Tesco Strategic Analysis

websites, Tesco's

annual reports and information from Tesco's website. The information gained

from these sources helped to discover how Tesco manages to gain the

competitive advantage in their industry. It has also helped to focus the

importance of successful competitive positioning with models from Porter to

establish the position in the minds of the consumer.

1.0 Introduction

This report includes a theoretical model which will reflect the practice of Tesco

in relation to strategic analysis. It will look at the competitive positioning

approach and the models/concepts used by Porter to gain a competitive

advantage over Tesco's rivals. By doing this it will show what other

companies in the industry would need to do in order to take over the

competitive advantage that Tesco have.

Strategy is based on the long term of a business and is the direction and

scope of the organisation. It aims to achieve advantage in a changing

environment through its configuration of resources and competences

(Johnson et al, 2008).

6

There are generally three different levels of strategies associated with

organisations. The top level is known as the corporate level strategy which is

alarmed with the overall purpose and extent of the organisation. The second

is the business level strategy which looks at particular markets and how to

compete successfully in them and the third level is the operational strategies

which look at how the organisation delivers successfully (Johnson et al, 2008).

2.0 Findings

2.1 History of Tesco

Tesco began when Jack Cohen first opened a market stall in the East end of

London in 1919 and since then began trading in 1924. This shows that Tesco

has been serving customers in the UK for the best part of a century. Today,

they class themselves as much more of a weekly shop as they have

introduced new services, products and ways to shop all driven