Helping a 400,000 person icon become greater than the sum of its parts
Bitmap
97%
of colleagues inspired by core purpose
33%
share price jump since strategy launch
Tesco commits to net zero emissions from its supply chain and products by 2050

Over two decades Tesco had become much more than a UK retailer. With retail presence in Central Europe, a mobile phone business, a bank, and the UK’s largest fuel business - Tesco’s new CEO faced a unique challenge. How to create meaningful growth in a £60bn business - whilst facing into significant competitive pressure and market disruption? And at the same time restore belief and bravery in a culture scarred by an accounting scandal and several exits from businesses that were deemed to have failed. The answer? A strategy that leveraged the power of the group, a step-change in purpose, and a high impact plan to mobilise teams and shift performance - top to bottom. 

Our Approach
  1. Creating a credible investment case
    2. After meeting investors and customers, reframing performance data and lifting the lid on the future of the food supply chain, the exec sweated a challenging but credible path to doubling the share price. They also war-gamed the actions a new owner would take - and grew their collective ambition around not just growth, but a cost plan that would release the fuel needed to invest.
  2. Real rights to win
    3. Operating at such scale and across so many businesses the team had a long list of things that give Tesco advantage - but we helped them get laser sharp on the three that would help the group win vs all-comers, and the benefits of these real rights to win to both society at large and Tesco’s performance.
  3. The crazy 8
    4. To get past incremental thinking on growth we used a process of expansive idea generation coupled with entrepreneurial business casing to long list every possible opportunity - and eventually get down to a short list of specific commercial opportunities.
  4. Stretching our purpose
    5. The strategy provoked the exec to challenge and stretch their purpose - the team agreed to put the planet and communities at the heart of it. And subsequently were the first retailer to commit to Net Zero across Scope 3 by 2050.
  5. Landing a simple, compelling articulation
    6. We got the Top 50 deeply engaged in the exec’s work and then worked with them as agile squads to take the strategic priorities to the next level of execution detail. This meant a final phased 3 year plan - down to potential impact on share price - was landed in just 6 weeks, and owned by those who would lead its execution.
Group 137 Tesco case study 3
This is us home Ken Murphy
"I can’t think of a moment in my career where I have seen a set of plans more aligned or a leadership team more aligned. It is impressive. Very impressive."
Ken Murphy, Tesco CEO