Global Strategic Planning Assignment: Case Study of TESCO

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Introduction

Overview of the study

Strategic planning refers to the procedure of setting organisational goals, set priorities and creates operational plans and policies for ensuring that work is done aligning with the business targets to derive common goals. Sound and prudent strategic planning is of huge importance to ensure right resource allocation, effective utilization and successful growth and sustainability. It also can be considered as a control mechanism which provides direction to all the members and serves as a control mechanism for the successful strategic implementation (Baylis, Owens and Smith, 2017). In the current age, corporations focus on the expansion strategies to expand their market share across all over the globe by entry into new geographical market segments. There are various international entry strategies i.e. joint venture, acquisition, establishing subsidiary, strategic alliance, licensing, direct investment and others.

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Tesco Plc is UK’s leading retail business organisation that operates worldwide and aims at delivering the standard quality of products and services. Currently, it is operating in 14 countries of the world and the third largest retailer all over the world after Wal-mart and Carrefour. Huge investment in UK, multi-channel leadership and disciplined global growth are the three top strategic priorities of the business (Hay and Marsh, 2016). Its international growth strategy focuses on meeting the need and expectations of local residents in other nations via joint venture i.e. Charoen Pokphand in Thailand, Samsung Group in South Korea & many others. Such growth strategy helps entity to derive many benefits such as boost sales, profitability, market share, competitive strength and build corporate image across the world (International Strategy of Tesco Plc, 2017). Although, it is considered really beneficial for the companies to survive in the current competitive market place, still, there are number of factors that affect the market entry mode at an international level that needs to be considered by the retailer before entering into emerging economies i.e. BRICS. Currently, it is looking for the proposed expansion in Vietnam as the most suitable country to exploit overseas growth opportunities (Nair, 2014). Therefore, the thrust of the paper is to investigate the factors which influence Tesco’s international expansion strategy in Vietnam. It will also analyse that how different international strategic planning is from the domestic strategic planning.

Statement of the problem

Tesco has gained leading position in the UK retail industry henceforth, now it becomes necessary for the entity to expand their operations overseas to exploit growth opportunities in the global market. Under the worldwide expansion, its current Greenfield investment led to failure which makes it compulsory for the entity to look forward the other entry modes for entering into potential market, Vietnam. It is founded suitable for the proposed global expansion because Vietnam is one of the rapidly growing markets in South East Asia which has huge population of 94,444,200 (Vietnam Population, 2017). Undeveloped grocery sector, storming growth opportunities and government initiatives to improve political and economic reforms allowed foreign investment in the nation (Analysis of Tesco to enter Vietnam Supermarket, 2017). All the factors encourage Tesco to set up their own business in the country and achieve high growth.

Aims and objectives

Aim: To investigate and examine factors that influence international entry mode decisions of Tesco Plc in Vietnam

Objectives:

To explore the concept of strategic planning & its significance for the global expansion
To critically investigate the domestic and international strategic planning of Tesco Plc
To identify factors which influence Tesco Plc’s global market entry strategy in Vietnam
To recommend the best entry strategy for the internationalisation with respect to proposed expansion in Vietnam

Research questions

What is strategic planning and how it helps in expanding business overseas?
Why global strategic planning is more complex than domestic or local strategic planning process?
What are the key factors that have a significant impact on the international expansion of Tesco Plc in Vietnam?
Which will be the best international entry strategy for Tesco for the proposed expansion in Vietnam?

Potential significance of the study

The study will provide great assistance to the scholars who might take interest in exploring the concept of domestic and international strategic planning associated with the globalization of business activities and functions. It will be serves as a secondary resource to the investigators in review of literature. Besides this, companies who are looking for expansion overseas can gain wider knowledge of numerous factors which will assist them in successful entry into new geographical market segment in different areas of the world. It will also present a clear differentiation how global strategic planning is complex compare to domestic strategic planning and enable entrepreneurs in successful growth planning.

Concept of strategic planning and its significance for the international expansion

Looking to the current competitive environment in the corporate sector, all the ventures are highly interested in expansion to grab larger market share and earn more return. Andreu, Claver and Quer (2017), defined strategic planning as a procedure to envisioning future and translate the vision of the establishments into goals and objectives and then create a plan to accomplish the same. It presents a procedure wherein leaders set vision and identify organisational targets and devise strategies that will enable them to reach the stated vision. It aligns ongoing business actions and activities in line with the strategic management for the effective execution. Kraidy (2017),commented that strategic planning is totally distinguish from long-term business planning because later starts with the current organisational status and then design a path to meet the expected future needs. In contrast, strategic planning begins with the vision means desired end and works backward by implementing designed business strategies currently. It is a sequential process which looks towards future needs, analyse current environment and trends and influence forces which will affect it. It comprises various plans such as marketing tactics, growth strategies, human resource development plans and promotional strategies as well. It includes number of business decisions i.e. resource allocation, optimum use, budgeting, new product development and other operational decisions for ensuring sustainable progress.

Reasons why global strategic planning is more complex than domestic strategic planning?

The findings of Cuervo (2016),stated a clear difference between domestic & international strategic planning. Global strategy is important because it present business offerings across international boundaries so that it could garner more profits. It succeeds entity as an international competitor and improve bottom line by supporting operations in distinctive parts of the world. Correct strategic planning is really important for the multinational companies because it is the only way to optimally and effectively utilise business resources i.e. funds, human capital, technology and others to maximize net return. In contrast, domestic strategic planning is refers to the planning for local target market. In this, companies plan for successful operational execution of the business activities in the domestic country. Global strategy helps entity in identifying various growth opportunities exists overseas and exploit the same for strengthening the corporate position. As per the views of Tsang and Yamanoi (2016),although overseas expansion drive advantages of higher sales, exceeding return, strong market share and strengthen competitive position, still, it seems too difficult for the enterprises in comparison to the domestic strategic planning. The study presents that domestic strategic plan focuses only on home market in which small and medium sized organisation aims to grow their geographic reach to their domestic country borders. However, on the contrary side, international strategic planning focuses on penetrating other geographical markets in untapped countries of the globe. Global strategy formulation is too complex due to broader availability of factors in emerging economies. While expanding business globally, it is important for the corporation to analyse external market factors which will affect the business growth i.e. legislations, regulations, consumer preferences, economic environment, technologies and other environmental factors as well. At cross-border operations, such factors may be totally different from that of local economy and necessary to be incorporated in global strategic planning. Besides this, Channon and Jalland (2016),enlightened focus on internal management and implies that local company managers arranges meetings to collaborate and coordinate with each other. However, on the other side, company with existence in foreign market have to make transportation planning such as teleconferencing, web referencing and others. Effective communication between managerial team is important so as to make strategic planning and well-informed decisions. However, on the critical note, Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki (2016), argued that there is only one cultural society in the domestic business whereas company looking for expansion will have to meet the need and preferences of cross-cultural society. It arise cultural challenges which can be managed successfully through adding talented workforce from different locations.