Tesco Plc: Jack Cohen's Entrepreneurial Vision, Innovation, and Growth

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Tesco Plc, focusing on its entrepreneurial origins and the contributions of its founder, Jack Cohen. It highlights Cohen's key personality traits such as passion, motivation, optimism, creativity, and risk-taking, which were instrumental in establishing Tesco as a leading multinational retailer. The report discusses how Cohen identified opportunities, fostered innovation through the introduction of Tesco Tea and the establishment of Tesco stores, and built an effective team to drive business growth. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of leadership in entrepreneurship, detailing how Cohen's visionary leadership, team-building skills, and innovative ideas shaped Tesco's expansion and success in the competitive retail market. The analysis underscores Tesco's impact on the economy and society, showcasing Cohen's entrepreneurial spirit and the company's evolution from a market stall to a global brand.

Entrepreneurship
Assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
APPENDIX 1.................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship is the concept of managing and developing the business venture so that
profit can be gained by taking several risk in a corporate world. In simple words, it is a
willingness to start a new venture. An entrepreneur is the individual who starts and run the
business with some limited resources and planning and is also responsible for the rewards and
risk associated with the business. The distinct between the two, that is entrepreneurship and
entrepreneur is that the former is a procedure of starting a new enterprise which is done by
identifying the opportunities and the later initiates the starting of the business and operate it. The
entrepreneur brings the innovation in the market and through their creativity and passion, makes
an impact on the world (Bhatt, Qureshind and Riaz, 2019). Entrepreneurship is all about
innovation and creativity which comes from a different perspective. The entrepreneurs are highly
risk takers as they believe in doing things differently. Their contribution in the society and the
economy is commendable which not only leads them success but also uplift the economy
through their idea. The organisation chosen for this report is Tesco Plc, a leading multinational
organisation dealing in general merchandise retailing and groceries. The company is
headquartered in Welwyn Garden City in England, UK and was established in the year 1919.
This report shall deal with the entrepreneurial organisation, its entrepreneur and the contribution
of the company to the economy and the society.
MAIN BODY
Tesco Plc is a public limited company which was founded by Jack Cohen in the year
1919. This extra ordinary entrepreneur was born in 1898 and was a English grocer who founded
this successful organisation which is a super market chain. In 1924, he created the brand of
Tesco from initials of partner tea supplier, T.E Stockwell.
The entrepreneur of Tesco has many personality traits which makes him distinct from
others which includes firstly the passion. Jack Cohen was passionate about working and really
don't care about earning the money. He believes in following the passion and treat money as
reward from the business. He put extra efforts and long hours in working in order to establish a
brand. Another trait is Motivation. Entrepreneur is dedicated to its work and does not rely on any
other to get their work or task done (Brown, Mawsonand and Mason, 2017). Jack Cohen has his
principle which states that your action must inspire others so that they can dream more and learn

more. Then you must do more and then become more as you are the leader. Third trait is
optimism, which provides to have optimistic approach for the future so that no negative thought
can bring you down. Jack Cohen had a vision which he shared with others and its team
understood the goal behind it. He was goal oriented and he worked hard to achieve the goals as
goal setting is not enough, working hard to achieve goal is important. Another trait is Creativity.
Jack Cohen believes in seeing the things from different perspective and do things by going
outside the box. Business ideas come from creativity and the way people thinks differently. Jack
Cohen has creativity introduced its idea in the market which made a new brand value. Fifth trait
is risk takers. Entrepreneurs do not get scare from taking the risk (Dwivedi and Weerawardena,
2018). Jack Cohen wanted to achieve its goals by taking risk as any business idea undergoes high
risk. He was a strong believer of the fact that the person who fear doing any work is usually the
one who needs it the most.
Entrepreneurs usually discover opportunities by searching for them in the market. They
observe different trends like economic, technological or social trends and then seek opportunity
from it. It is a cognitive process which relies on the person's ability in order to make it recognise
the pattern and connect dots of the pattern. Initially, Jack Cohen started its business idea with a
market stall and slowly become the wholesaler. He was reluctant to return to the tailoring so he
established himself as the market stall holder. Every business is initially grew and then it is
converted into the opportunity. The idea must be such that it has ability to create a value for the
target market and then an entrepreneur emergences the opportunity and take advantage of it
(Jancenelle and et. al., 2017). Jack Cohen implemented its idea by selling groceries from the stall
in London. He used his demob money to buy the stock. One day, he believed in keeping the food
which is affordable in the reach of every person. And from this he thought of taking the
opportunity forward and in the year of 1924, Jack Cohen brought his first brand product which is
Tesco Tea. By selling food on stalls, this entrepreneur recognised the opportunity to build an
empire which is at the reach of every person and which every individual can afford in its daily
living. Then from opening a market stall to bringing a brand product as Tesco Tea, Jack Cohen
brought the first Tesco store in the year 1929 which sells dry food items and Tea.
Innovation is the key to the success of every organisation. It refers to the most effective
process, product and the idea. It can be said that innovation is the implementation of new idea or
improving any service or creating a dynamic product. It acts as a catalyst which helps in growing

the business by adapting the marketplace (Kraus and et. al,, 2018). Every business idea which is
turned into the success is a specie of the innovation which helps the entrepreneur in achieving the
goals of the business. It helps in improving the productivity and increasing the profitability so
that the enterprise can fight competitors and achieve the high market share. Innovation helps in
the increased competitiveness as it results in higher efficiency with the low cost and high quality
goods. Jack Cohen has brought its first product with a brand name of Tesco Tea in the year 1924
which became a success. Then he planned to open a store which could offer Tesco tea and dry
food items which are high in demand. Jack Cohen grabbed this opportunity and brought the store
for food items with a brand name of Tesco which was the first brand name at that time.
Innovation is very important for the business as it helps in solving the problems easily. It
brings creative ideas to solve the problems which generally requires thinking outside the box. In
the time when an individual struggles to get the things done, innovation splay an important role
as it helps in increasing the productivity by uplifting the business (Kuratkoand and Morris,
2018). It can be done by introducing any new product or service or making improvement in the
existing one so that the flaws can be figured out. Innovation also helps in beating the competition
as an innovator can only grow its business effectively and fight the competitor. It just require a
little creativity which will help in designing the product or service and connect with the
customers. Jack Cohen brought innovation in the market by thinking creatively and grabbed the
opportunity to bring the store of dry food items which is always in demand by the customers. He
innovatively thought of opening the store with a brand name which contributed in the success of
the company.
It is very important to have a right team in order to make sure that the start up or the
entrepreneurial venture sustain for a longer time. The entrepreneur just not have to invest time
and money in getting the workforce but it is important to have right people for the job. As
entrepreneur work with futuristic approach so they need such people in their team who are
forward thinkers and innovative to translate their ideas and concepts into the successful business
enterprise. It has to invest in team building as the start ups are generally challenging (Lee and
Rodríguez-Pose 2020). Jack Cohen build the effective team for the success of its venture and
with the choice of right people, it has build the big empire of groceries which is dominating
every market segment in which it has expanded its operations. He initially map the requirements
for the business and architect it into job roles so that multiple departments can be managed

easily. He invested his time and efforts in choosing the right candidate who are from different
perspectives, viewpoint and insights so that better business performance is ensured. It follows the
hierarchical structure which have leaders and managers at each level who guide the entire team
to work in the right direction. He ensured that the people chosen for the effective team are
equally engaged so that they can motivate each other for the enhanced performance (Marvel and
et. al, 2016).
As a leader, Jack Cohen has leaded its team efficiently which has resulted in expanding
the venture into the large organisation. He was focused on development of the entire team by
setting such goals which stretch the ability of the people and develop the team spirit among
them. An entrepreneurial leader is one who keeps the eye on the future and takes such decisions
which bring new opportunities for all. Jack Cohen thinks ahead of the problem and makes its
team think likewise so that solutions can be brought easily.
A successful leader is the one who is a vision builder. He motivates the workforce and
share pictures which have powerful learning so that its team can work with the vision in mind. A
leader is the who who engage in open and honest communication so that it can clearly deliver the
goals and objectives to its team and provide feedbacks, criticism and appreciations. This brings
transparency among the entire team. A leader has to work in day to day operations and wishes to
run it smoothly so that they can fight the obstacles effectively. A leader keeps the positive
attitude so that its team does not feel demotivated. Be it positive or negative situation, the leader
has to keep positive attitude to manage the circumstances so that these situations can be
overcome by all (Madrid, Ahmedand and Kumar, 2019).
In order to become an effective leader, an individual has to be brave to face the
challenges and be ready to answer for the decisions taken to overcome them. It has to win the
trust of its team so that team engagement is ensured. The leader must also be calm enough to
manage the workforce easily and deal with the mistakes of the team in a composed manner. Jack
Cohen in its initial days worked on to build the trust of its team so that they all can mutually deal
with the problems and issues and work towards the growth of the company.
Tesco Plc is a multinational business which deals in the groceries and the general
merchandise retailer. This company is headquartered in Welwyn Garden City in England. Its
entrepreneur is Jack Cohen who founded this company in 1919. the brand name of Tesco first
appeared in 1924 when it brought the Tesco Tea in the market. Then slowly after the success of

the tea, he expanded its business and opened the first store in 1929. through the success of the
store, the entrepreneur bought a piece of land and established the new headquarter and the
warehouse in North London (Yanand and Yan, 2016). It was called the first warehouse of
modern food in the country. He innovatively brought new ideas of stock control which resulted
in giving greater savings to the customers. In the year 1937, Jack Cohen expanded its operations
across the city of London into the neighbouring countries and suburbs. Then through its
innovative idea of self service, Jack Cohen changed the face of the British shopping in the year
1948 and opened the new stores which had mixed reaction of the customers. The company listed
its name in the London stock exchange in the year 1947 as it grew gradually.
The company during the period of 1950s and 1960s, grew organically and owned more
than 500 shops through acquisition. Then in the year of 1958, the first supermarket was opened
by Jack Cohen which included counter service of selling butter, meat and cheese. One thing
common in the growth of this enterprise is that its entrepreneur brought innovative ideas every
time which helped in its success. Again in the year 1960, Jack Cohen moved to clothing and
household at the low prices. Then in 1968, the first superstore was opened in 40000 sq ft and
sold both non food and food items. Then in coming years, the company takeover several super
chains in order to become the market leader and in today's time become the third largest retailer
across the world in terms of gross revenue and 9th largest in terms of net revenues.
The entrepreneur Jack Cohen when became the owner of the stalls, its family members
helped initially in setting up. Jack and his wife worked seven days per week and struggled to
make this business a success. Afterwards when the company grew, non family members were
also added to the contributors of the success of the company (Nambisan and et. al., 2019).
Tesco has commendably contributed to the economy and this contribution has been from
several decades. The entrepreneur of Tesco Jack Cohen began the business with single person
and has now taken this organisation to the new heights. Tesco has been the largest retailer
worldwide. The company contributed to the economy in terms of job creations and currently has
employed more than 45000 employees. Apart from contributing in the nation's economy, the
company has been contributing globally by diversifying its operations and employing people
from diversified field.
Tesco has been contributing in wealth creation as well as it has been earning revenues
worldwide. As per reports, the company has generated £63.911 billion revenue in the year 2019

and has the net income of worth £1320 billions. These figures clearly shows the wealth creation
ODF the company. The company has also pays tax in billions and is the most significant
contributor in UK in terms of tax and contribute to the economy by earning and generating high
revenues from all its diversified operations. The company spends on its suppliers and employees
and contribute in free flow of funds.
The company Tesco has been also investing in the business operations of the UK which
are in majority in the retail sector. It majorly focuses on different range which includes stores,
property and energy efficiency projects. Like this also the company is contributing to the macro
economy of the nation (Singh, 2016).
Tesco has amazingly contributed to the economy in terms of new production innovation
where from the past it was dealing in supermarkets and super chains but due to increased in the
competition and to capture larger market share, the company has recently brought Jacks, which is
its discounted chain where the customer can get cost effective and value oriented shopping.
Through this innovation, it generated employment opportunities for the people and is creating
wealth by attracting the low income people into its target market. This store is named after the
name of the entrepreneur who established this brand Sir jack Cohen.
During the global pandemic, when the businesses and the economy were badly affected
due to Covid 19 emergence, this company Tesco worked to overcome the hardships it faced
during this pandemic. Lock down was imposed in the entire country and in fact in the major part
of the world which leaded to shutting down the firms and even heavy losses were suffered by the
companies (Race, 2019). It can be forecasted that the company had positive impact of the Covid
19 pandemic due to heavy demand of the grocery and food due to lock down imposed in the
nation. But at the same time it faced many survival issues which includes majorly the
competitions. As the demand for the groceries and food items rise during the global pandemic,
the competitors began to develop strategies to attract customers. These may includes discounts
and special offer. So Tesco faced hardship in fighting the competition during this time. The
customers began to purchase from different shops in order to have cost effective products as their
purchasing power decreased.
Another survival issue was supply and maintaining the inventory. During the pandemic,
the major problem faced by Tesco was inappropriate inventory as due to lock down the
transportation was shut down and also the production was stopped. This affected the company as

it was unable to fulfil the demands of the people. The suppliers did not have enough stock to
deliver it to the stores and the import export was also shut down which affected the global
business of the company.
Another survival issue includes purchasing power of the people. As due to pandemic, the
source of income for every person tend to be reduced, it affected the business of Tesco. People
have lost their jobs and they are having no source of income to purchase the products so they are
cutting on their purchase. The people are not even purchasing the products which are their needs
as they have no money to buy (Rigbyand and Ramlogan, 2016). This has affected the company's
selling power. Without demand or the customer, a business cannot survive as they need
customers who can purchase their products.
The offline stores of the company was majorly affected as people were dependent on the
online shopping due to pandemic as they were not allowed to move out of the house. The cost of
maintaining the offline stores affected the operations of the company as they have to pay
electricity and maintenance cost. This has also affected the company and its revenue and the
organisation faced hardship to survive.
Another survival issue is fluctuating market demands. Due to pandemic, people tend to
buy products bulks and keep stock of it which affected the stock ratio of the company. The
company was unable to fulfil the demand of major customers as they did not have enough stock
to fulfil all demands. At one instance, the company limited the number of product to three for
each customer so that it can fulfil the demand of each customers. The company even limited its
products on online platform also so that it can manage its inventory. But in few situations, the
company also failed to make proper inventory plan which become the major survival issue for
the company (Shukla and et. al., 2016).
As company deals in diversified product line, this pandemic increased the demand of
only groceries and food item. The other products like clothing, household, etc. was majorly
affected and has cut down its revenue from these product line. The company is still facing
hardships to overcome the loss from these product line as it is only generating revenue from food
and grocery sector.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that entrepreneurs plays an important role in the
economy as it contributes in the nation through its functioning. Entrepreneurs are the one who
comes up with an innovative idea and establishes the venture. Entrepreneurship is basically the
building a business by undertaking risks. Tesco is a leading company which has been developed
by the entrepreneur through its innovative idea of developing the supermarket in the country in
the year of 1919. The entrepreneur has the personality trait which includes motivation, passion,
creativity and risk taker. As a leader the entrepreneur has to lead the company in a clam and
composed manner and works to build the trust of its team so that it can build a successful empire.
Further it is concluded that entrepreneurs contributes to the economy by generating employment
and wealth. Tesco has been contributing in the economy by by creating job opportunities for the
people and also creates wealth by fulfilling the demands of the customers. It pays tax and
contribute to the public fund which is used for the welfare of the nation. It has faced many
survival issues like increased competition, supply and inventory control, purchasing power of the
people, market fluctuations and many other. Hence it can be said that the company has
contributed to the economy and has been working to overcome the survival issues faced during
pandemic.

REFERENCES
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APPENDICE 1
Organisational Profile of Tesco