Innovation and Enterprise: A Case Study of TESCO

Innovation and enterprise

Introduction

Innovation in a business means improving the existing goods and services in a new way in order to boost sales, improve business strategies, and improve the overall growth of the business. Innovation can be a tangible or intangible process which shall achieve the end goals irrespectively. The improvising of products and services within an enterprise is of great importance as it is directly related to the sales which influences the company dynamics (da Silva Lopes et al., 2019). This presentation will highlight how innovation, knowledge, and skills increase and boost the company dynamics of a retail and grocery business of TESCO.

TESCO is a British multinational groceries and merchandise retail business whose headquarters are located in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen and the annual turnover of TESCO as of 2019 was approximately equal to 6,300 crore (tesco.com).

Task

Research and analysis of the relationship and influence of innovation, knowledge and skills on business practice in an organisation

Innovation is what keeps a business alive. In respect to absence of innovation, the products and services shall experience a decrease in sales. This happens because there are a lot of companies which come up with trendy and captivating products which get the attention of mainstream media and the customers. The multinational businesses like TESCO have to constantly keep on innovating to keep up with the competitors in order to sustain in their market place (Tang and Werner, 2017).

Innovations:

The innovations at retail enterprises are getting a boom and this has been benefitting the customers, retailers and the suppliers. The innovations are usually based around the facts like delivery, e-commerce, in-store experiences, and augmented reality.

A lot of technology and IT companies are providing businesses with innovative technologies like drones for package delivery, logistics that deliver the packages according to the algorithm based on best paths for delivering the couriers fast. There are a lot of companies who use augmented reality which shows an image of how a person might look after wearing a specific product (Anthony, 2017).

Innovation at TESCO:

Just like other successful enterprises, TESCO also believes in innovation and they keep on putting constant efforts in order to innovate and grow. Customers have started to become more health conscience than ever and they are curious about the nutritional facts that they consume. The company has kept this in mind and they have started being transparent about their production strategies and packaging data (theguardian.com, 2019). This is an attempt to sustain the planet and contribute to the green revolution.

The facial recognition technology is being adapted by TESCO which will use the customer data like gender, age, and height in order to suggest them customized products and advertisements. TESCO has also installed digital mirrors that would show how a person might look after wearing their product.

Knowledge:

Innovation is directly dependent on the knowledge of the idea/product that is supposed to be innovated. Without having proper knowledge and market research, innovation shall serve no purpose. Innovation based on the knowledge of the market research, consumer demand, product quality and commercialization help the company successfully grow.

Skills:

Innovations can only be created if there are creative minds behind it. The skills that drive and grow innovations are problem solving ability, creativity, technical and artistic abilities and experience. The companies that strive to innovate need to have a team that is equally efficient with these qualities (Winthrop and McGivney, 2017).

It respects to relationship formulation of knowledge helps to increase the skill set. Thus, it provides the necessary assistance that in accumulation of innovation as well as increment in productivity at Tesco.

Gibbs reflective model

Description

Innovation thinking skills- Innovative thinking skills relate to creative thinking that is mandatory when it comes to innovation and development. These skills can include skills like technical knowledge and problem-solving skills.

Written presentation skills- These types of skills include writing content which is up to the mark and presentable at the same time. Grammar, structure formation, analytical approach are some characteristics that are necessary for presentation.

Critical thinking skills – critical thinking skills include skills related to analytical and rational connection between the proposed idea.

Time management skills – time management skills include completion of the tasks within given timeframe. These skills are very important when it comes to presenting ideas.

The above-mentioned skills reflect the overall ability of the team members that make up a company who can make necessary innovations whenever needed at TESCO. Likewise, the above-mentioned skills shall also help me in both personal and professional aspects of life.

Feeling: As per my personal opinion the application of innovative strategy aids in creation of lucrative productivity along with better brand image of the company. In addition, critical thought process and presentable skill helps to narrate the idea in an expected manner. On the contrary, speaking about my personal skill set, my drawback adheres to time management skill and critical thinking skill. The management and critical thinking skills play a vital role when it comes to producing something innovative which the company like TESCO shall never look over.

Evaluation: The innovation process needs to be done in a strategic manner and this takes a lot of time and efforts. Innovation in any industry has to be done considering the facts like the market demand, the customer needs, knowledge related to the product and the skills that are necessary for making innovative changes. After closely evaluating the sales and innovative strategies used by TESCO, it would be safe to say that the company shall successfully out-grow the competition and sustain the market position.

Analysis: The analysis of the presentation highlights the positive and negative aspects of innovation. The positive aspects include the efforts that TESCO has been putting successfully in order to integrate technology in order to ensure customer satisfaction. The negative side is the sales are not increasing up to the expectations due to saturation in the retail and food market.

Conclusion: The following study has demonstrated how innovation play an important role in growing the overall business of a company like TESCO. In order to make continuous progress in the retail field, the company has to keep striving to be better than the competitors and keep innovating for good.

Action plan:

Table 1: Action plan

Conclusion

The following study has demonstrated how innovation play an important role in growing the overall business of a company like TESCO. Therefore, the presentation has briefly discussed the factors like innovation in retail industry, skills and knowledge necessary for product development. In addition, the Gibbs reflective model has been used as a framework which supports the idea of innovation and enterprise.

Reference List

Anthony, S.D., 2017. The little black book of innovation, with a new preface: how it works, how to do it. Harvard Business Review Press.

da Silva Lopes, T., Casson, M. and Jones, G., 2019. Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: Internalization theory and business history. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(8), pp.1338-1358.

He, J. and Tian, X., 2018. Finance and corporate innovation: A survey. Asia?Pacific Journal of Financial Studies, 47(2), pp.165-212.

Tang, L.M. and Werner, C. eds., 2017. Handbook of the management of creativity and innovation: theory and practice. World Scientific Publishing Company.

tesco.com [Online] Available at : http://www.tesco.com [Accessed on 10^th February, 2021]

tescoplc.com innovation [Online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/innovation/ [Accessed on 10^th February]

theguardian.com tesco-promises-to-ban-brands-that-use-excessive-packaging [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/tesco-promises-to-ban-brands-that-use-excessive-packaging [Accessed on 10th February 2021]

Winthrop, R. and McGivney, E., 2017. Can We Leapfrog? The Potential of Education Innovations to Rapidly Accelerate Progress. Skills for a Changing World. Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution.