in everyday practice (2001). The gaps are due to broad terms used to define cultural competence, slow evolution of instrumentation to measure cultural competence, the lack of culture-specific training and measurement techniques. The assessment for further refinement of the concept and suggest new approach for the development of instruments to measure competence as there provide overview of the construct of cultural competence, analyze conceptual and empirical foundations of measures, provide rationale for development of culture specific instruments ( 2001). Te social work programs are required to include cultural competence material and practical ideas for doing so as successfully employed in social work practice. In the UK, consequence for older people, especially those with less acute needs, is that they may be rationed out, ignored, or treated inappropriately on either side of the boundary. Thus, examining views of professional social care workers as being argued that user perspectives are essential to the development of appropriate services for black and ethnic minority groups and the need to raise these issues are to be discussed. Conceptual approach helps make discussion of past results and future research needs regarding both the aged and health care utilization more coherent, and policy implications may become more apparent as improved by studying older people as special utilization case, broadening applicability in social services as well as health delivery services (1995)

Explore and address cultural competent in social work practice

Cultural competent in social work practice in delivering social care services to older people from black and ethnic minority The esse...

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY OF TESCO PLC IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY OF TESCO PLC IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Table of Contents   I.      Introduction.. 3 II.     Background of the Company.. 3 III.        Resource Audit.. 4 A.    Financial Resources. 4 B.    Human Resources. 6 C.    Physical Resources. 6 D.    Intangible Resources. 7 IV.       Value Chain Analysis.. 8 A.    Primary Activities. 8 B.    Support Activities. 9 V.    Core Competencies.. 9 1.     Card Club. 9 2.     The Tesco Database and IT.. 10 VI.       Analysis of the Company.. 11 VII.      Conclusion.. 12 VIII.     References.. 13   I.              Introduction Studies in business and trade have tackled the conditions surrounding the retail industry. Almost every scholarly article has indicated the retail market as cutthroat and highly competitive. In the case of UK, one company has apparently acquired an accurate formula in neutralising this level of competition in the market, Tesco Plc. This report will be giving an account of the strategic capability of the company in the retail industry. Majority of the data used in this report will come from the annual reports and website of Tesco. Other information will be taken from academic articles and scholarly journals that took account on the case of Tesco.    II.            Background of the Company The organisation under consideration is the brainchild of Jack Cohen in 1919. The retail monolith was said to have started in a humble stall in the East End of London and primarily peddled surplus merchandise to the public. Recent reports have indicated that the company has become one of the most influential organisations in the retail industry, placing companies like Sainsbury's, Safeway, Asda and Somerfield trying to catch up and gain their individual competitive advantage over the other. As an organisation, Tesco operates under the principle “to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty.” Closely examining this mission statement, Tesco is apparently taken a great deal of their efforts in caring for their customers. Aside from offering the best products and service in the retail industry, they are apparently pent up in striking a close relationship with their customers. Moreover, the company also realises that to strike a great relationship with their customers, they must similarly take good care of their staff.  According to its website, the company offers numerous employment opportunities and development initiatives to their workforce giving all the reason for the employees to perform at the highest level possible. The following discussions will establish the strategic capacity of the company, particularly focusing on its resources, value chain and core competencies.     III.           Resource Audit The following discussions will be pinpointing the resources that Tesco have amassed over the years and could be used whenever their operations require it. More specifically, discussions on the financial, human, physical, and intangible resources will be given.   A.   Financial Resources The following discussions will provide a clear indication as to whether Tesco is able to support any future strategic initiatives. Early reports on the company have indicated that they have broken the billion dollar mark with reference to their profits. (Child 2002, 135) This has been substantiated in the 2005 annual report of the company as it indicated that it has accumulated over two billion pounds worth of profit. (Tesco Plc 2006) Basically, this is a hands-down indication that the company is more than financially capable in funding its strategic endeavours.      Table 1. Tesco's Profit and Loss Account, 2005   2005 (£m) 2004 (£m) Sales at net selling prices 37,070 33,557 Turnover including share of joint ventures 34,353 31,050 Less: share of joint ventures' turnover (379) (236) Group turnover excluding value added tax 33,974 30,814 Normal operating expenses (31,845) (28,925) Employee profit-sharing (65) (57) Integration costs (53) (45) Goodwill amortization (62) (52) Operating profit/(loss) 1,949 1,735 Share of operating profit/(loss) of joint ventures and associates 130 97 Net profit/(loss) on disposal of fixed assets 53 (9) Profit/(loss) on ordinary activities before interest and taxation 2,132 1,823 Net interest payable (170) (223) Profit on ordinary activities before taxation 1,962 1,600 Underlying profit before net profit/(loss) on disposal of fixed assets, integration costs and goodwill amortisation 2,029 1,708 Source Tesco PLC, 2006 The table above summarises the profit and loss incurred by the company in 2004 and 2005. Looking closely at the data above, one could notice that there were quite a few areas where the losses of the company have risen significantly, like that of the operation expenses of Tesco. However, these losses are rather justifiable as it could be a result of economic activities like inflation and other shifts in the exchange rate. Moreover, the seeing the profits and concurrent effects on the shareholders as well as with the other aspects of the company, it still reinforces the fact that Tesco is not only financially stable but also commanding in this area.     B.   Human Resources In UK, Tesco employs over 270,000 emloyees. (Tesco Plc 2007b) With the training and career opportunities provided by the company, they have achieved an 84.1% of retention which basically shows that the company is taking good care of their employees. The website also indicated that in the past years, they have “appointed 27 Directors, 200 Store Managers and 8,000 Department Managers” all of which are from the pool of employees that they have in their organisation.   C.   Physical Resources The company prides itself with the hundred of establishments that carries its brand name. The claims in their website indicate that Tesco manages five types of store arrangements. These stores are spread around strategic places all over the United Kingdom. For instance, Homeplus is the type of Tesco store that is most recently introduced in UK. It is a standalone store that offers non-food merchandise. The remaining types, Extra, Superstore, Metro, and Express, are among those that has been raking all the profit for Tesco’s UK operations The Express stores are characterised as those with the smallest space which could pass up as the company’s version of the convenience store. It is said to have 735 stores all over UK to date making it occupy at least 5% of the total land area of the region. On the other hand, the 162 Metro stores are those that are situated in the busy streets of UK. Occupying at least 7.3% of the land area of UK, it is scattered in malls and other city centres. Possibly the most famous stores of Tesco is its chain of Superstores. With four hundred thirty-three stores, it occupies 53.7% of the total space in UK. This means that it covers a very large area housing foodstuff and other non-food merchandise. Lastly, the Tesco Extra stores are deemed as the largest in terms of area with over sixty-thousand square feet per store. In its 147 establishments, it provides the public their food and non-food items at the most reasonable price.   Table 2. Tesco's Turnover, Number of Stores and Selling Space, 2001-2005   2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Turnover (£m) 20,800 23,400 26,004 30,814 33,974 Number of stores 907 979 2,291 2,318 2,365 Selling space (000 sq ft) 28,362 32,491 39,944 45,402 51,772 Source: Tesco Plc, 2006   The table above summarises the physical resources of the company. The discussions above have established that the physical assets of the company also double as a means of getting close to its core consumers. With the vast area covered by all the stores, convenience is given to the consumers and at the same time makes it hard for the other players in the retail sector to position themselves well in the UK market. D.   Intangible Resources Tesco is considered as among the world’s top organisations that manage a loyalty system with their core customers. In accordance with their website, there are more than thirteen million individuals in UK who owns a Tesco club card. This denotes that Tesco have this amount of individuals guaranteed to purchase in their stores in the future. Therefore, it seems that the organisation has established its edge over the Sainsbury's, Safeway, Asda and Somerfield as seen in their consumer’s loyalty.   IV.          Value Chain Analysis The following discussions will provide an account on how the company acquires competitive advantage over its competitors. (Porter 1985, in Swiercz and Spencer 1992, 35) A.   Primary Activities In the case of logistics, both inbound and outbound, Tesco is one of the first proponents of “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” approach to the retail industry. This means that each store would be placing a considerable amount of their inventory in the open shelves as display for easy access for the consumer. Their main suppliers are players from the consumer product industry as well as local producers. For instance, the meat products as well as the greens section are often filled from British farmers and work with the state (Red Tractor standard) to ensure that the products are of high quality.    In terms of operations and service, these activities are often carried out in individual stores of Tesco. The sales of each store tend to equate with the type of service provided by the personnel assigned in the same store. Normally, these employees are also the ones who inform the consumers with the new programmes and marketing initiatives of the company.   B.   Support Activities In the case of support activities, the company makes sure that the resources procured and sold in their stores are acquired from local distributors. This is especially true for the perishable merchandise that they sell. In the case of human resource development, the company follows a programme that allows career growth for their diverse staff. They have training programmes, apprenticeships, and agenda for their “seasoned” personnel. At any rate, the company still follow the basic principle of care for their people, both internal sand external of the organisation. V.           Core Competencies The following discussions will provide a description of the activities that the competitors of Tesco have a hard time emulating. 1.    Card Club In 1995, Deputy Director of Tesco, Terry Leahy, introduced the card club scheme. (Tesco Clubcard 2007) Initially, the concept was then ignored and was met by apprehension by the other members of the company. Nevertheless, the said design went out to be an enormous achievement for Tesco which fundamentally prompted a new formula for the retail industry as the other stores have attempted to establish their individual loyalty card agendas. The club card system, in accordance with the Tesco site, is a form of showing gratitude by the organisation to its loyal buyers. Essentially, the card permits the owners points as they pay for merchandise sold in Tesco establishments. Moreover, these points that they build up in these cards will likely offer the customers a way of gathering vouchers or coupons which amount to certain gifts or discounts in the stores. Particularly, for every 250 points, the owner of a card is able to collect a voucher that they could employ to buy other merchandise offered in the stores. The most current series in operation in their card club is the trade of vouchers into Deals. These deals vary from airline miles, journal subscriptions and even free jewellery.  2.    The Tesco Database and IT Following the effects of the club card scheme implementation, one great thing that came out of it is that the company is able to discern the number and identity of their core customers. Pointed out in Tesco.com, those who intend to be cardholder have to file an application which requires their names and other information that goes directly to the Tesco Database. This means that the company has a record of the individual cardholders in UK. The number of times that these cardholders use their cards will also signify the frequency at which they go the store and what items they have purchased.   In connection with the company website, the creation of Tesco.com has also introduced the company to a whole new level of retailing, specifically e-business and online marketing. With the appeal of convenience, the buyers could now do their grocery shopping online and get it delivered on their front doors by the company. Grocery shopping has never been so virtually effortless. In the same manner, the company is also implementing added points to cardholders that purchase their groceries online. Once more, this manifests Tesco’s intention to provide their people with the best possible service they could offer. VI.          Analysis of the Company Tesco is already a legend at its own right. As manifested in the discussions above, its strategic capacity has constantly been a couple of steps ahead of the other competitors in the industry. Aside from looking at the “local market conditions, for consumer behaviour, competitive environments, management styles, and legal regulations,” the ability of the company to take the needs of the consumers into consideration adds to their overall success. (Gurdjian, Kerschbaumer, Kliger, and Waterous 2000, 68) Moreover, the discussions above have similarly indicated that the company’s club card system has not only that given great deals for its core customers but ensured that the company will continue to do business in the future. Additionally, this attempt significantly fashioned a chance to maintain loyalty to Tesco’s chain of stores.   All in all, Tesco’s resources are strong as it has dominated the entire retail industry of UK. Its value chain keeps their operations intact without incurring numerous losses and infringement with their social responsibilities. Lastly, their core competency, specifically their consumer-centric model, has been their ticket in being at the top of the retail industry’s major players.     VII.         Conclusion The report highlights that in the retail industry of UK, a standard of service accepted by the public is already established. This standard has is required to all the major players in the said industry and has become so common that the consumers have regarded it as somewhat negligible. The success of Tesco shows that knowing what the consumer needs defines the level of success that one could acquire. In their case, they focused their attention on convenience and customer relationship management. With the combination of these two factors, they have taken the retail industry by storm as loyal customers come flocking their chain of stores. Essentially, Tesco has been deemed as strategically capable because they have ultimately acquired loyalty from their customers. Their brand has become synonymous with the concept of superstores and groceries in UK. However, these apparent strengths could only be sustained by the company if they keep the customers happy by anticipating their every demand. In this regard, a major weakness is uncovered in this scenario. Eventually, all other players like Sainsbury's, Safeway, Asda and Somerfield will be implementing their own loyalty scheme which will essentially allow them to once more catch up with the competitive advantage of Tesco. To this end, Tesco must start finding a way, even this early, to keep their advantage over the other players in the market.     VIII.       References Child, P. (2002) "Taking Tesco Global: David Reid, Deputy Chairman of the United Kingdom's Largest Grocer, Explains the Company's International Strategy." The McKinsey Quarterly. p135. Gurdijian, P., Kerschbaumer, G., Kliger, M., and Waterous, P. (2000) “Bagging Europe's Groceries.” The McKinsey Quarterly. pp68. Tesco PLC (2006) Tesco Annual Review, 2005. Available at: http://www.tescocorporate.com/images/Tesco_review_1.pdf [23 January 2008] Tesco Plc (2007a) Economy. Available at: http://www.tescocorporate.com/economy.htm [23 January 2008] Tesco Plc (2007b) Society: Career and Training. Available at:http://www.tescocorporate.com/page.aspx?pointerid=791634D5066E4B9C9BE29A45587D82FE [23 January 2008]

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY OF TESCO PLC IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY OF TESCO PLC IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Table of Contents I. Introduction .. 3 II. Backgroun...

What are the impacts of a minimum wage increase on an organization with employees in the UK?

What are the impacts of a minimum wage increase on an organization with employees in the UK?               When an employer takes on an employee, he will be cautious about making specific investments. After all, by making these investments he renders himself vulnerable. The employee is handed a powerful tool, because the employer's specific investments will be lost if he leaves. With this tool, he is in a position to rob the employer of part of the profits of that investment, in future wage negotiations, by threatening to leave. An employer can, of course, anticipate this problem. So his reaction is to postpone part of his investments (Lehmbruch & Waarden 2003). Less investment is made in specific training than is socially desirable. This problem also exists the other way round: an employee is sensible not to buy a house near his current employer, because it weakens his position in future wage negotiations. The company and the employee have a mutual interest in solving this problem. After all, by arranging matters in such a way that the employment relation functions as efficiently as possible, the total expected profit from the employment relation increases. If the pie is bigger, there are more slices to go round. Both parties ultimately benefit. The solution to the holdup problem is obvious. By fixing the future wage level at the start of the employment relation, prior to specific investments being made, the necessity for future negotiation is removed (Figart 2004).   In a corporatist economy, there are two types of renegotiation. The first type is renegotiation by corporatist organizations. These renegotiations remove the effect of aggregate shocks. The outcome of these negotiations cannot be influenced by individual companies or employees. The second type is individual renegotiation, in those cases where corporatist renegotiations do not have the desired result due to firm-specific shocks (Bluestone, B & Bluestone, I 1992). The British campaign to protect low-paid workers lies between two alternative models. A first model, characteristic of many member states of the European Union, is defined by a long established and strongly embedded system of low wage regulation, constituted through either minimum wage legislation or a high level of collective bargaining coverage, or a combination of both. The reason that living wage campaigns have not diffused more widely may be that, compared to the USA, British workers are still afforded slightly stronger protection. The UK minimum wage is higher, unions are stronger, and the benefit regime is less stringent. But conditions for the low paid are not so far behind than those in other countries. The UK has the highest share of low paid workers in the European Union. The government has failed to address the mounting problem of child poverty. The minimum wage is perceived by many employers as the going rate rather than an absolute minimum Many workers have lost opportunities for wage advancement as new contracts for business are won on a low cost basis, with wages factored in at minimum rates There is a great deal of campaigning to improve low pay in Britain, but this has more in common with a European model than any other models (Slomp 1996).   The living wage campaign in East London is similar to some of the US living wage movements; however, it is also integrally linked with, and a catalyst to, a broader coalition of low pay campaigns. These campaigns increasingly focus on the legal arena at the level of both the European Union (EU) and the UK. Examples include campaigns to improve the relative level of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and extensive lobbying for changes in the EU Directive on public procurement to incorporate a fair wage clause. Further, groups campaigning for equal pay for men and women increasingly recognize that the concentration of women in low paid jobs, most of which are part-time, is a major contributor to the gender pay gap. Thus, calls from feminist advocates and activists for gender pay audits and new guidelines for contracting organizations to avoid a two-tier workforce add further fuel to the fight against low pay (Screpanti 2001). Union involvement in wage bargaining has been guided by three central goals: wage predictability, wage increase and wage equality. Only the first one, wage predictability, is generally shared by employers. The desire for wage predictability has been expressed in the struggle to fix occupational or industry wage rates for one or two years and at time rather than piece rates. The early fixed-wage rates were originally aimed at preventing arbitrary employer decisions on wages and "unfair" wage competition by low-pay firms. Once some form of uniformity in wage rates was reached, the unions focused on wage adaptation to rising prices, a major issue in twentieth century collective bargaining and conflict. As a principle, wage adjustments for inflation have generally been accepted, but the way in which it is done has remained a source of conflict between unions and employers, and sometimes with the national government (Scharpf & Schmidt 2000). The increase in minimum wage would make sure that the personnel will be motivated and perform better. On the other hand the increase in minimum wage would create additional expenses for a UK company but with motivation and better performance the company can recover from the additional expenses. With motivated personnel come better services to clients or better products thus higher profits to the company.   References Bluestone, B & Bluestone, I 1992, Negotiating the future: A labor perspective on American Business, Basic Books, New York.   Figart, DM 2004, Living wage movements: Global perspectives, Routledge, New York.   Lehmbruch, G & Waarden, F (eds.) 2003, Renegotiating the welfare state: Flexible adjustment through corporatist concertation, Routledge, New York.   Slomp, H 1996, Between bargaining and politics: An introduction to European labor relations, Praeger, Westport, CT.   Scharpf, FW & Schmidt, VA (eds.) 2000, Diverse responses to common challenges, Oxford University Press, Oxford.   Screpanti, E 2001, The fundamental institutions of capitalism, Routledge, London.

What are the impacts of a minimum wage increase on an organization with employees in the UK?

What are the impacts of a minimum wage increase on an organization with employees in the UK? When an employer takes o...