Why Do Companies Go Global?
Tesco’s international strategy
Globalisation progressed significantly in the past decade, facilitated by modern communication, transportation and improved legal infrastructure as well as the political choice to consciously open markets to international trade and finance. Included in this wave were the efforts of companies to broaden the geographic reach of their products. Today multinational enterprises own or control production or service facilities outside the country in which they are based. Although a company can achieve MNE status through the level of control that for example Nike exercises over its manufacturers without actually owning them, most companies become multinationals because of some form of foreign direct investment (FDI) that spreads their geographic activities.
Tesco is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart and Carrefour) and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart). It has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the UK (where it has a market share of around 30%), Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Thailand.
The company was founded in 1919 by Sir Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. The Tesco name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname, and the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex. The business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 there were over 100 Tesco stores across the country. Originally a UK-focused grocery retailer, since the early 1990s Tesco has increasingly diversified geographically and into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services; DVD rental; and music downloads.
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Globalisation progressed significantly in the past decade, facilitated by modern communication, transportation and improved legal infrastructure as well as the political choice to consciously open markets to international trade and finance. Included in this wave were the efforts of companies to broaden the geographic reach of their products. Today multinational enterprises own or control production or service facilities outside the country in which they are based. Although a company can achieve MNE status through the level of control that for example Nike exercises over its manufacturers without actually owning them, most companies become multinationals because of some form of foreign direct investment (FDI) that spreads their geographic activities.
Tesco is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart and Carrefour) and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart). It has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the UK (where it has a market share of around 30%), Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Thailand.
The company was founded in 1919 by Sir Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. The Tesco name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname, and the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex. The business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 there were over 100 Tesco stores across the country. Originally a UK-focused grocery retailer, since the early 1990s Tesco has increasingly diversified geographically and into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services; DVD rental; and music downloads.
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