Abstract

The case examines Tesco’s ‘Steering Wheel’ which is Tesco’s version of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). The concept of BSC was developed by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton in the early 1990s. BSC proposed that organizations should be mission-driven rather than finance-driven. BSC proposed to convert strategy into an integrated management system defined across finance, customer, internal processes, and learning & growth. The case discusses how Tesco developed the ‘Steering Wheel’ from the BSC and used it as a tool for strategic value creation and business transformation. The ‘Steering Wheel’ was used to communicate strategic goals and objectives across all the levels of the organization and to measure corporate performance. The ‘Steering Wheel’ played a crucial role in transforming Tesco of the 1990s - then the third largest retailer in the UK, with not much of international presence - to the Tesco of 2007, which is among the top retailers in the world, and the #1 retailer in the UK with a market share of over 30% and operations in over a dozen countries across the world.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand Tesco’s Steering Wheel and its impact in steering Tesco ahead of the competition. Understand how implementation of Balanced Scorecard techniques can help in improving the performance of an organization. Appreciate the role of senior management

Keywords

Tesco, Balanced Scorecard, Tesco Steering Wheel, The Tesco Way, Core Purpose, Values, Principles, Goals, Quadrants, Key Performance Indicators