Tesco's Leadership Response to the COVID-19 Crisis: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Tesco's leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. It begins with an introduction defining leadership and its importance, particularly during challenging times like the pandemic. The report then details the complexities Tesco faced, including managing demand fluctuations, protecting people, supply chain disruptions, and maintaining customer connection and employee morale. The study highlights Tesco's responses, such as preparedness, prioritizing safety, ensuring food availability, supporting colleagues, and aiding the community. The report concludes by summarizing key leadership lessons learned from Tesco's experience, offering valuable insights into effective crisis management and organizational resilience. The report emphasizes how Tesco adapted to the crisis and provided support to employees and communities.

AUTHENTIC
LEADERSHIP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Complexity of Tesco
Responses of Tesco
Leadership lessons that can be learnt from study
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
Leadership can be defined as act and process of leading, influencing and
guiding thoughts and actions of followers and in business organisation
leadership is about guiding and influencing thoughts and actions of
employees. As this involves influencing thoughts and actions of others
leaders require to possess several skills and knowledge and this skills and
knowledge get tested in difficult times. Covid-19 is an example of such
situation in which leadership got tested. This study is aimed to answer
‘what are the leadership lessons that we learn from current Covid-19
crisis?’ Tesco will be contextualised for this study and also an organisation
that effectively responded to Covid-19 crisis.

CONT..
Tesco is a British multinational organisation that was founded in 1919
and is headquartered at Welwyn Garden city, England. Tesco operates
6800 locations in around 10 countries. Presently John Allan is
chairperson of Tesco and Ken Murph is CEO and Ken Murphy CEO-
designate. Covid-19 created several complexities for Tesco and this study
aims at discussing lessons that can be learned from Tesco leadership.

COMPLEXITY OF TESCO
Covid-19 situation created significant complexity for Tesco and this complexity was a
result of crisis that was caused because of global pandemic. Some of the factors that
created complexity or affected regular organisational practices during the time of crisis
include-
Managing demand fluctuations- This is one of the most important issues creating
complexity in organisational performance. This means that during Covid-19 crisis demand
was highly fluctuating and in such situation it became very difficult to manage demand.
This means that in some of the areas demand was increasing whereas in some of areas
demand was decreasing. In addition to this demand of food items and groceries was
increasing and for other products it was decreasing. This created significant complexity for
Tesco during Covid-19 crisis.

CONT..
 Protecting People- This is one of the factors which is very unusual that during Covidd-19
crisis it became prime responsibility of Tesco to protect people those who are at stores for
shopping. This means that fear of spreading disease was everywhere and it became very
important for organisation to ensure that they are taking all the necessary steps to prevent
spread of disease. In addition to stores for open for a limited period of time in a day people
gathering was also high and it became very difficult to ensure adequate distance between
people and their safety.
 Challenges of supply- crisis of covid-19 also affected supply for retailers and Tesco also get
affected by this. Because of lockdownand disruption caused by pandemic supply was
significantly affected and this supply was more challenging for food items in retail store.
Panic buying of consumers resulted in stock outs and in this long term supply was a bigger
challenge then short term supply. It became very difficult to maintain a flow of supply when it
involved it more geographical areas and subsectors. This is because during some of the areas
were completely closed and maintaining a supply chain in such situation was a big challenge.

CONT..
Staying connected when customers are not shopping- covid-19 crisis brought new challenges for
Tesco but it does not reduced or eliminated challenges that organisation are facing on regular basis.
This is a challenge that is concerned with connecting with customers. It is easy for organisations to
stay connected with customers when they are regularly shopping but in a situation when customers
are not shopping it became very difficult for Tesco to remain connected with its customers. This is
very important to ensure that customers remain loyal once the crisis is over and crisis does not have
long term impact on Tesco.
Enhancing quality of digital performance- Digital mediums became important than ever during
covid-19 crisis. The reason is that even those people who like to go out and shop in stores were
unable to do so and they could only be served digitally by Tesco. This increased digital engagement
of customers of Tesco and required company to ensure high quality of digital performance. This
means that more customers were prioritizing online shopping and in this situation having effective
data strategy was also important for Tesco.

CONT..
Closing of physical stores- This is another issue caused by covid-19 crisis and cause of
crisis several physical stores have been closed and Tesco has also faced this issue. This is
because in many of the places stores were closed because of Government orders and in
some of the areas stores were closed as a measure to avoid unnecessary social contact.
Dealing with reduced to moral of employees during covid-19- Covid-19 crisis was
highly stressful situation and during this situation it became very important to ensure
high morale of the employees of Tesco. This is a great challenge for leaders to maintain
high morale of employees during a crisis because crisis situation like covid-19 bring
stress and anxiety for everyone and also affect employees. This is because employees
were working in a situation that was very risky and fear of disease was always there and
in such situation it became stressful for employees.

CONT..
Remote working- Remote working is concerned with employees working on different places
rather than working together in one office. During covid-19 crisis finance team of Tesco was
working remotely and this was also an issue because when workers are working remotely it
creates complications in communication and coordination in organisation.
Operational changes- Another issue the disco faced during covid-19 crisis was that big level
of operational changes were required to implement frequently and in less time. This was a big
challenge for organisation and leadership to prepare everything according to requirement of
situation. This included changes in working hours, changes in normal retail practices of Tesco
and support and role of store workers was also changed.
Discussion suggests that Tesco was greatly affected by covid-19 crisis and there were several
issues that contributed and increasing complexity of Tesco. Issues suggested that mainly
situations required effective decision-making and action-taking abilities and this was only
possible by having strong leadership for organisation.

RESPONSES OF TESCO
In order to deal with complexities and critical situation and reduce its impact
on organisation specifically in long term it is very important to respond it
adequately. Tesco was one of the organisations that took right actions to deal
with covid-19 situation. Responses of Tesco are as follows-
Preparedness of Tesco- It is very important that organisations are prepared
in advance in order to deal with future challenges but situation of covid-19
was something that could have been predicted in advanced. In such situation
Tesco was prepared and did not required to change or pivot anything. During
covid-19 Tesco accelerated actions that it was planning to do before covid-19
started and this helped Tesco in effectively dealing with covid-19 crisis.

CONT..
In order to deal with covid-19 situation and help in steer strategy of organisation some of the priorities of Tesco
are as follows-
Safety for all- During covid-19 safety was one of the most important priorities and in its approach to respond
to crisis Tesco ensured that it keeps safety at first priority. Safety for all approach included safety for customers
as well as safety for employees in Tesco. In order to ensure safety for all Tesco worked on maintaining
adequate distance between customers. In addition to this adequate practices were taken to ensure safety inside
stories of Tesco by regularly disinfecting. In addition to this other measures for safety from covid-19 was also
considered so that employees working within Tesco as well as those who are coming to shop at Tesco are safe.
Having strong focus on safety create confidence in customers that they can safely go and shop at Tesco without
significant fear of speeding disease while they go out on shopping. This way Tesco maintained safety as well
as trust of customers on Tesco. In order to ensure safety Tesco had a system that monitored flow of customers
in this store and in this Vin number of customers exceeds the maximum allowed then red light will show.
When it becomes safe for customers to enter store it will show green light. Along with this in order to highlight
safety measures in stores of Tesco, company also filmed an advertisement.

CONT..
Food for all- In covid-19 crisis food became one of the top requirements for everyone and this is why Tesco
focused on providing food to everyone in its respond to covid-19 crisis. Food also became a product that people
were panic buying and this is why it became difficult for Tesco as well to ensure adequate stock for food products
but it focused on its approach of food for all. Panic buying refers to purchase being made by customers more than
they require because due to covid-19 it became difficult for them to shop again frequently. This way Tesco
responded to crisis of covid-19 and ensured it can cope up with challenges created by crisis. Food for all was an
very important element to ensure that customers have trust in Tesco and its services that they will get required food
products at Tesco. This is because at many places food items were out of stock and became a reason for stress for
public in general. Ensuring food for all Tesco also introduced some new practices in which they provided a service
in which one customer could buy for other customers who were in Quarantine or not able to go out and buy
required products. In its respond to covid-19 crisis by food for all the insured having good stock levels and also
increased customers to shop as they normally would shop so that everyone can get products as per their
requirement. In order to support vulnerable customers they asked customers to shop safely in store rather than
online so that online slots for vulnerable customers can remain free. In this respond Tesco give priority access to its
stores to help NHS emergency service and care workers so that they can shop whenever they have time.