Tesco's Strategic Project Plan: Improving Business Performance

This report investigates Tesco's current business performance and identifies key operational areas for improvement, focusing on the implementation of big data analytics. It evaluates the potential of radical change and continuous improvement methodologies, proposing a project plan with tasks, timelines, dependencies, and resources using MS Project. The report also addresses potential risks and mitigation strategies, culminating in a detailed project plan that analyzes the impact of the proposed changes on the organization, including costs, benefits, and timelines. The analysis considers the evolving retail landscape, particularly the emergence of "Consumer 2.0," and how Tesco can leverage big data to enhance decision-making, reduce costs, and develop new products and services.

IMPROVING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Investigate your chosen organisation to evaluate how it is currently performing and identify
three operational areas that require change.................................................................................4
From the changes that you have identified, select one change that you want to make...............4
Decide upon the approach you will take to manage and implement the change by putting
forward a case for using both Radical Change and Continuous Improvement as the means for
delivering the required improvements for the organisation, identifying the benefits and
disadvantages of using each method............................................................................................6
Produce a draft Project Plan using MS Project, identifying all the tasks, timescales,
dependencies, and resources that are required to implement the change....................................7
Identify the potential risks to the successful implementation of your Project Plan, and what
you would do to mitigate these risks.........................................................................................13
Produce a final detailed Project Plan using MS Project, taking account of changes you have
had to make as a result of your risk analysis, including an analysis of the impact of your
proposed change on the organisation, identifying the costs, benefits and timescales as
calculated by MS Project...........................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Reference List............................................................................................................................19
Appendix....................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
Tesco is one of the largest retailers in the world. The company, founded in 1919 and
headquartered in the UK operates in seven countries currently including the UK, Ireland, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Thailand, India and Malaysia. It is the market leader in the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Thailand and Hungary. Tesco provides services across a range of industries. The
company has an extensive product line that includes books, stationery, apparel, electronics and
electrical appliances, furniture and software among many others. Apart from retail, the company
operates its own banking and insurance services. Further, Tesco also provides mobile
telecommunication services. Their financial services and telecommunication services are
provided through specialised subsidiaries named Tesco Bank and Tesco Mobile respectively.
The company generated a revenue in excess of £55 billion and had an operational profit of
£1,017 million in 2017. Thus, Tesco is one of the world’s premier retail giants and is suited
perfectly for the purposes of this assignment.
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Investigate your chosen organisation to evaluate how it is currently performing and identify three
operational areas that require change.
The primary area of focus of Tesco is the retail sector. It is the third largest retailer in the whole
world and generates a net profit of over £ 1 billion. The company is the market leader in the
retail sector in a number of countries including the United Kingdom. However, the retail market
is characterised by fast changing consumer preferences and hyper-competitiveness. Thus, for the
company to continue their market dominance, Tesco must address the changes in the retail
industry of today and update their operational practices accordingly. Three key changes in the
retail industry that are important for organisations such as Tesco to address have been described
below:
Consumer 2.0
The significant number of consumers today are more informed about the products they are
purchasing and the organisations selling them. These consumers have been dubbed the
“Consumer 2.0”. The changes in their behaviour are mostly attributed to their ease of access to
the internet and gathering information regarding the products and services offered by an
organisation. Unlike the previous generations, Consumer 2.0s are generally less trusting of the
company’s stance on the product and instead focus on the perspectives of fellow users of the
product and services. They are also more likely to purchase products and services online and are
less reliant on advertisements and promotional materials and more on recommendations from
their family or friends. A significant number of large retailers have faced difficulties dealing with
these consumers and as a result have faced decreasing sales, including Tesco. The areas of
operations Tesco needs to address to deal with Consumer 2.0s are related to changing their
advertising models from traditional media to new media sources. The company should shift its
focus on advertising offline and
Big Data and Analytics
Mass personalisation
From the changes that you have identified, select one change that you want to make.
Nowadays most of the company uses big data analytics in order to bring out the hidden patterns
and uncover a new range of the business that is being carried out by the organization. In the
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modern era of globalization, it has become very easy to analyse the various data of the company
and they can also derive answers from it almost immediately. The big data analytics is used by
the companies from a long time back. Most of the companies understand it worth as they k now
if they analyze the data of the company, then they can derive various useful and significant
values from it. However, from a very long time, even before the term big data was introduced,
companies used basic analysis in order to develop them and reveal various trends and techniques
that helps to develop the company as a whole. There are various benefits of using big data
analytics. They are basically speed and efficiency (Zakir et al., 2015). It can be said that in olden
days, the company would use this analysis to gather data that could be useful for the future,
however, nowadays, companies can use big data analytics and they can use this analysis for
immediate implementation. It can also be said that with the help of big data analytic, the
company can work faster and effectively and they can also stay agile, and as a result they can
stay on a very competitive edge, which they could not do before.
With the help of big data analytics, the company can analyze their data and as a result, they can
use it for the development and identification of new opportunities. As a result of big data
analytics, the business is done in a very effective and strategic manner; eventually the company
can generate more profit and make their customers happy (Aggarwal et al., 2018). As a result of
big data analytics, the following takes place:
Better and faster decision making: With the help of big data analytics, the company can focus
on developing the new sources of data. This in turn helps the company to make better decision
within a short span of time.
Reduction of cost: With the help of big data analytics, the company is able to reduce the cost of
the services and products to a great extent. It is done because it helps to store a large amount of
data and as a result helps in the reduction of cost.
New products and services: With the help of big data analytics, the company can focus on
various needs and desires of the customers and get acquainted with satisfying the customers. As
a result of this, the company can develop various new products and services and with the help of
this they aim at meeting the demands and needs of the customers.
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Big data analytics can be done not just with the help of a single technology. It uses various
technologies to get the big data analytic done. These technologies are:
Data Management: In order to analyze the data, it is essential to make sure that the data is of
high quality and well governed. The data flows in and out of the company in a continuous
manner. As a result, it is important to establish a repeated process in order to maintain the
standard of the data flow that is to be analyzed (García et al., 2016).
Data Mining: With the help of this particular process, all the relevant data can be analyzed in a
proper manner in order to discover various patterns within the data. With the help of this
particular analysis, various complex business questions can be answered easily and effectively.
Decide upon the approach you will take to manage and implement the change by putting forward a
case for using both Radical Change and Continuous Improvement as the means for delivering the
required improvements for the organisation, identifying the benefits and disadvantages of using
each method.
There are times when the company may come face to face with the need to develop various need
for fundamental changes within the organization. These changes are generally accepted from the
traditional forms of the company. It includes the various needs to change within the company.
These changes may include changes in the norms of the company, the laws, rules and regulations
of the company might also encounter changes. It could also include changes in the profitability
of the company and as a result the way in which the company reacts to these changes might be
called radical changes (Tukker et al., 2017). However, on the other hand, continuous
improvement within the premises of an organization refers to the development of various new
opportunities that may help the company as a whole. It helps the company to develop and as a
result it helps the company to meet with the various aims and objectives that the company has set
up for them. With the help of continuous improvements, the company can also reduce their cost
process and as a result they can generate more profits that help the company in the long run. It
can be said that with the help of continuous improvements, the company can develop the quality
of their services and products and alongside they can also enhance the safety of the employees.
There are various benefits and drawbacks that are related to both the radical changes as well as
continuous improvements. Radical changes are the change that brings about a drastic change in
the workplace and as a result of this the company can develop and grow as a whole (Bleith et al.,
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2016). These changes benefit the company as they force the company to enhance new ideas and
developments and as a result the company is benefitted in a various ways. However, these radical
changes have certain drawbacks that are related to the starting of the changes. The difficulty is
often faced while selecting the new ideas and developing the same as a whole. The knowledge
and skill required for the selection and implementation of these ideas could be a difficult task for
the organization. Continuous improvement helps the company to gain a great deal of success.
With the help of this the employees of the organization are also helped in a variety of ways. They
realize their work profile and as a result they can carry out their duties properly.
Recommendations have been provided to Tesco, so that they can improve further in those areas
where risks have been identified. According to the researchers, continuous improvement can be
selected in order to improve. Continuous improvement is a process which helps to improve the
products and services or any process of any business organization. In this method, the
improvement occurs all at once and this will have a huge positive impact on the business
organization. In this process, a proper planning is done in order to identify the opportunity and
then the change has to be implemented within the business organization. The data will have to be
used to analyse the outcome of the changes occurred and it also helps to determine whether the
process is effective or not. If the change becomes successful, then it has to be implemented on a
wide range and the outcome of this change has to be accessed continuously by the organization.
On the other hand, if the change is not effective, then the cycle has to be started from the very
beginning. Kaizen is a type of continuous improvement approach. This is a long term approach
which works in a continue process and helps business organizations to increase the efficiency
and the quality of the organization.
Produce a draft Project Plan using MS Project, identifying all the tasks, timescales, dependencies,
and resources that are required to implement the change.
A number of factors must be considered when implementing a project of this magnitude. Big
Data Analytics are an immensely powerful tool but should be used with caution. The project
manager must evaluate the needs of the organisation and plan the project accordingly. The key
factors that must be paid attention to are:
 Setting clear objectives
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This would ensure that the project is focused and the steps taken to complete it are in
accordance with the stated objectives. A clear objective ensures that resources are not
wasted and that the work done for the project is beneficial.
 Gaining approval from all concerned stakeholders.
It is pertinent for any given project that it has all the necessary support from all the
concerned stakeholders. A project of this scale required significant funds and an approval
from the stakeholders would ensure that the project will not be compromised for any
financial or resource-based restraints.
 Identifying and gathering the data clusters that need to be analysed with big data analysis
tools.
It must first be identified what data clusters are needed for analysis by Tesco. The data
must also be formatted into appropriate sets that make it easier for the systems to analyse
the data.
 Evaluating the data sets that are relevant to Tesco from the ones that are irrelevant.
Big data analysis can be a very useful tool, but it must be ensured that the system is fed
appropriate data sets to process. Tesco accumulates an abundance of data, but it must be
ensured that the useful data sets are utilised for this purpose.
 Building an effective project team.
The success of the project is inherently dependent on the competence of the project team.
Thus, it is pertinent that an effective team is built to conduct the tasks associated with the
project.
 Making the project scalable.
The data analytics industry is expected to grow at an incredible pace in the coming years.
Thus, it is important for the project to be made scalable, which would ensure that the
systems can easily be augmented in the future.
 Linking relevant data to customer life cycle and organisational processes.
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The objective of the project is to benefit Tesco from the analysis of the accumulated data.
The key areas of focus for the company should be on linking the data sets to the life cycle
of a certain consumer and the organisational processes of that affect them.
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Draft Project Plan:
Sl.
No.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Budget
Allocation
Implementing Big Data and
Analytics systems at Tesco
headquarters
90 7/05/2018 £ 120,000
1.0 Planning Phase 21 £ 6,000
1.1 Evaluating the required data clusters
to be analysed
4
1.2 Setting the objectives of the project 3
1.3 Assessing project requirements 2
1.4 Discussing project scope and
benefits with key stakeholders
1
1.5 Establishing project milestones 2
1.6 Identifying and assessing risks 4
1.7 Initial budget and resource
allocation plan preparation
5
2.0 Execution Phase 63 £ 110,000
2.1 Phase 1 25 £ 70,000
2.1.1 Hiring skilled workers and
engineers to construct the project
team
12 £ 20, 000
2.1.2 Explaining the objectives and scope
of the project to team members
4
2.1.3 Preparing a finalised list of
requirements
2
2.1.4 Contracting suppliers for equipment
and resource procurement
3
2.1.5 Purchasing the required materials
and equipment from suppliers
4 £ 50,000
2.2 Phase 2 20 £ 25,000
2.2.1 Installing the systems in the
proposed locations
14 £ 10,000
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2.2.2 Setting up the systems for operation 6 £ 15,000
2.3 Phase 3 18 £ 15,000
2.3.1 Testing the installed systems for
bugs/ glitches or any discrepancies
6 £ 5,000
2.3.2 Troubleshooting any discrepancies 12 £ 10,000
3.0 Conclusion 6 £ 4,000
3.1 Evaluating the success of the project
against the initial objectives
4 £ 2,000
3.2 Presenting the findings to the key
stakeholders of the project.
2 £ 2,000
The project will mainly be implemented in three phases, which consist of planning the project,
executing the project and finally concluding the project.
The planning phase consists of evaluating the data that needs to be analysed and setting up
objectives for the overall project. The requirements of the project are assessed against the
objectives and a budget and resource allocation plan is prepared. An initial risk analysis is also
performed the project scope and benefits are discussed with the project stakeholders. The total
budget allocated for this segment of the project is £ 6,000.
The first phase in the execution of the project consists of hiring a competent project team. The
hiring process will be conducted over 12 days. This will cost £ 20,000. The new hires are then
explained the scope of the project are allotted their individual responsibilities. A final list of
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requirements is constructed next and then the suppliers are contacted for procuring the required
materials. The materials are purchased next for an estimated £ 50,000 and the project moves on
to the next phase. The second phase of the project consists of installing the systems in the
proposed locations and setting up the systems, which are estimated to cost £25,000 combined.
The next phase consists of checking the systems for any bugs and fixing them. The total budget
allocated for this segment of the project is £ 110,000.
The concluding part of the project evaluates the success of the overall project and the findings of
the evaluation are presented to the project stakeholders for an estimated £ 4,000.
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