Comparing L&Q and Tesco Business Success

This assignment compares the business success of L&Q (a not-for-profit organization) and Tesco (a for-profit retail company). It analyzes their organizational structures, past successes and failures, and current market positions. The comparison highlights differences in their business models, with L&Q focusing on affordable housing and community support, while Tesco emphasizes profit-making and customer satisfaction.

BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
Organisational chart- TESCO
http://www.orgcharting.com/tesco-company-organisational-structure-chart-example/
Hierarchical structure means multiple levels in the business. Tesco has a tall structure because
Tesco is a large business and has multiple layers within the hierarchy. Tesco’s structure is also
based on functions, different job roles, and each level in controlled by one person. A hierarchical
company tends to be a very big company just like Tesco is. Tesco is a very complicated
organisation structure. The reason why they have this structure is that it has many employees
working in various departments of the company. So the information has to be passed through
many people before it can reach the store manager. The market and research manager are
expected to be in charge of the whole market and customers’ needs and wants. Tesco has a
unique structure and controlled by several people for each department. Their organisation is
similar to other businesses. If Tesco does not have a well-structured business, the employees
will not know their roles in the business and will not contribute their ideas. In addition, having a
structured business means good communication within employees and the business, which
creates a good working environment. Furthermore, having a structured organisation will
motivate employees who are at the bottom of the hierarchy as this might encourage them to
work harder.
MARKETING
The Tesco Company are always thinking and planning on how to market and produce their new
and developed products. This is good for the business as customers are always looking for
innovated products to buy so their role is to meet the customers’ needs and wants in order to
please them and gain more customers. Tesco is enabling their customers to go and get their
products at the cheaper prices as a majority of customers want this. When a new and
developed products are launched they encourage their customers to buy their products by
promoting an advising their product in the media, TV, magazines and newspaper. The
marketing strategies that Tesco has is very smart and also successful as they set their prices
low so more customers would go shop in Tesco meaning they gain lots customers every day.
ADMINISTRATION
The administrator department management helps the businesses to meet their goals and give
extra support to reach successful position. They also help other departments to stay organised;
they also provide security, reception services to the organisation. The sale administrator
analyses the needs and wants that customers want from the business. The administration
department maintains all the paperwork and manages other services well.
RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
Before the development of a new product, the research development department does extra
and extensive research to support the product. The research includes product specifications,
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
product costs and production timeline. The research and development department to make sure
that the products are still also does regular updates of a company’s existing products
Functional and upgraded. As part of the research development department, they have to deliver
their promises to their customers every day and this is important to Tesco because if they do not
research they will not know what their customers want from their business and because of this
they could lose customers and this may affect their business. They need to make sure that their
products are affordable and they have to be the highest quality. The research development
team makes sure all their products are safe, legal and more than just good.
MANAGER
The responsibilities of a manager are to motivate staffs, setting new targets and goals,
allocating jobs to employees and problem solving. Their main role is to be in charge of the staffs
and to improve the quality of service. The managers have many responsibilities for profit and
loss, as well as understand the needs of their customers. Moreover, they make sure every runs
smoothly as it can
FINANCE
The finance department is very important to the business as it keeps track of all the money
coming in and out of the business. It keeps track of the sales, invoices and salaries to pay the
staff. This job includes accounting, invoicing and director of finance. The finance department is
very important to the Tesco Company as they are in charge of the money coming in and out of
the business.
PRODUCTION AND QUALITY
Production and the quality department are important because their role is to make sure all the
products are high standard and made with good quality. If their branch has an in store bakery,
then they will bake bread and pastries on site by other than that, they do not produce anything.
The production process is important because the products need to meet the customer’s needs if
it does not, then Tesco would lose some of their customers and might have a bad reputation
because of their bad quality. When they do the quality check, they need to make sure the
products are error free, accident-free and good quality. There are four keys to quality control for
Tesco and they are:
 Meeting customer requirements
 Prevention of defect
 An attitude to satisfy the customer all the time
 Measurement to verify the process is meeting requirements
SALES
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
Tesco makes sure that their customers are getting what they want and because of this they
attract more customers. They sell their products at a high price because it would make their
business more successful as they are earning more.
IT
Tesco has a big IT department as they are also in charge of the media because they need to
promote their business meaning they have many technologies. The IT responsibility is to
manage the equipment’s and to make sure everything works properly. The IT department
makes sure that the website is up to date and working correctly. So they are in charge of their
website. Therefore, their role is to improve Tesco and their website as they are always looking
to make Tesco better. Also, IT controls all the stock control and orders as this helps to waste
less and allow the business to make more profit instead of loss in profit as well as products. In
addition, the IT also controls the sales at the till. IT is very important because without the IT
system Tesco would not be able to operate as efficiently as it can now. The computer systems
reduce waste due to over ordering. The system operates by what is sold in the store, the
computer knows when something has been sold and how much is left on the shelves therefore it
works out how much should come with the next delivery. This is less time consuming as the
computer does all the work instead of the employees manually doing the work which is more
time consuming more chances of making an error.
Aims and objectives
http://student-notes.com/2012/04/30/tescos-aims-business-coursework/
Tesco’s main aim is to make profit as well as to build the best team so they can provide one of
the best services. Moreover, Tesco aims to increase the number of stores in the other countries
meaning they want their business to be successful internationally as well as nationally. Also
their aim is to improve their online services as number of people shop online so Tesco’s needs
to make sure that they provide the best online service so their customers would be more willing
to shop online from their supermarket rather than their competitors supermarket. Furthermore,
they aim to be as successful in everything as they are in food retail, and to increase the number
of stores in the other countries in which they operate.
In addition, Tesco aims to sell their products for affordable prices, the reason why this is their
main aim is because local people or most of the customers are average householders, meaning
people are less willing to spend on expensive things. Moreover, to provide good quality services
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
and products at a low cost so that they are cheaper than their competitors are so they would be
known as the most successful business in the market business. One objective they might use
and offer bargains, price deals and discounts to help some people afford the things they need.
Tesco aims to provide the best groceries, electronics and clothing goods as well as different
online services; they are aiming to develop the online shopping to attract more customers so
they become more known for the services and goods they provide.
Another aim that Tesco would like to fulfill in the future is to reduce the unemployment in local
areas, meaning that when they build and open a new Tesco they will make sure to employ the
local people first than people who are from outside the local area. One of Tesco’s objectives is
to upgrade and improve their website so there is a low chance of problems. In addition, having a
website will help their business because people who are unable to shop at the stores they can
still buy their products at home and this would mean Tesco would not lose any customers and
will have good customer service.
Tesco’s main aim is to create a wide range of healthy eating products so they care about their
customers as well as their well-being. In addition, by selling a wide range of healthy eating
products this would motivate them parents to buy fresh new healthy foods for their family
meaning Tesco is trying to change people’s lifestyle and aim for them to live healthily.
Tesco’s target is to improve the environment by trying to reduce its carbon footprint as they
believe majority of Tesco’s customers care about the environment are more attracted to
products that does not harm the ecosystem.
SMART Objectives:
SPECIFIC- Tesco have clearly stated that they have “seen a slight increase of 3.7% in the staff
accident rate within distribution” and because of this specific information they are already taking
steps to decrease this percentage rate and making sure they aiming to keep all their staffs safe.
MEASURABLE-Tesco measures precisely as they have stated “slight increase of 3.7% in staff
accident rate.” This tells us that they record accident’s that takes place in their workplace and
they record the progress.
AGREED-Tesco makes sure that all their employees have a clear idea and are aware of their
aims and what Tesco are doing to achieve their aims. Also, when Tesco comes up with a new
plan or a new rule they make sure all their employees knows and agrees with it in order to avoid
conflict within the business.
REALISTIC-Tesco makes sure that their aims are realistic and able to meet their aims. They
have stated, “To grow the UK core” and by researching, we can tell that Tesco has met this goal
as Tesco is one of the most successful businesses in the UK and is still growing.
TIME-Tesco has set them a 3 years period in which they want to achieve this aim. Therefore,
Tesco always set them a time to achieve a goal as this helps them to encourage their
employees and focus on achieving and meeting their aims.
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
 Tesco’s main visions and mission are:
 Wanted and needed around the world
 A growing business, full of opportunities
 Modern, innovative and full of ideas
 Winners locally whilst applying our skills globally
 Inspiring, earning trust and loyalty from customers, our colleagues and communities.
Tesco is a very well established organisation in the UK. Tesco apply different strategy in the
organisation to make the business grows. Its primary focus is to attract the customers and keep
the loyal customers attached with the organisation
London and Quadrant housing
London and Quadrant was established in october1963, L&Q was formed in the London
Borough of Greenwich. L&Q is a not for profit Business Company as their main aim is to build
and provide homes for their customers so their business is mainly focused on helping families.
L&Q does not have any owners and they are a voluntary sector meaning it services to the public
however, they are not for profit organisation and help people that need extra help. L&Q does not
have shareholders because they are a charitable housing association, with our mission
remaining ‘Creating places where people want to live’. London and Quadrant is a tertiary sector
meaning it supports the production and distribution process, L&Q sells rents and flats to their
tenants. L&Q has charitable status and any profits made are re-invested back into homes and
service improvements, directors and managers run it. Trustees who are trusted to make sure
that L&Q meets its purposes oversee L&Q. London and Quadrant housing is a local business as
they own or manages over 70,000 homes in London and the South East. They build high quality
homes to meet a range of needs and incomes for families. They work with over 90 local
authorities in the parts of London and the South East where we have homes and also L&Q is a
large business as they have more than 250 employees, they employ around 1,200 staff in 18
locations and offices. L&Q is the largest landlord in Greater London as they are known
supporting families and they are more known around London because of their advertisement on
posters, vans and etc. L&Q is a local business as they are not located outside London. The
purpose of their business is to help their tenants who has trouble finding and buying houses so
they provide that a supportive service to help them. The reason for their success is their skilled
employees so they believe that they are successful depending on who they employ and making
sure that they are employing the best people and getting the best from them also they are
successful by investing in their well-trained and motivated workforce and because of this they
can continue to be successful.
Stakeholder is anyone who shows an interest in the business and who can affect or be affected
by the actions of the business.
External Internal
 Tenants
 Communities
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 Managers
 Employees

BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
Tenants want good service from L&Q and making sure that they help the tenants to find perfect
homes for individuals and families. Tenants want the business to find them homes that are
affordable as some of the tenants may have low income or are planning to buy low priced
homes that is also high quality and brand new. Tenants want L&Q employees that understands
their situations and able to help them out. In addition, more tenants would mean L&Q will get
more surplus and because of this they are able to help more families and individuals.
The manager influences employees who work at L&Q to work their hardest and making sure
that they meet their aims. Manager’s roles are to direct and making sure that business in
running smoothly and keeping everything organised. Without managers, other staffs would not
know their roles in the business or would not know how to communicate with their customers as
the role of managers is to guide their employees. The managers for L&Q are mainly in charge of
the business as they are equally important as the owner also their role is to make sure
everything is running up to high standard.
The employees want to help their tenants and want to improve the business. The employees
want to earn high wages and keep their jobs. The employees affect the business because if
L&Q does not have employees working for them then the business would not become
successful and also without employees, the business would be slow at servicing their tenants
and because of this, they will lose their customers. Employee’s influences L&Q to help as much
tenants as they can and to provide helpful services to their customers. Employees influence
customer happiness, if L&Q provides good customer services then their business would
become more successful.
In addition, some people from the local community may be tenants so they need to have a good
relationship. London and Quadrant housing are a tall structured organisation as they also have
different layers of departments within the business. Each department has different roles in the
business as this keeps them organised and has a good working environment. Even though
having a tall structure is good for the business the disadvantage of a tall structure organisation
is that the business would lack communication, as some departments might not communicate
with other departments. In addition, as it is a tall structured organisation so it is going to take a
long time to process things and important files.
Communications with External and Internal Stakeholders:
L&Q communicates with their tenants by handing out leaflets, adverts, posters, questionnaires,
interviews, letters and website. They have loads of different methods of communicating with
their customers and of all these different methods, they are able to attract and interact with
customers. Communication helps L&Q understand the needs of Tenants. It is important that the
bonds with the Stakeholders and L&Q should be are strong so the business can run as best as
possible. L&Q uses similar range of different communications with its External Stakeholders and
these include using written emails to costumers making sure they are happy or using TV
adverts, poster or newsletters to promote their new products. Also through different social media
outlets, the business can raise awareness of house openings to the local community. L&Q has
to makes sure that their communication with all their workers is consistent so everyone knows
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
what they are doing and knows if anything new is going to happen. They try to keep all their
workers happy by making sure their working environment is safe and makes sure that every
worker is trained fully to provide the services for all their current and new tenants. In addition,
they ensure that all their workers understand the aims and objectives of business so they can
achieve the best. Like Tesco’s L&Q does all of this though constant update of the staff bulletin
boards, frequent emails, and conferences.
In addition, London and Quadrant housing communicate with their local community by using
advertising on the boards, local council and logo on vehicles. They display their logo on their
business vans so people can see what business they represent and some of the customers
might be interested in this method of communication. They need to have a good relationship
with their local community because if they do not then they might complain and cause conflict
with the business.
L&Q has similar functional areas as Tesco as the IT department is in charge of L&Q’s website
and other social media advertisements, Human resources has the role of hiring, administration,
and training of staff, this is an important role as they need to make sure to employ the right
people for the job. The financial department is in charge of all the surplus that why get from the
business and they decide on what and how to spend the money on the business, the marketing
and sales department are mainly in charge of the advertisement and how to attract tenants.
North and South regions department has the role of taking care of the paper works and
preparing documents for that particular location, however they do more than just paperwork. In
addition, the development department has an important role as they have the role to the
development and improve the business in order to be more successful in London.
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
London and Quadrant housing main mission are ‘creating places where people want to live’.
Therefore, their mission is to provide people with a good supportive service so their tenant can
find a good place to live. Also, their vision and mission to help loads of individuals and families
as possible, and also get more surplus to help them with their business and improve it they also
have a five-year plan, meaning they are very clear and confident about their plan and mission.
As it is a not for profit
business, their main aim is to provide their customers with houses and the best service that they
can offer and they are going to do this by employing the best and well-qualified staffs for this job
so the customers are being dealt with a professional staff. The difference between profit and
not-for-profit is that the organisations that does not earn any of the profits. All of the money
earned by or donated to not-for-profit organisations is used in pursuing the organisation's aims
and keeping it running and this is called a surplus instead of profit.
However, profit is the amount of revenue gained from a business activity, which goes to the
business's owners, who may or may not decide to spend it on the business.
As L&Q is not-for-profit organisations, they provide social housings for people/ families with low
incomes, key workers or benefits. Social housing is affordable housing, which is provided by the
housing associations and local councils, meaning that homes will remain more affordable than
renting privately.
Their focus is to support their local community and charities. They focus on projects that
increase employability, provide positive futures for young people, promote financial inclusion
and strengthen communities.
Their aim mains are http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/documents/s7012/Appendix%20C
%20-%20LQ%20Income%20Collection%20policy.pdf
 Continue to give the best service quality to their peers
 Expand their development from 15,000 to 50,000 homes
 Double their output, so that we are building 5,000 homes a year by 2020
 Deliver efficiency and quality in their homes and services by rolling out their Direct
Maintenance division and expanding Quadrant Construction
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
 Continue to be self-reliant and guided by their social mission in achieving their aims
 Take pro-active steps to maximise take up of benefits and tax credits
 Ensure residents have access to good quality advice on benefits and managing debt
 improve services and performance
Their objectives are to achieve their aims by attracting more tenants and they will receive more
surpluses if they help more people, and by getting surplus, they will be able to build more
houses. To employee more qualified and the best employees for the business and to increase
the business so it is more known and they are planning to do this by advertising so more people
would know about their business.
Their main purpose is to help people/ families who have financial problems, so their main
purpose is to organise home and manage their home.
L&Q does not provide their SMART objectives on their website, as it is sensitive information and
prefer to keep this important information within the business.
S- (SPECIFIC) - in 2020, L&Q are aiming to build 5,000 homes a year 50% of the houses will be
affordable housing. Also, they aim to employ more than 2,000 people so they would widen their
business so it is more known also are more able to help people and families fast as possible
due to more staffs and quicker service.
M- (MEASURABLE) it is going to take them 3 to 4 years for their organisation to be known
around the whole UK.
A-(ACHIEVABLE)- L&Q believe that they would help approximately 2,000 + people to earn
more each month through work, which is achievable as employing people would help L&Q by
making their service faster and increasing their business growth as more people would know
about the organisation and would be more willing to ask for L&Q’s help. In addition, it would
decrease the rate of unemployment and helping people by providing them income so they would
be able to achieve their needs, wants and aspirations
R-(RELEVANT) - L&Q’s support is relevant and important for tenants as they provide a support
for families that are unable to afford expensive homes, and L&Q’s main priority is to provide
people with affordable housings.
T-(TIME) – L&Q has set themselves a 3 years period (2020) in which they want to achieve this
aim. L&Q set themselves a time to achieve a goal as this helps them to push their staffs to focus
on achieving and meeting their aims.
L&Q and Tesco are both successful businesses as Tesco is known internationally and L&Q is
known regional. Both of these businesses have loads of shareholders indicating that the
business is successful on what they do and provide. Both businesses have tall structured
organisations showing that they are both similar and have the similar departments in their
business. However, the difference between Tesco and L&Q is that Tesco is all for profit
business company whereas L&Q is not for profit as they are more focused on helping
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
individuals and families, the extra money they earn is called surplus and they use that to
improve the business and build more houses.
On the other hand, Tesco has become unsuccessful as they have made a loss in the past and
have lost market share to budget retailers since 2008, because of recession, as people were
more interested in saving this money instead of spending. so customers shopping habit
changed as they were more into spending less money on products and services. Tesco lost
customers as well as profit which had a huge impact on them, as their main competitor (Lidi and
Aldi) were getting successful while Tesco’s business were struggling. However, now their
business is slowly becoming successful as they have lowered their prices for their goods and
services and they employed a new CEO who has made a great impact on the business and
came up with a slogan –“Every Little Helps”. Meaning they understand the struggle of saving
money due to recession so every little saving that the customers save will help them out,
showing that they understand their customers.
Correspondingly, L&Q has also failed in the past, as they did not have enough support, which
resulted to not meeting their Tenants needs and wants. In addition, there was storage of
affordable housing, which was difficult for L&Q to provide rents to their Tenants. However, now
L&Q are becoming more well-known especially in different areas of London and more people
are taking their help, meaning L&Q are getting more surpluses because of the more new
tenants. Also, they are taking advantage of the fact that the government are building more
houses to provide houses to people in need which will help L&Q as well as the tenants, as they
would be more known by the government meaning they may receive more money to help L&Q’s
business to grow.
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
http://www.lqgroup.org.uk/_assets/files/view/e18e53d4-29fb-465c-ab45-6fad8f6941d1/
As you can see that most of their total is positive which shows that L&Q’s business is going well
also, every year their surplus is increasing which shows that they are more able to use the
surplus money to improve their business by expanding their organisation. Surplus helps L&Q to
provide families with more rents and housings as well as advertisement so more people and
families that are in need of help know about this helpful organisation.
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
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BTEC National Business Priya Rajbhandari
Unit 1: Exploring Business
Learning Aim: A&B
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