Tesco in Japan and Asian markets Tesco decided to bring together a team of Asian managers who would visit and examine Tesco’s operations in the UK. As Tesco in-siders, they would be familiar with the company’s mission, values, processes, and procedures and thus would be able to feel at home in the store context; as outsiders in the UK, they could see things differently from the British managers, thereby bringing valuable home-country insights and sharing best practices that had evolved in their local markets. The project, “The Essence of Tesco,” had a two-pronged strategic purpose: (1) to determine what was and wasn’t working by conducting a health-check of Tesco UK’s current corporate state; and (2) to compare and contrast that state with what had evolved in Tesco’s Asian subsidiaries so as to learn from and leverage them globally. Tesco chose nine managers from six of its Asian subsidiaries: two each from Thailand, South Korea, and China—its largest Asian markets—and one each from Malaysia, Japan, and India. It brought this Asian project team to the UK; trained its members in skills needed to observe and make sense of organizational behavior, values, and assumptions (a kind of corporate ethnography); and deployed them for a three-month period to observe and work in 52 stores across the UK and Ireland. The task of helping Tesco reinvigorate home operations was not easy; nor was it easy to find nine managers who could leave their jobs for an extended three- month period. In the end, the main criteria stipulated that team members had to have worked for Tesco for at least three years, have a working knowledge of English, and be store-level employees rather than country-level managers. The team was also assessed on various cultural adaptability skills needed to get by in a foreign environment, such as flexibility and openness, emotional resilience, and personal autonomy. Three of the project team members were completely bilingual, having lived extensively in English-speaking environments; in fact, one had actually studied in England and thus had a deep cultural knowledge of the UK. These three proved helpful to the team, especially with such practical things as opening bank accounts, navigating the public transportation system, setting up mobile phone contacts, shopping, and the like. The others had varying degrees of cross-cultural exposure and competencies in the English language. All were from collectivist, high-context cultures, a fact that allowed teamwork to emerge quite naturally and ensured that the team would pay attention to unarticulated details—factors that proved invaluable for seeing things in the stores that others from low-context countries might not notice. Team members’ natural perceptual ability helped ensure that they would be able to act as organizational bridges between their home subsidiaries and Tesco UK. This journey of nine Asian Tesco managers across the United Kingdom took place at a time when many British cities were shaken by riots and store looting. Still, the team compiled many pages of observations to use in creating their analysis. Their exposure to British culture was intense on many levels. Two of them were locked in a Liverpool store during a riot and, though frightened, were impressed by the store managers’ calm manner to handle the situation. The day-to-day experiences, though less exciting, were also very informative and gave rise to many comparisons and contrasts in implementing such core company values as customer focus in the UK and the home countries. Discuss the cultural issues faced by Tesco in the Irish market You must utilize Hofstede Dimension to first assess Ireland with consideration of the products and services offered by Tesco and state what challenges were faced by Tesco in the Irish market. This must be linked to the relevant ethical issue as discussed in the course when addressing each challenge faced. Provide suggestions to alleviate each of the issues faced. N.B. Challenges were briefly mentioned in the case, you are to expand on these and make suggestions for the aspects not addressed.
Tesco in Japan and Asian markets
Tesco decided to bring together a team of Asian managers who would visit and examine Tesco’s operations in the UK. As Tesco in-siders, they would be familiar with the company’s mission, values, processes, and procedures and thus would be able to feel at home in the store context; as outsiders in the UK, they could see things differently from the British managers, thereby bringing valuable home-country insights and sharing best practices that had evolved in their local markets. The project, “The Essence of Tesco,” had a two-pronged strategic purpose: (1) to determine what was and wasn’t working by conducting a health-check of Tesco UK’s current corporate state; and (2) to compare and contrast that state with what had evolved in Tesco’s Asian subsidiaries so as to learn from and leverage them globally. Tesco chose nine managers from six of its Asian subsidiaries: two each from Thailand, South Korea, and China—its largest Asian markets—and one each from Malaysia, Japan, and India. It brought this Asian project team to the UK; trained its members in skills needed to observe and make sense of organizational behavior, values, and assumptions (a kind of corporate ethnography); and deployed them for a three-month period to observe and work in 52 stores across the UK and Ireland. The task of helping Tesco reinvigorate home operations was not easy; nor was it easy to find nine managers who could leave their jobs for an extended three- month period. In the end, the main criteria stipulated that team members had to have worked for Tesco for at least three years, have a working knowledge of English, and be store-level employees rather than country-level managers. The team was also assessed on various cultural adaptability skills needed to get by in a foreign environment, such as flexibility and openness, emotional resilience, and personal autonomy. Three of the project team members were completely bilingual, having lived extensively in English-speaking environments; in fact, one had actually studied in England and thus had a deep cultural knowledge of the UK. These three proved helpful to the team, especially with such practical things as opening bank accounts, navigating the public transportation system, setting up mobile phone contacts, shopping, and the like. The others had varying degrees of cross-cultural exposure and competencies in the English language. All were from collectivist, high-context cultures, a fact that allowed teamwork to emerge quite naturally and ensured that the team would pay attention to unarticulated details—factors that proved invaluable for seeing things in the stores that others from low-context countries might not notice. Team members’ natural perceptual ability helped ensure that they would be able to act as organizational bridges between their home subsidiaries and Tesco UK. This journey of nine Asian Tesco managers across the United Kingdom took place at a time when many British cities were shaken by riots and store looting. Still, the team compiled many pages of observations to use in creating their analysis. Their exposure to British culture was intense on many levels. Two of them were locked in a Liverpool store during a riot and, though frightened, were impressed by the store managers’ calm manner to handle the situation. The day-to-day experiences, though less exciting, were also very informative and gave rise to many comparisons and contrasts in implementing such core company values as customer focus in the UK and the home countries.
Discuss the cultural issues faced by Tesco in the Irish market
- You must utilize Hofstede Dimension to first assess Ireland with consideration of the products and services offered by Tesco and state what challenges were faced by Tesco in the Irish market. This must be linked to the relevant ethical issue as discussed in the course when addressing each challenge faced. Provide suggestions to alleviate each of the issues faced. N.B. Challenges were briefly mentioned in the case, you are to expand on these and make suggestions for the aspects not addressed.
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