Innovation for Addressing Social Needs: A Case Study of Tesco

This essay discusses how innovation can address social needs, with Tesco as a case study. It highlights Tesco's initiatives for delivering value and meeting social needs, such as providing healthy food and partnering with health organizations. The essay also explains the concept of the bottom of the pyramid and how it relates to economic development.

Running Head: CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH
Creativity and Business Wealth

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 1
Innovation can be defined as the creative thoughts, new ideas and new imaginations in the form
of a method or device. Innovation is often regarded as the application of better solutions with the
help of which new requirements, existing market needs and unarticulated needs can be met
effectively. Innovations addressing social needs are the strategies, ideas, and concepts which are
adopted by the organizations for the purpose of meeting social needs resulting from education,
working conditions, health and community development. The purpose or goal of creating these
ideas is strengthening and extending the civil society1. This essay focuses on how innovation can
address social needs. Tesco has been selected as the organization for this essay for explaining
how benefit can be derived by those at the bottom of the pyramid from the innovation
imperative. This essay further highlights the manner adopted by Tesco for delivering value.
There are a number of social challenges faced by the people living in UK such as poverty, social
exclusion, health and demographic challenges and substantial levels of inequalities. Therefore, it
is the basic need of such people to be capable of overcoming these social challenges. Innovation
assists in in addressing social exclusion by way of reducing unemployment along with offering
the employment opportunities to the disadvantaged groups2. Furthermore, the introduction of
new products and services such as simplified and cheaper versions of existing goods can further
help in the reduction of differences and inequalities in the living standards of various groups
living in the society. Moreover, a number of health challenges can be addressed by innovation
through more predictive, preventive and personal healthcare products. In other words, social
innovation can play a useful role in providing answers to various social problems and needs
when the solutions are not available through the use of conventional approaches. Innovations are
mostly made by way of making the use of advanced technology. Technology can be regarded as
the immense force for good in the world3.
1 Joel West. and Marcel Bogers, ‘Leveraging external sources of innovation: a review of research
on open innovation’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, vol. 31, no.4, 2014, pp.816.
2 Robert P. van der Have and Luis Rubalcaba, ‘Social innovation research: An emerging area of
innovation studies?’, Research Policy, vol. 45, no.9, 2016, pp.1930.
3 Leonid Kogan et.al., ‘Technological innovation, resource allocation, and growth’, The
Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 132, no.2, 2017, pp.665.

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 2
The bottom of the pyramid can be defined as the socio- economic concept with the help of which
the vast segment that consist of the poorest citizens of the world who are blocked by challenging
barriers and are therefore prevented from the realization of human potential for their own benefit.
This concept refers to the market- based model of economic development, which provides a
promise of alleviating the widespread poverty along with providing profits and growth for the
multinational corporations. The firms operating in various industries are increasingly adopting
this concept. Unlike the traditional models of economic development, the recast of poverty is
approached by the bottom of the pyramid as an economic opportunity for MNCs4. There are
three premises of the basic argument, firstly, the poor population of the world constitutes
massive profit potential and growth opportunities for MNCs. Secondly, a leading role should be
played by the MNCs for the purpose of unlocking the economic potential of the markets which
are difficult to access. Thirdly, the poor of the world are required to be brought into the global
economy which, in turn, will generate fortunes for the multinational corporations along with
resolving the problem of global poverty. In other words, the population segment at the bottom of
the pyramid remains underserved and therefore, there are a number of opportunities for those
who have the capability of bringing innovation for the purpose of offering aspirational and
original products and services5.
Success can be achieved by way of lowering the cost of ownership along with offering quality
and features which are aspired by the consumers. Small pack sizes are the most well- known and
obvious method for the consumer goods companies for the purpose of targeting the low- income
consumers. However, these methods are often not regarded as the best method. There is a
requirement for employing other innovations as well and should be based after gaining a proper
understanding of the needs of the consumers by engaging the business in the local market.
Furthermore, the chances of the creation of a sustainable business model are also increased with
the help of the immersion strategy.
4 Casado Caneque Fernando and L. Hart Stuart, Base of the Pyramid 3.0: Sustainable
Development through Innovation and Entrepreneurship, USA, Routledge, 2017, p. 3.
5 Jaques Angot and Loic Ple, ‘Serving poor people in rich countries: the bottom-of-the-pyramid
business model solution’, Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 36, no. 2, 2015, pp.3.

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 3
Tesco is a general merchandise and groceries retailer with headquarters situated in England,
United Kingdom. It was founded in the year 1919 as a group of market stalls by Jack Cohen and
slowly spread its operations over Ireland, Czech Republic, Malaysia, India, Thailand and
Hungary. Tesco is taking a number of initiatives from time to time for the purpose of addressing
the social needs with the help of innovation. Tesco is supporting innovation in the growth of new
crops by supporting the growers for bringing news products into the market for meeting the
social needs. In the year 2104, Tesco started an English apricot industry, the exclusive purple
carrots, the first British- grown watermelons and the Trinidad Scorpion, the commercially grown
chili sold on the streets of UK.
Tesco proved that charity is not the only way for the greatest social impacts. It aimed at
mobilizing other non- cash resources which are in abundance with the company, such as their
distribution networks, supply chains, business footprints and marketing prowess, in order to
create business strategies which have the capability of delivering significant social value. The
innovation of Tesco for the people belonging to bottom of the pyramid includes ‘Bags of Help’
which is a part of the local grant scheme. This scheme makes the use of the money raised from
the government for funding the various local projects for the creation or improvement of the
green spaces in the Scotland, Wales, and England’s communities. This scheme will include
building of sports facilities, new parks which provide great places to the communities, colleagues
and the customers to enjoy. ‘Bags of Help’ by Tesco is working in those parts of UK which are
most disadvantaged. In this way, they assist people in the creation of better places, improving
their prospects and allowing them to work and live in a greener way6.
The UK people on the bottom of the pyramid suffer from the number of diseases and therefore, it
is there social need to stay healthy. Tesco addresses this social need of the UK people by
partnering with “Little Helps for healthier living” which brings the expertise and skills of the
British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research UK. The aim of this innovative
partnership of Tesco is to lower the risk of circulatory and heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and
cancer. For a duration of five years, these four organizations planned to work together for
6 Ellen Bennett and William Eadson, Private, voluntary and public sector partnership for
outdoor space provision: policy lessons from the Bags of Help grant programme evaluation,
[website], 2017, http://shura.shu.ac.uk/18229/1/tesco-bags-of-help-grant-programme.pdf ,
(accessed 24 November 2018).

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 4
assisting the 300,000 colleagues of Tesco and the millions of customers in UK such that the
barriers to healthier habits can be removed7. The pledge of these four organizations provide for
sharing of the findings from their work across the health community of the United Kingdom for
the purpose of assisting in accelerating the progress towards the international and national public
health goals. The main goal of this initiative of Tesco is to bring a measurable improvement in
the nation’s health8.
Another innovative technique adopted by Tesco for meeting the basic social need (i.e. food) of
the people living at the bottom of the pyramid is the use of Fare Share Go Support. Fare Share
Go is a service that provides access to free surplus food for the community group or charity. The
food is of good quality and tasty. Around 2,500 stores of Tesco provide their surplus food
through Fare Share Go to the local charities9. The local organizations can receive food only by
equipping themselves to store, receive, serve and prepare food safely. Then the organization is
visited by the team of Fare Share Go for the purpose of ensuring that the food is being utilized in
accordance with the appropriate safety and handling guidelines. In this way, Tesco is able to
reach the poor people and meet their needs in an easy manner10. Since 2014, Tesco have
supported a number of community projects by donating funds for schools, sports groups, animal
shelters, health organizations, elderly care centres and much more11.
7 Jack Louise, How Tesco Is Fighting Back By Making “Every Little Helps” For A New Era,
[website], 2015, https://www.fastcompany.com/3052384/how-tesco-is-fighting-back-by-making-
every-little-helps-for-a-new-era, (accessed 24 November 2018).
8 Tesco PLC, Tesco unveils new partnership to deliver Little Helps for healthier living, [website],
2018, https://www.tescoplc.com/news/news-releases/2018/tesco-health-charity-partnership-
2018/ (accessed 24 November 2018)
9 Peter Jones, David Hillier and Daphne Comfort, ‘ Assurance of the leading UK food retailers'
corporate social responsibility/sustainability reports’, Corporate Governance, vol. 14, no. 1,
2014,pp.131.
10 Pat Caplan, ‘Win‐win?: Food poverty, food aid and food surplus in the UK
today’. Anthropology Today, vol. 33, no. 3, 2017, pp.17.
11 Fare Share, Free Share- fighting hunger, tackling food waste, [website], 2018,
https://fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/fareshare-go-support/, (accessed 24 November 2018).

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 5
These innovations are not new for Tesco and are a part of Tesco since so many years. Another
innovation that addresses the social needs of the people in UK is the charity campaigning with
the help of ATM donations. Tesco Personal Finance has provided an opportunity to its customers
to support the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, Tesco Charity of the Year, only by way of using
the cash machine at the Tesco stores. For each and every transaction which is conducted with
the help of the cash machine present at the Tesco stores till the end of February 2010, Tesco will
donate the funds to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign that aimed at raising £3 million to a fund
which will provide specialist equipment to the children suffering from muscular dystrophy. The
cure for this condition faced by the children in UK has not been found, however, the quality of
life of the children will significantly improve with the help of the equipment funded by this
partnership. Muscular dystrophy is regarded as an incurable, devastating and life- limiting
condition due to which the muscles of the children waste away which, in turn, makes the children
weaker and prevents them from performing even the simple tasks12.
Tesco has taken into consideration the above mentioned innovative initiatives for the purpose of
delivering value to the people in UK. Those on the bottom of the pyramid can derive a number of
benefits from these innovative imperatives adopted by Tesco. All these initiatives were a part of
the value- creation mechanism of the organization. Social needs play an important role for the
individuals for the purpose of living a healthy life and therefore are required to be adequately
met13. With the help of these innovative imperatives of the organization, the people living at the
bottom of the pyramid can meet their social needs relating to healthy and sufficient food,
disease- free body, clean and green environment etc. 14 When all these social needs of the people
of UK will be met on time, the society will head towards its development. With the passage of
12 Diogo M. Souza Monteiro and Neal H. Hooker, ‘What Initiatives Are British Food Retailers
Taking to Improve Children’s Health and Nutrition?’, Journal of food products marketing, vol.
23, no. 2, 2017, pp.210.
13 Jim Fruchterman, Developing Information Technology to Meet Social Needs, [website], 2008,
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/itgg.2008.3.3.83, (accessed 24 November
2018).
14 Peter Jones, Daphne Comfort and David Hillier, ‘E-retailers and Environmental
Sustainability’, International Journal of Management and Sustainability, vol. 3, no. 7, 2014,
pp.460.

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 6
time, these people will also become capable of meeting all their health needs and will live a
healthy life. If other organizations will also undertake similar initiatives from time to time, the
number of people living at the bottom of the pyramid will subsequently reduce. This means that
their standard of living will improve and therefore, the society will move towards its
development15.
Therefore, it can be concluded that innovation is a term that defines creative thoughts, new ideas
and new imaginations in the form of a method or device. The concept of bottom of the pyramid
provides for the vast segment which consists of the poorest citizens of the world who are blocked
by challenging barriers and are therefore prevented from the realization of human potential for
their own benefit. This underserved population provides a number of opportunities to the
organizations having the capability of bringing innovation for the purpose of offering
aspirational and original products and services. This essay focused on Tesco for gaining
understanding regarding how innovation can address social needs. A number of innovative
initiatives are undertaken by Tesco from time to time for addressing the health needs and
providing food to the needy people and the customers. In this way, it has made its contribution
towards meeting the social needs of the people of UK.
15 Noemi Sinkovics, Rudolf R. Sinkovics, and Mo Yamin, ‘The role of social value creation in
business model formulation at the bottom of the pyramid–implications for
MNEs?’. International Business Review, vol. 23, no. 4, 2014, pp.694.

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 7
Referencing
Angot, J. and L. Ple, ‘Serving poor people in rich countries: the bottom-of-the-pyramid business
model solution’, Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 36, no. 2, 2015, pp.3-15.
Bennett, E. and W. Eadson, Private, voluntary and public sector partnership for outdoor space
provision: policy lessons from the Bags of Help grant programme evaluation, [website], 2017,
http://shura.shu.ac.uk/18229/1/tesco-bags-of-help-grant-programme.pdf , (accessed 24
November 2018).
Caplan, P., ‘Win‐win?: Food poverty, food aid and food surplus in the UK today’. Anthropology
Today, vol. 33, no. 3, 2017, pp.17-22.
Fare Share, Free Share- fighting hunger, tackling food waste, [website], 2018,
https://fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/fareshare-go-support/, (accessed 24 November 2018).
Fernando, C. C. and L. H. Stuart, Base of the Pyramid 3.0: Sustainable Development through
Innovation and Entrepreneurship, USA, Routledge, 2017.
Fruchterman, J., Developing Information Technology to Meet Social Needs, [website], 2008,
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/itgg.2008.3.3.83, (accessed 24 November
2018).
Jones, P., D. Comfort and D. Hillier, ‘E-retailers and Environmental
Sustainability’, International Journal of Management and Sustainability, vol. 3, no. 7, 2014,
pp.457-468.
Jones, P., D. Hillier and D. Comfort, ‘ Assurance of the leading UK food retailers' corporate
social responsibility/sustainability reports’, Corporate Governance, vol. 14, no. 1, 2014,pp.130-
138.
Kogan, L. et.al., ‘Technological innovation, resource allocation, and growth’, The Quarterly
Journal of Economics, vol. 132, no.2, 2017, pp.665-712.

CREATIVITY AND BUSINESS WEALTH 8
Louise, J., How Tesco Is Fighting Back By Making “Every Little Helps” For A New Era,
[website], 2015, https://www.fastcompany.com/3052384/how-tesco-is-fighting-back-by-making-
every-little-helps-for-a-new-era, (accessed 24 November 2018).
Sinkovics, N., R.R. Sinkovics, and M. Yamin, ‘The role of social value creation in business
model formulation at the bottom of the pyramid–implications for MNEs?’. International
Business Review, vol. 23, no. 4, 2014, pp.692-707.
Souza Monteiro, D.M. and N.H. Hooker, ‘What Initiatives Are British Food Retailers Taking to
Improve Children’s Health and Nutrition?’, Journal of food products marketing, vol. 23, no. 2,
2017, pp.209-220.
Tesco PLC, Tesco unveils new partnership to deliver Little Helps for healthier living, [website],
2018, https://www.tescoplc.com/news/news-releases/2018/tesco-health-charity-partnership-
2018/ (accessed 24 November 2018).
van der Have, R.P. and L. Rubalcaba, ‘Social innovation research: An emerging area of
innovation studies?’, Research Policy, vol. 45, no.9, 2016, pp.1923-1935.
West, J. and M. Bogers, ‘Leveraging external sources of innovation: a review of research on
open innovation’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, vol. 31, no.4, 2014, pp.814-831.