Business Plan: Tesco's Innovative Student Research Platform

This report presents a comprehensive business plan for Tesco Plc, outlining its venture into providing a research and development platform for students. The plan details the industry and business profile, emphasizing innovation and creativity as core components. It describes the proposed product/service, which includes providing resources, technology, and guidance to students. The report analyzes marketing strategies, including both traditional and digital approaches, and explores financial considerations, such as funding sources and cost minimization. It also includes a loan or investment proposal, concluding with a summary of the plan's potential benefits for Tesco and the student researchers. The plan aims to leverage Tesco's market position to foster innovation and gain a competitive edge in the retail sector while also providing opportunities for students.

BUSINESS PLAN

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following report concise the importance of business plan and why it is used by
business. This report also contains the business plan of Tesco Plc entering into a new and
innovative business of providing a platform to students to carry on research on innovative
business and other topics. This report suggest the marketing techniques which company may use
to market its new services. It also shows the investment proposal and the sources from where a
company can raise funds.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PROFILE.........................................................................................................................................1
Industry Profile............................................................................................................................1
Business Profile...........................................................................................................................2
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY..............................................................................................2
PRODUCT/SERVICE.....................................................................................................................3
MARKETING AND FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION................................................................4
Market Considerations.................................................................................................................4
Financial consideration................................................................................................................5
LOAN OR INVESTMENT PROPOSAL........................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business plan is a critical strategic tool required by a company in order to expand its
business or start new venture (Baliga and Rodrigues, 2015). It is is a written document which
contains the business goals, methods through which a business can achieve its goals and time
frame in which a business will achieve its goals. Business plan provides a direction to company
in order to achieve its goal an serves a business as a road map. The following report contains a
business plan of Tesco Plc as it want to expand its business by entering into a new innovative
market. The business plan of Tesco Plc of entering into a new venture to provide the service of
research and development centres to aspiring students from different countries. This report
shows the detailed information about the sources through which it can raise its funds and bring in
the new innovation.
PROFILE
Industry Profile
Retail sector is a business which involves selling or products directly to the consumers, it
also includes the wholesale sector which acts as a suppliers for the retailers, the supply chain or
logistics sector which connects both retailers and wholesalers (Burns and Dewhurst, 2016). In
the recent years the retail sector has changed drastically after the introduction of online selling,
many business has shifted from offline retailing to online retailing which results in the closing of
offline stores. Companies working in the retail sector sells a large variety goods which include
the office supplies, household goods, food and apparels to hardware goods. Due to the increase
in the online retailing the offline retail market of United Kingdom was hit which resulted in the
closure of many retail outlets in order to compete in the digital era these retail sectors have come
up with various promotional activities in order to attract customers to increase its sales and stay
in the competition. The retailers have upgraded their stores and brought some of the innovative
changes which includes the virtual dressing room which will allow its customers to browse for
items. In order to remain in the market the company are improving their supply chain cycle to
make the product available as soon as possible. The retails sector is severely hit by these online
retails.
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Business Profile
Tesco Plc is a third largest British Multinational general merchandise and groceries
retailers in terms of gross revenue and the ninth largest measured in terms of revenue, it is
headquartered in Welwyn, Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. Currently it
has stores in more than seven countries across Europe and Asia, it is a market leader in the
groceries in the Thailand, Hungary, Ireland and the market of United Kingdom. In the year 1919
Jack Cohen founded Tesco as a market stalls. In the year 1924 Cohen purchased the shipment of
tea from T. E. Stockwell and combine the initial with the first two letter of his surname which
gave the company its name TESCO, in 1931 it opened its first shop in Burnt Oak, Barnet, Tesco
expanded its business rapidly by the year 1939 it has approx 100 stores across England. In the
year 1990 Tesco expanded its business globally by starting its operation in 11 other countries. It
also diversified its business in the year 1960 which included the retailing of electronic, clothing,
books, software, petrol, financial services, internet services and telecom services. To reposition
its from being a low cost retailer it designed a new range to attract social group by providing
product which ranged from low cost cost “Tesco value” which provided the valuable goods to
the “Tesco finest” which provided a high variety of products. With the help of this range it grew
its store from 500 to 2500 shops. It listed itself on London Stock Exchange and is a component
of the FTSE 100 Index. Tesco works in both offline store and online format, the total revenue
generate in the year 2018 by Tesco is stated as £57,491 million, it currently employed 460,000
employees. It works in various formats which includes Tesco Extra, these shops are larger and
are located mainly out of town, they are considered as a Hypermarket which stocks almost every
product of Tesco.
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY
Innovation: Innovation is a process in which an idea or innovation is translated into
product or service which creates a value for the customers or for which the customers pay
(Cassidy, 2016). An idea must be converted in a product or service at an economical cost and
satisfy the need of customer.
In above case scenario Tesco Plc wants to expand its business by entering in to a new
market of providing a platform for the research and development program, in this program Tesco
will invite applications from the students of different countries to provide the platform to carry
out their research by providing various necessary equipments to conduct a research. Tesco will
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carry out a survey to take the various ideas for research by different students and will fund those
researches. Tesco has decided to build up a new facility and provide all the resources which are
required in order to conduct the research, this platform will encourage the students to bring new
innovative ideas in to business and other aspects of life such as gaming, studies, providing better
services and etc. company will issue a notice which will invite different applications of research
projects and it will select the project with the help of its qualified professional team to invites
those researchers in to their facility to carry out their research (Hopp and Greene, 2018). This
facility will be equipped with all the latest technology to support the research and will also
provide a virtual integration to check the validity of its research. They have setup their research
facility in the most isolated area which provides the peaceful environment to carry out the
research with the help of the qualified professionals in their perspective area. Tesco wants to
enter into new market of providing services to help students to bring out new, innovative and
creative idea in every field of business. It will help Tesco to innovate its business by
implementing the innovative research in the field of business by providing employment
opportunity to the students who's research company will be implementing in their business. It
will help business to easily implement the strategies to the business as Tesco is the United
Kingdom's third largest retailer, by initiating this research and development program Tesco will
create a number of opportunities for those students who have a creative mind but does not have
proper sources to conduct research and develop those ideas. With the help of this program it will
improve the business and market position of the company as they will implement the new
innovative business ideas in their business.
PRODUCT/SERVICE
In order to carry out this innovative business plan company will provides various services
to the students conducting their research in those facilities (Masutha, and Rogerson, 2015).
Company will set up an in-house supermarket to provide the daily need product to the
researchers. Company will acquire latest technology to support the researches by providing them
artificial intelligence to help the students with their research. It will provide the virtual learning
environment to integrate the business idea to check the authentication of its business idea. The
facility will have all the latest technology and qualified professionals to guide the researchers to
successfully carry out the research, after the completion of the research company will provide the
employment opportunities to those students who research or idea the company has decided to
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adopt and implement in their business. It will also provide the service of taking of a dry run test
for the innovative and creative idea to check it in the real world by providing the various latest
integration software. This research and development facility will provide various areas in which
the students can conduct their research which include business, games, existing products, auto
mobiles and other different areas (McKeever, 2016). This research and development centre will
provide data regarding the past records of the customer trends to analyse the change in the
market and design latest innovation in the existing product range of Tesco in order to improve
its market position. All these data will be recorded in the Tesco's high end server established in
these facilities. Company will provide the team of highly qualified professional to assists the
students in their research programs and develop new ideas in the field of business, studies,
existing product and gaming industry. They can also motivate their students to carry out their
research through which they can improve their online retail and banking sector by providing
resources to conduct research on cyber security and improve its online services. Company will
provide remuneration to the students as per their capabilities and their work.
MARKETING AND FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION
Market Considerations
The marketing strategies followed by Tesco to market its products and services are they
use brand positing in order to position its products as it is the third largest retail superstore in
terms of gross revenue and ninth largest in term of revenue (Pisano, Pironti and Rieple, 2015). In
order to market its new research and development program company can use various methods to
promote it by engaging its customer to avail the service provided by the company it can use
various method such as distributing pamphlets, putting hoardings in side their stores and super
markets, using digital media marketing techniques to market its products. In order to promotes its
new facility company may set up small camps in other countries to attract the applications from
different countries. Company can use both traditional and digital marketing techniques.
Traditional marketing techniques include distributing of pamphlets to its customers shopping in
the stores while they stand and wait at the billing counters. Company can attach the broacher
along with the bills and also put hoarding in their stores to make the customers aware of its new
innovative venture to provide a platform to the students who want to carry out the research. It
can also uses digital marketing techniques by showing its ad to the target customers using
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various digital marketing tools such as SEO, SMO they can show their ads on various social
media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. they can also make their ads
attractive by providing various offers to its member customers. They can also set up camps
distribute its broacher in schools and colleges to spread the awareness about its research and
development centre (Rossano, and et.al., 2016).
Financial consideration
The financial considerations which Tesco should consider while investing its resources in
its new innovative idea of providing a platform to the students to carry out research and create
innovative ideas (Simón-Moya and Revuelto-Taboada, 2016). The financial consideration
include the alternative source of funds which a company should have with it along with its initial
investment as in the case of Tesco Plc it is already a established brand and finding investors for
its new project will be easy for the company it should consider all the consideration before
investing in its new project. Company should minimize its overhead expenses in order to reduce
the cost of production of goods and increase the profit margin. Company should invest its funds
appropriately and maintains its cash reserve for future losses and also keep a track on its
spending. Following is the projected cash flow statement of Tesco Plc:
Statement of Cash Flows
Particulars 2019 2020
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash receipts from customers 34,265.00 36,018.00
Cash paid to suppliers and employees (32,109.00) (32,864.00)
Cash generated from operations 2,156.00 578.00
Interest paid (297.00) (336.00)
Income taxes paid (330.00) (98.00)
Dividends paid (220.00) -
Net cash from operating activities 1,309.00 3,298.00
Cash flows from investing activities
Business acquisitions, net of cash acquired (605.00) -
Purchase of property, plant and technological equipment (385.00) (860.00)
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Proceeds from sale of equipment 77.00 -
Acquisition of land - (1,005.00)
Investment income 440.00 480.00
Net cash used in investing activities (473.00) (1,385.00)
Cash flows from financing activities
Proceeds from issue of share capital 275.00 -
Proceeds from long-term borrowings 275.00 320.00
Payment of long-term borrowings (209.00) (64.00)
Net cash used in financing activities 341.00 256.00
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents 1,177.00 2,169.00
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 176.00 1,353.00
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period 1,353.00 3,522.00
Notes to the Statement of Cash Flows
Cash flows from operating activities
Profit before taxation 4,785.00 1,506.00
Adjustments for: - -
Depreciation 495.00 332.00
Investment income (550.00) (480.00)
Interest expense 440.00 360.00
Profit / (Loss) on the sale of property, plant & equipment (55.00) -
Working capital changes: - -
(Increase) / Decrease in trade and other receivables (550.00) (599.00)
(Increase) / (Decrease) in inventories (495.00) (850.00)
Increase / (Decrease) in trade payables (1,914.00) 309.00
Cash generated from operations 2,156.00 578.00
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LOAN OR INVESTMENT PROPOSAL
1. Description Company wants to start a new venture to build up a research and
development centre to provide the platform to the students who
want to carry on research on new innovative ideas. Company will
set up this plant at a location which can help the students to work
in a peaceful environment. It will also provide a team highly
qualified in their perspective field of study to guide and supports
students. This research facility will be highly equipped with the
latest technology to provide the real time implications of new
business idea to check the authenticity of its plan.
2. Performance Report As Tesco is the UK's third largest company in the term of gross
revenue the total revenue generated in the year 2018 by the
company is £57,491 million, after the implementation of this new
research and development facility it is expected that the company's
revenue will increase by 20% as its is a new initiative which will
help the students to develop new, innovative and creative business
plan in order to improve the company's financial condition.
3. Marketing and Sales
Methods
In order to market its new innovative business plan company can
use both digital and traditional marketing techniques, which
include showing ads to different social media websites such as
Facebook Instagram etc. and in traditional it includes distributing
pamphlets and putting hoarding in its superstores.
4. Business Technical
Operations Management
In order to manage the technical and operational activities of the
research and development facility company will hire a highly
qualified team to assist and guide the students in their research
project.
5. Financing Option Company has various option available with it to raise funds for its
new innovative program. It can raise its funds through long term
debts, bank loans, issue its share capital.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is very important for a company
to draw a business plan as it provides a road map to the business to achieve its business goal
(Toro-Jarrín, Ponce-Jaramillo and Güemes-Castorena, 2016). Form the above it can be
established that it is important for a business to implement new and innovative business
techniques in order to improve its financial position in the market. The above report also states
the various marketing techniques which company uses to promote its new project.
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