Generic and Specific Skills at Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA - Case Study Example

Employability and Consulting Skills and Department al Affiliation Evidence Based Comparative Analysis of Generic and Specific Skills For this segment, the chosen companies in the retail industry are Tesco, Sainsbury, and ASDA. The three companies have presence in London and this makes it easy to access them and gain deeper understanding of their employability stand. I am also interested in working within the London retail industry and these three being among the top fall within my companies of interest. Investigating employability in these three companies is crucial given that in the United Kingdom today, the nature of employment is changing due to concepts such as global competition that is making the UK economy no longer dependent on low-tech products and low-skilled labour. Furthermore, what is considered as a high-skill market in the UK is under challenges from countries such as India and China. With these changes in the market, I understand that I have to be competent beyond the traditional work-based training acquired through apprenticeship frameworks and NVQs and vocational education through GNVQs and applied A-levels and GCSEs. For instance, at Tesco, ASDA, and Sainsbury, acknowledge that employability also encompasses the value of transferability of critical skills standards such that students can understand and easily apply skills learnt in a given context to a totally different one with the aim of improving quality of outcomes and performance. Generic and Specific Skills at Tesco In its capacity, Tesco values work-related learning that has no place in the current curriculum. While working on Tesco’s checkout, a learner is provided with training from the company on skills development in areas such as customer service skills requiring negotiation; advanced oral communication skills, and advanced knowledge of different payment methods such as store, debit, and credit cards, and cheques. In order to support work-related competence, Tesco is among the companies that offer work-related learning outside campus and within their premises. For Tesco, understanding what young people need to involve the commissioning a youth engagement agency Livity that collected insights from youths in the UK. The agency evaluated the views of young people’s future, challenges, career aspirations, and the support they needed and from whom, in order to attain their career goals. Tesco used these findings to open doors the right doors to young people, thus changing their lives for good. Conversely, the findings enabled Tesco to easily find young people with the right employability skills for the sake of fulfilling their jobs satisfactorily, and people with personality skills necessary to work in teams and communicate with others. Generic and Specific Skills at ASDA At ASDA, work related learning presents students with the opportunity to involve in problem solving skills through recognizing the existing employability among young people, and identifying different ways of handling those problems and choosing the best to solve them. Through this program, young people are presented with the opportunity to interact and practice with strategies such as force-field and mind-mapping while that are then practiced classroom-oriented situation. During the program, young people are then presented with real business problems identified by ASDA. Like Tesco, ASDA presents students with customer service issues like how to deliver a better service collection for internal communications and stock control. Through this program, both the employer and the students benefit. For the learners, the program presents the learners with the opportunity to improve communication skills, confidence and team buildings, independence, and attainment of employer expectations. Conversely, employers gain a real understanding of the needs and skills of work experience learners. Additionally, the program offers students with the solution to particular problems for ASDA Company. Besides solving their presented problems, learners are expected to utilize their creativity and initiative to overcome any issue presented to them in their area of study, in future plans, and when managing their lives. However, this does not mean that learners must solve the problems facing them. On the contrary, the learners should have identified the factors that contributed to their success. According to TIR (2014) ASDA goes ahead to invite shoppers to check their courses on employability skills, especially in the busiest stores as a way of learning how to increase their job prospects. The aim of the course is to ensure that the unemployed young people acquire the skills and qualifications required by the employer, thus increasing their opportunity of finding work. Upon getting into the program, young people are enrolled into an induction that is then followed by a complete training. The program is open to everyone who is aged 19 years and above provided they are looking for work. Learners attain qualifications in English, Information Communications Technology, and maths as a way of improving their skills (ASDA Magic Assessment Centre, 2011). Some of the choices pursued in for vocational qualification include Warehouse and Storage, Business and Administration, Carry and Deliver Goods, Fork Lift Truck, and First Aid. ASDA, like Tesco also offers functional skills in mathematics, English, and ICT that provide students with crucial knowledge, understanding, and skills that will enable their confident, independent, and effective operation. Generic and Specific Skills at Sainsbury Sainsbury’s believe that young people must manage to handle uncertainty and positively respond to change, and create and implement new ideas, the company offers work placement for students. The supermarket believes that granting such opportunities to students highly motivates them and enables them to take to the company fresh ideas and thoughts and this could be crucial for a project that is underway (Blundell, 2014). For some of the students who successfully complete the program, placement is granted and they become permanent graduate employees. Sainsbury is interested in students with employability skills such as positive attitude, and relevant industrial training or work placement for high level performance when in the company. Sainsbury like Tesco and ASDA is interested in students who have basic skills in numerical data analysis, communication skills in the production of well-structured and clearly written work such as emails, and reports; and understanding of customer needs, and analysing arising issues while establishing commendable solutions. However, Sainsbury understands that students will not present all these skills upon successful recruitment as permanent employees and leaves room to assist them to gain an awareness of customer issues specific to the company and other business awareness and assisting them to gain self-management skills for high productivity and effective performance. Reflective Analysis of My Own Skills and Skills Gap As the retail industry stores grow and diversify in a fast pace, the emphasis for a personal relationship between the customer and attendants intensifies for differentiation and strong competitive advantage. I understand these needs and have developed a strong culture and a set of values that I observe in my daily life to improve my employability skills. Within the retail industry, I aspire to become a business development specialist charged with the driving of new business to a company using numerous methods and techniques to attract new business through promotions, research, or product development. I will also be expected to conduct focus group testing determine the reception of a new product, take prototypes, facilitate prototype review, and providing the feedback to the reporting team. My strong critical thinking and problem solving skills will complement my research skills to ensure that I effectively plan and conduct beneficial campaigns and customer surveys, and gather necessary findings to support the company’s core business strategies (Rodzalan & Saat, 2012). Accurate research findings and recommendations will be possible since I possess advanced skills in Microsoft Excel. Besides analysing data, I also possess intermediate skills data mining and this will assist in understanding customer interactions to gain business intelligence that will enable the construction of effective customer strategies. For even effective data analysis and data mining, I understand the need to possess relevant skills and knowledge of working with industry leading programs such as SPSS and Minitab. With these skills, I believe that I will stand in a better position to develop strategies to present novel business ideas to the company business partners, while designing common industry-specific benchmarks for business growth (Rodzalan & Saat, 2012). As a business analyst, I also lack the skills and knowledge required to analyse alternative business growth strategies and approaches that could be useful in the establishment of conventional processes required to exploit business effectiveness and competence. Additionally, I lack considerable knowledge of comprehensive business procedures in the retail industry such as inbound logistics that is crucial in the reception, storage, and distribution of incoming commodities for sale. Although, I have basic skills in the tracking of service delivery and customer outcomes in the organization database, I lack the ability to review documentation of all business development sessions with corporate staff. This means that I can easily create and input data into company databases regarding a new client, thus participate in evaluation, analysis, and reporting the credit worthiness of existing and prospective business customers for a customer plan. During my years, I have realized that I possess great independent thinking, creativity, and collaboration, these skills are crucial for successfully working as a business development analyst who has to deal with cross-functional situations. Furthermore, my social skills will become handy in ensuring that I successful engage with diverse individuals, technical communities, and groups within and outside the company (Bailey & McDonald, 2013, p. 215). This will make it possible for me to establish productive relationships with both customers, and within the business through ample communication and a strong spirit of collaboration with all parties. Comparative Analysis of 3 Qualitative Interviews with Employers Retail industry in the United Kingdom is characterized by a strong culture and a set of values. Such strong culture requires retailers to have a very clear vision to boost its interactions with end customers while providing memorable customer experience. While working within the retail industry, ASDA, Tesco, and Sainsbury create job opportunities, and integrate environmental and social programs that assist with the delivery of self-expressive and emotional benefits to customers. As a whole, the UK retail market is responsible for £175bn of retail sales, where drinks and food exports amount for about £19bn of export market in 2013, and food and grocery gave the fastest return to pre-recession outcome levels characterized by 0.7% annual average, as at 2012. Today, the retail market leaders include Tesco with a market share of 28.6%, ASDA at 17.4%, and Sainsbury at 16.5%. Through an interview with three employees each from the three retail stores, it is clear that business managers seek to establish and edge over their rivals as evident from the Porter’s five forces evaluation of each store. Tesco Porter’s Five Forces Threats of Substitution Being the leading store in the UK, the interviewed Tesco manager revealed that the business environment is less risky compared to other industries and this leaves high profit rates (Shales, 2009). However, being a leader does not eliminate the fact that other retail stores such as ASDA and Sainsbury pose the threat of substitutes given their urge to differentiate. As a result, such competition drives grocery prices down for these companies. Consequently, these drive the prices of non-food products to between medium and high. Additional competition for Tesco’s food retail market results from substitutes provided by small chains of convenience stores, organic stores, and off licenses that may not seem like threats since Tesco is renowned for its low priced high quality products. In order to create a hurdle for such substitutes entering the market, Tesco is opening more expresses stores in city centres and local areas (Shales, 2009). However, for the non-food items such as clothing, Tesco poses a threat to Specialty shops given its discounted prices. Threat of New Entry According to the interviewed Tesco manager, strict control and track for cost-price balance is crucial despite the fact that there is little threat from new competitors into the food retail industry. Investing in the retail market in the UK requires huge capital investments to establish a brand name and remain competitive. This makes it hard for new competitors to produce something exceptionally low prices for high quality products and attractive market value. Additionally, Tesco has managed to corner the market for any goods and new supermarkets may not manage to identify inexpensive dependable dealers. Furthermore, Tesco enjoys the advantage of economies of scale as it purchases huge volumes of items, thus lower prices per item compared to supermarkets that purchase smaller volumes that would be more expensive. Competitive Rivalry Direct competitors of Tesco include ASDA, Sainsbury, Waitrose, and Morrisons where competition involves process, promotions, and products. The major competitor is ASDA that has narrowed Tesco’s market leadership position through its increasing market share of about 17.4%. Buyer Power Besides competition, buyers’ power also acts to drive commodity prices down such that if Tesco sells some goods at a high price, consumers move to ASDA or other retailers with lower prices. Tesco users a much disciplined approach to set its prices and avoid destruction due to a profit war. Supplier Power Finally, Tesco faces challenges from suppliers who demand retailers to pay specific prices for their commodities, failure to which they do not receive goods to sell. According to the manager, most of the goods are purchased from domestic suppliers in the UK and others from the European market. However, being a huge supermarket, Tesco dictates the prices they pay for their goods unlike small retailers, and this means control of suppliers regulates prices. ASDA Porter’s Five Forces Presence of Competition According to the interviewed supervisor, the most interesting thing at ASDA is to meet the customer’s needs, and advise new customers. This is a crucial aspect in managing its competitors domestically, both large and small, that offer identical products and services. ASDA being the second leading brand in the UK retail industry has close competition from Tesco and Sainsbury among others. This market positioning is attributed to the fact that the company has a strong brand as a subsidiary of Wal-Mart that a world renowned supply chain, famous for its effective satisfaction of consumer demands. Consequently, ASDA experiences low competitor threats. Furthermore, ASDA works for eight hours each day and covers its staff as a way of motivating them to keep up with the competitive market. Threat of Substitute Products Despite delivering high quality products and services, ASDA is subject to the challenge of substitute products from retailers such as Tesco that offers much better products and services and this raises the ASDA’s substitute product threats to medium. Competitors such as Tesco and Sainsbury are also very technology oriented and use innovative tools to streamline their supply chains, and manage their inventory. This way, ASDA’s market share is negatively affected. ASDA must focus on evaluating any possibilities of substitutes that pose a threat and predict how to avoid additional damage to its own products. Power of Buyer Buyers in the retail market are powerful given the presence of stiff competition that involves the introduction of similar products to the same market. With the presence of 200 employees working in the London store, customer interaction is made unique such that customers of any age receive memorable interactions that deliver to them high quality services and products. Furthermore, consumer’s satisfaction as a result of efficient consumer interaction guarantees attraction of more customers while sustaining the already existing customers in the supermarket. Barriers of Entry The retail industry in the UK presents numerous barriers of entry leaving little or no room for new entrants. Like Tesco, ASDA has little to fear for new entrants given that the retail market requires too much investment considering its sophisticated factors coupled with brand development that requires much time to establish. Furthermore, the new entrants require more than local knowledge for foreign firms. With the assistance of high technology and its acquisition by Wal-Mart, ASDA will probably only encounter a few issues when it comes to market knowledge. In addition, ASDA holds a strong market share through its low price strategy, and this assists in attaining customer loyalty, thus increased profitability. Bargaining Power of Suppliers In London, the power of suppliers is low against ASDA given its large volume deals and its involvement with numerous suppliers, leaving room to switch suppliers on the basis of their costs. This aligns with the company’s strategy to offer low-priced, high quality products to its customers. Sainsbury Porter’s Five Forces Potential Entrant Threats Like Tesco and ASDA, Sainsbury has developed a power due to its efficiency in operations, major marketing-mix, and one-stop shop expenditure (Biz/ed, 2002). This strong barrier to new entrants makes it difficult to raise adequate capital to sustain the pressure of highly sophisticated supply chains, and large fixed costs. Additionally, new entrants cannot manage the differentiation and economies of scale defined by Tesco and ASDA, as they are characterized by operational tactics that are aggressive. Threats of substitutes Substitutes introduce a different business culture, especially where new technology or cost reduction comes into play. For the interviewed store manager, adapting to such changes due to substitutes is a major challenge given that substitutes could result from market leaders such as Tesco and ASDA. Such substitutes limit the profits for Sainsbury while keeping the prices down. However, the supermarket experiences little threats due to new trends given that smaller convenience chains are emerging in the industry are countered by Tesco’s smaller express store in local areas and cities. Supplier Power As one of the largest grocery stores in London, Sainsbury’s fear losing business to larger supermarkets and major grocery chains uses ASDA and Tesco’s leading negotiating power for better prices from suppliers to dictate the prices paid to suppliers (Biz/ed, 2002). Consequently, smaller individual chains have difficulties matching such power and retreat. Furthermore, suppliers who do not accept the prices provided are left switched for others. Buyer power Since buyers in the retail market in the UK have great power to influence prices, Sainsbury uses various techniques to gain customer loyalty. For instance, using loyalty cards, Sainsbury managed to have its customers remain loyal, and easily retainable, while increasing business profitability. Other strategies to attract and retain customers include low commodity prices, providing better options to customers, and constant in-store campaigns. Rivalry Sainsbury’s store manager revealed that the company operates under great values, morals, visions, and intense diversity. Each works towards ensuring that any set budgets and targets are met despite the existing competition between other retail players in the London market. Consequently, this affects the business profitability, and puts pressure on business margins, and prices. In order to reduce rivalry from retailers such as Tesco, the company is diversifying into non-food sector further stiffening the competition. Reflective Paper Feedback from my audience The interviewed personnel hailed from Tesco, Sainsbury, and ASDA and were all in managerial positions. These managers conquered that most graduates taking a masters in business administration (MBA) did not have the right preparation to become restaurant managers. In order to become Restaurant managers, MBA students were also expected to have on-job-training experience. In the past, work experience as a restaurant employee was the main requirement in becoming restaurant manager. However, over the last years, degrees in restaurant management are presented for students who need to move into restaurant leadership positions. Each degree level has a varied program associated. For instance, certificate or associate degree programs earn one a position to lower management positions, while and MBA in restaurant management would increase my readiness to get into corporate management position. However, earning an MBA does not eliminate the need for students to have on-the-job experience. This is because in order to become a manager, one has to start small as hosts, cooks, or wait staff at restaurants such that they could learn all aspects of the food service business. For large food service companies such as Tesco, ASDA, and Sainsbury, their own management programs make it possible to offer company-specific requirements for newly employed MBA students. These programs also offer financial policies and company’s human resources as well as training on outstanding restaurant equipment, menu items, and computer programs. For some food service companies, potential managers are paid to enrol in business through a community education program. As for me, the gaps that exist in my training to become a restaurant manager is the ability to ensure that the restaurant functions profitably and efficiently while sustaining the ethos and reputation of the restaurant. To develop my gap skills, I will require to creatively combine strategic planning with daily management activities such as organizational shift pattern. Work Process of Team (Team Performance) In writing the discussion questions, I was guided by the major areas of differentiation amongst the three competitors. These questions were meant for people in management positions so as to give me a feel of my anticipated restaurant manager position. To interview the managers from Tesco, Sainsbury, and ASDA, team members were divided into three groups each to interview participants from each company. Upon successful completion of the interviews, with the managers, I went ahead to prepare for my presentation. The presentation focused on numerous areas including the qualities of the London retail sector, the different sectors present in the retail industry, and the major leaders in the industry. Up-to this point, the presentation discussed the conditions with the major UK retail industry with no distinction of the specific companies of interest. In order to discuss these companies, my major focus shifted to discussing the results of the interviews conducted with the managers. Narrowing down to Tesco, Sainsbury, and ASDA as the companies of interest was due to the fact that my main aim is to become employed as a food service manager within the food service segment of the retail industry. Being strong rivals in the market, the managers provided identical concerns regarding what excites them and why working in this industry would be appropriate for me too. Bibliography ASDA Magic Assessment Centre, 2011. Case Study: Practical Life Skills for Work. [Online] Available at: http://www.bitc.org.uk/sites/default/files/asda_right_step_casestudynov2011.pdf [Accessed 3 April 2015]. Bailey, J. & McDonald, P., 2013. Young People and Work. Illus ed. United States: Ashgate Publishing. Biz/ed, 2002. Sainsburys Case Study. [Online] Available at: http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/sainsbury/sainsindex.htm?page=show [Accessed 6 April 2015]. Blundell, K., 2014. Employability Skills Development Program for Local Schools, United Kingdom: Dalingtoncares. Rodzalan, S. & Saat, M. M., 2012. The Effects of Industrial Training on Students’ Generic Skills Development. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 56(8), pp. 357-368. Shales, A., 2009. An unpalatable attitude towards food. Financial Times, 14 November, p. 19. TIR, 2014. Asda shoppers check out employability skills course. [Online] Available at: http://www.t-i-r.com/blog/asda-shoppers-check-out-our-employability-skills-course/#.VR-_044QNcs [Accessed 3 April 2015]. Read More