The UK Retail Industry Business Environment - Case Study Example

Kanter (1995:71) on his work of “Mastering Change” argues that success in the present-day business is not for those companies that re-engineer the way they do things, or for those fixing the past. According to Kanter (1995), such an action will not constitute an adequate response. This is so because success is based on an organization’s ability to create, rather than predict the future by developing those products that will literally transform the way the world thinks and view itself and the needs (Kanter 1995:71).

Within the context of today’s global competition, businesses and firms no-longer compete as individual companies but try to corporate with other businesses in their activities (Wu & Chien 2007:2). These researchers went further to argue that, this strategy has become quite common in many businesses including the retail chain stores. The conventional vertical integrated company based business model is gradually being replaced by a collaborative relationship between many fragmented, but complementary and specialized value stars and constellation (Wu & Chien: 1).

In today’s global business environment it is no longer sufficient simply to meet customers demand as time quality and cost have become increasingly important in the phase of increasing competition (Petts 1997:551). According to Higgins (1998:2), “customers don’t always know what they need or even that there is a problem to be solved.” Success awaits those companies that recognize the fact that to be successful and satisfy customers, it is often necessary to lead customers into recognizing these needs (Higgins 1998:2-3).

Against this background, this paper focuses on the United Kingdom (UK) retail industry using certain analytical models such as the five forces, the PESTLE framework and the SWOT analysis. Focusing on this sector has a number of important advantages. Firstly, government regulations and control in this sector are quite strict. In addition, the retail sector represents one of the principal sectors of the UK economy, having one of the biggest employer and biggest multinational in the world TESCO.

In this direction, it is important to look deeper into the industry.