Three Things We Can We Learn From Tesco

What can we learn from Tesco?

As my recent blog about the Apple store hopefully showed, you can learn valuable lessons from companies that aren’t in your market. Plus, whether you’re a huge corporate or an SME, if you take your eye off the ball, you could be paying for it for a long time to come.

Here are my three key takeaways from Tesco’s recent issues:

1. Focus

While it’s natural for a business like Tesco to want to expand its business internationally, after leading the UK market for some years, it seemingly ignored this core market to focus on the U.S and Asia. Not only did UK customers feel a little abandoned, but crucially, it left Tesco vulnerable to proactive competitors in the UK who exploited a chink in Tesco’s armour, before it even realised it was there.

My advice is (and I repeat this point a lot!) always put the customer first. Sounds obvious, right? But it’s easy to let this slip and become too focused on business goals and satisfying shareholders. Sure, those are important, but keep your customers happy and coming back for more, and those things will fall into place.

2. Differentiate

Who exactly are your target customers? No business can be all things to all people; a lesson Tesco is currently learning the hard way. Segmenting your audience, by geography, demographic, or any number of other dimensions helps here, particularly for large businesses, or those that work across several vertical sectors. Work out your customer pain points in each segment, and how you solve them.

Next, evaluate why your customer groups should choose you over your competitors? What makes you different? Remember, you’re likely to have different customer pain points and competitors in each target segment.

Tesco’s core message is centred around cost, but with the likes of Aldi and Lidl tearing up that ground, it no longer stands up for Tesco. Meanwhile, Waitrose and M&S Food have the quality/high-end spectrum covered. So where does Tesco go from here?

Without a clear strategy to differentiate itself in a hugely competitive market, customers don’t have a clear reason to buy from it, and that spells a rocky road.

3. Re-Evaluate

Even if things are going well (and hopefully they are!), having another look at your strategy every few months should be on your to-do list; and that goes for business, marketing and sales strategies, since they should be integrated. Again, check what’s happening in the market from your customers’ perspective, and what you competitors are up to. Have any new competitors emerged?

Subtle market changes can have a significant long-term impact. In Tesco’s case, it ploughed on with its strategy to build large out-of-town stores, without recognising that a behavioural shift was taking place amongst its consumers, namely a move in many areas towards more local, independent outlets. The result? – the traditional big weekly shop began to wane. If you’re not aware of something, you can’t mediate against it. And you certainly shouldn’t ignore vital signs like this if you do spot them!

If you were Tesco’s Chief Executive, Dave Lewis, how would you turn around it's fortunes?

Motivational Monday: How to Get Motivated

One of the most common question that I get asked is:

“HOW DO YOU GET MOTIVATED TO DO SOMETHING?”

My initial answer is: motivation is overrated. 

You NEED to get disciplined instead!
 

In short: motivation is fleeting. Those people who depend on motivation consistently start out with a big bang and wilt as soon the difficulty increases. As soon as their motivation dries up, they quit. The people who accomplish things do it through being disciplined.

That said, if you’re still convinced you need motivation to get stuff done, I have tackled this thing head-on. Here it is – Your Guide On How To Get Motivated.

Realise, even if you can’t do anything else, working out is the one thing you can control. That is why I consider fitness one of the ultimate disciplines.

Start Sprinting

Help!

I don’t know what exercise to do!

I don’t have a trainer!

I don’t have any equipment!

I don’t want to get hurt!

I don’t know how to exercise – it’s complicated!

That’s fine, and that’s why I’m going to give you the best exercise in the world: sprints.

The best exercise in the world.

Why? It’s simple:

Sprinting is one of the most human exercises you can do. You don’t need a gym. You don’t need special equipment. You don’t need a coach. You don’t need to learn. You don’t need a video tutorial. You don’t need anything really.

You just need to do it.

So how do you practically make that work? Try this on for size:

Your Sprint Workout

1.     Set a time. Hit Start

2.    Sprint for 30 seconds.

3.    Rest for 30 seconds.

4.    When the timer hits “20 Minutes” – you’re done.

Workout complete.

BUT I STILL DON’T WANNNNAA!!

Cool story.

You need to stop talking to other people and finding other reasons for your problems and you need to have a talk with yourself instead.

Get up (right now). Go to the bathroom. Look in the mirror and stare at the person looking at you.

Then you have two options:

OPTION 1

You look in the mirror and tell yourself; "I WANT TO WORKOUT BUT I’D RATHER EAT CHEESECAKE."

Then go back to your kitchen, grab your cheesecake and convince yourself that that’s the most compelling excuse you can think of. Then go nuts with your cheesecake and enjoy (feel free to substitute cheesecake with whatever you want – sleeping, food, hulu hoops, video games, etc).

But just remember that the next time you look at yourself in the mirror.

OPTION 2

You look in the mirror and tell yourself; "I DON’T WANT TO WORKOUT, BUT I’M GOING TO ANYWAY."

Then put on your running shoes, get outside and start sprinting (no matter what the weather is outside).

Make It A Priority

The only difference between option 1 and option 2 are your priorities. That’s the only difference.

Don’t blame it on something else. Instead of feeling bad about it. Own it.

If eating cheesecake is more important to you than being healthy, living a long life and being there for your kids, that’s fine, but own that decision.

Instead of saying “I don’t wanna” or “it’s hard”, say “It is not a priority.”

Then, go look yourself in the mirror and say that to yourself. 

It puts things in a whole different perspective than empty-whining about where you’re not where you want to be.

Realise You Have a Choice.

You Always Have a Choice.

Even if you don’t “feel” like it, you can still go do it anyways. You don’t have to be a slave to your feelings or motivations. You get to choose.

Motivation is fleeting. If you decide your actions are dependent on being 100% motivated 100% of the time, you probably won’t accomplish that much.

Everyone has an excuse. Only some people decide to believe them. You choose whatever story you want tell yourself. But always remember you get to choose.

The Story: Nails in the Fence and the Moral is ....

The Nails in the Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. 

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

He said, 'You've done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. It won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry' the wound is still there and a verbal wound can be just as bad as a physical one.'

Boost Your Personal Productivity

It’s not just the idea but the execution that leads to success. So your personal productivity is a major part of the equation.

But what happens when you cease being productive? How do productive people work through their creative blocks and energy crashes to get so much work done? Here are some suggestions to boost your personal productivity.

Know When to Take a Break.

The most productive people know when to take a step back and take a break. Working at maximum productivity for hours at a time is exhausting and stressful. Instead, working in short bursts is more effective, writes Kim Roch at Lifehack.org. Setting a timer and working until it goes off then taking a 10 minute break, might be helpful in keeping you on track.

Don’t Multitask.

Despite what you might think, jumping between tasks isn’t the most effective way to work. A 2010 study by researchers at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris found the brain can only handle about two major tasks at time, NPR reports. This means our capacity to multitask may really be quite limited, researchers say. So try to focus on one job (or at most two) at a time and get them done effectively.

Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions.

Whether it be the internet, TV, or anything else, eliminating distractions is key in maintaining productivity. Try taking a deep breath, finding a quiet place to work and focusing on essential tasks first, suggests Leo Babauta.

Create a list of things you need to get done, then focus on the essentials first. Are there any unnecessary tasks that could be eliminated? After getting your mind on track, find a positive, quiet environment, like a coffee shop or other peaceful location where you can work, writes Rau Hsu, also at Lifehacker.org.

Write Things Down.

Creating a short to-do list of two or three important items can help boil things down to the most important tasks and eliminate the overwhelming feeling of looking at a 10-item long list, writes Henrik Edberg of The Positivity Blog. Edberg claims sometimes his to-do list might have only one item, but that one thing might be more important then a huge number of minor to-dos on a much larger list.

Try these suggestions to boost your personal productivity and check back as I will post more suggestions in the coming weeks.