Ten management lessons from Tesco's CEO
This entry was posted in Education, Events, Retail Companies, Retail TrendsIn his opening comments at today's Super Session, Sir Terry Leahy referenced Napoleon Bonaparte's infamous quote "Britain is a nation of shopkeepers." Although the comment wasn't originally intended as a compliment, Britain has indeed become a nation of shopkeepers, with Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury'sexperiencing their heydays in the early 1990s. Since then, Tesco has shot to prominence in the U.K. and around the world. This morning, Leahy, who became the retailer's CEO in 1997 and has earned a bevy of accolades, offered his top 10 management lessons:
Find the truth. Don't just rely on research or past experience. Find out where your company stands now by talking directly to the customer. They will be honest about what's good and bad about your business.- Audacious goals. These can galvanize your organization. Tesco's audacious goals included being the No. 1 retail choice for UK customers, being as strong in nonfood as it it in food, becoming a leader in global retailing and inventing retail services.
- Vision, values and culture. These matter more than any plans, strategies or marketing tactics. Your staff can help you learn what your company's values should be.
- Follow the customer. You're not going to be able to guess what the customer wants. Therefore, you need to stay close to them, observe them and be prepared when you see a change.
- The Steering Wheel. How do you relate big-picture ideas to what your staff, at all levels, works on every day? Tesco has focused on setting specific measures for customers, community, operations, people and finance. Everyone in each part of the circle knows how they relate to the company's overall strategies.
- People, process, systems. This is the process of transforming your plans into the customer experience.
- Lean thinking. Leahy read about how Toyota cleaned up its manufacturing process, and used it as a model for how to make Tesco's business leaner.
- Simple beats complex. Develop a culture of simplicity. Communications was one of Leahy's examples. Tesco turned to the newspaper industry to better understand how to communicate simply.
- Competition is good. Learn from your competitors and don't focus on their faults. Focus on their strengths.
- Leadership. Leahy's favorite definition of this word: A leader takes you further than you would go on your own.
In addition to Leahy's insightful management lessons, he offered the audience six drivers of growth as we emerge from the recession. First and foremost, customers will gravitate toward brands they trust. Second,information is vital. Customers now know a lot more about your business and vice versa, so make sure your company is transparent. Third, health is big. Customers want products that will help them live longer and look better doing it. Fourth, customers crave convenience more than ever. Rather than doing a weekly well-planned shopping trip, customers are popping into stores whenever they can fit it into their busy days. Fifth, what problems can you solve for your customers? Simplicity is key, both as a goal for your business and your customers. Finally, climate change is a major driver. There are business opportunities for retailers who can offer low-carbon products and living for consumers.
Jan 15, 2010
Services and Indian Companies
Providing excellent Customer Service somehow does not come well to our Indian organisations (thanks to the controlled economic env. post Independence). Practically every company ignores nuances of customer service and they do not seem to learn from their mistakes.
It is an ocean of change for anyone who lived in the west, to get customer services from Indian companies. Be it for Telecom, Banks, Insurance companies to Private Omni Bus operators and Retail (Organised), there is a sense of callousness in custom services.
It is ironic that MNC companies coming to India also by and large provide Lip service to superiour customer service and sometimes get worse than their Indian counterparts.
Why can't the "C" suite be a direct customer to their own services, see how pathetic it is, spend 10 - 15% time to improve their customer facing business processes and better their bottomline.
More on this soon...
It is an ocean of change for anyone who lived in the west, to get customer services from Indian companies. Be it for Telecom, Banks, Insurance companies to Private Omni Bus operators and Retail (Organised), there is a sense of callousness in custom services.
It is ironic that MNC companies coming to India also by and large provide Lip service to superiour customer service and sometimes get worse than their Indian counterparts.
Why can't the "C" suite be a direct customer to their own services, see how pathetic it is, spend 10 - 15% time to improve their customer facing business processes and better their bottomline.
How China creates Positive impact in India
Tired of reading on BRIC nations, ChIndia and China vs India! Here is an alternative perspective.
We as a nation had high level of Inferiority Complex (thanks to the planned action by British during their colonial rule). We never thought we could develop well (thanks to Nehru's narrow vision and short sightedness of most rulers from Congress Party.
We never compared ourselves with West (USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan and other countries in EU) and thought we could never get anywhere nearer to them.
Suddenly China (which we consider at par with us or a credible competitor - though we are diametrically apart in many ways) started growing and we started taking notice and started acting (albeit a decade later). Now-a-days it has become customary for many Indian Leader (Central ministers, Planners, State CMs & Ministers, Business Leaders, IAS officials) to visit China, study their growth and try to pick-up a couple of leaves.
Also we have gradually started bench-marking ourselves with China for practically everything and some examples are GDP Growth, Infrastructure, Investment, Technology upgradation, High-speed railway.
Also this has made us to think on growth at 10+% level against earlier satisfactory level of 3 to 5%. This is a very good sign of healthy competition. We need to find ways to sustain this momentum and have a target to better China in meaningful areas (certainly not in quality and pollution).
More... in the next few weeks
We as a nation had high level of Inferiority Complex (thanks to the planned action by British during their colonial rule). We never thought we could develop well (thanks to Nehru's narrow vision and short sightedness of most rulers from Congress Party.
We never compared ourselves with West (USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan and other countries in EU) and thought we could never get anywhere nearer to them.
Suddenly China (which we consider at par with us or a credible competitor - though we are diametrically apart in many ways) started growing and we started taking notice and started acting (albeit a decade later). Now-a-days it has become customary for many Indian Leader (Central ministers, Planners, State CMs & Ministers, Business Leaders, IAS officials) to visit China, study their growth and try to pick-up a couple of leaves.
Also we have gradually started bench-marking ourselves with China for practically everything and some examples are GDP Growth, Infrastructure, Investment, Technology upgradation, High-speed railway.
Also this has made us to think on growth at 10+% level against earlier satisfactory level of 3 to 5%. This is a very good sign of healthy competition. We need to find ways to sustain this momentum and have a target to better China in meaningful areas (certainly not in quality and pollution).
More... in the next few weeks
Hindu Calendar
We use Gregorian calendar extensively in our life and for younger generation (who has less exposure to Hindu Calendar) it is a challenge as we use Computers in day to day life.
I suggest Indian government consider developing an Indian Calendar with NIC or other agencies and make it open source for others to tweak (based on their own method of calculations), Regional Versions (Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Rajastani, Sanskrit, etc) make additions and port it in various OS.
This would be of great help for younger generation of Indians and also have continuance of Indian Systems and Values.
This could also be done by a set of colleges joining together and be released in six months.
Some of the most important aspects to be covered are:
a) Name of the Year
b) Star, Tidhi, Guligan
c) Raghu Kalam, Yamagandam
d) Festivals General & Temple celebrations
e) Good Time
f) Eclipse Timings
g) Horoscope based on location
h) Sunrise & Sunset
etc. etc.
Hope to see a well developed calendar that is synchronised with OS, by 2011.
Thuglak - 40th Anniversary in Chennai
I attended the meeting and as usual it was spectacular. The meeting started at 6.30 PM and ended at 9.20 PM. The auditorium (Kamarajar Arangam ~ 1700 seats) was full and another 1000 spread around Lobby, Steps and Walkways.
I guess this is the only meeting where the auditorium gets full atleast 60 minutes before the commencement of the show.
Along with introduction of the staff, Cho offered them great titles (to mock Karunanidhi). About twelve readers shot their questions and Cho answered them.
Later the following eminent speakers were called to speak:
a) K M. Vijayan - Senior Advocate - Chennai Highcourt on the state of Judiciary in India and Tamilnadu
b) Murugan - IAS - Retired - on the state of Administration in Tamilnadu
c) S. Gurumurthy - Chartered Accountant, Economist, Corporate Advisor and Nationalist (www.gurumurthy.net) - on Global Economics and how India is insulated
d) P Karuppaiah - Writer and Political Leader - on political situation in Tamilnadu
Cho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Ramaswamy) did a brief speech in the end and concluded that the present government has miserably failed in all fronts and the only alternative is AIADMK led by Jayalalitha.
I guess this is the only meeting where the auditorium gets full atleast 60 minutes before the commencement of the show.
Along with introduction of the staff, Cho offered them great titles (to mock Karunanidhi). About twelve readers shot their questions and Cho answered them.
Later the following eminent speakers were called to speak:
a) K M. Vijayan - Senior Advocate - Chennai Highcourt on the state of Judiciary in India and Tamilnadu
b) Murugan - IAS - Retired - on the state of Administration in Tamilnadu
c) S. Gurumurthy - Chartered Accountant, Economist, Corporate Advisor and Nationalist (www.gurumurthy.net) - on Global Economics and how India is insulated
d) P Karuppaiah - Writer and Political Leader - on political situation in Tamilnadu
Cho (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Ramaswamy) did a brief speech in the end and concluded that the present government has miserably failed in all fronts and the only alternative is AIADMK led by Jayalalitha.
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