Personnel Turmoil And Collective Questioning Of Shareholders Tesco In A Low Ebb

Second only to Wal-Mart Tesco, the world's third largest retailer with Carrefour, has not seen much of its recent life. The continued decline in performance has made Tesco feel anxious, and recent frequent executive turnover and job mobility reveal the instability of Tesco's internal management structure. Last Friday's Tesco annual general meeting was held, and the harsh questioning from countless shareholders made it even worse for Tesco.

A few days ago, foreign media reported that Tesco Neela, Mukherje, was determined to quit. It is understood that Neela Mukherjee has been a director of commodity since November 2012, and has been working in Tesco for 12 years.

The veteran's departure is not the first case of Tesco in the recent downturn. In April of this year, Tesco CFO Laurie McIlwee proposed to resign, but will remain in Tesco for half a year until the successor is found. In order to speed up the transformation of enterprises, Tesco CEO Philip Clarke has also made adjustments to management. Jill Easterbrook, once responsible for health and welfare business, has been appointed as the chief customer officer. Matt Atkinson, a former chief marketing officer, has also been adjusted to chief creative officer. Frequent internal flow of staff has labeled Tesco with management structure instability.

However, shareholders' questioning of management policy has brought more pressure on Tesco. Last Friday, Tesco held the annual shareholders' meeting. At the meeting, the board of directors of Tesco was severely criticized by many shareholders about its performance and management policy. Some shareholders even speak frankly, "Tesco does not have a business idea at all. It is no wonder that they have lost the trust of consumers. We invest millions of dollars, you have the desire to become the best business in the UK, but you are abusing our efforts.

In January 2012, Britain Tesco, the largest retailer, released its first profit warning in history. Its performance in the previous year was the lowest in ten years, but Tesco failed to stop. In recent years, Tesco's profits have been declining. In the first quarter of this year, Tesco went through the worst performance in 40 years. With the change of British consumers' shopping habits, supermarkets have started a price war for tourists. Discount supermarket has Hardi and Liddell, high-end market has Waitrose and Martha department store, the location of the middle end of Tesco has limited living space.

From the perspective of overseas routes, the internationalization of Tesco is not going well. Last April, Tesco decided to shut down the Fresh&Easy business in the US and withdraw from the US market. In May of this year, Tesco changed 135 Chinese stores to Huarun 10000, and formed a joint venture with Huarun 10000. Since then, the Tesco brand has been fading out of China.

Tesco Richard Broadbent, chairman of the board of directors, acknowledged that the company was not doing well enough at the shareholders' meeting, but he asked investors to be patient. He expressed his understanding of shareholders' dissatisfaction with low share prices. He believed that the company's current efforts would bring long-term benefits to the company. It is understood that in the past 11 months, Tesco's share price has dropped by 23%.

However, Harris Associates, one of the ten largest shareholders of Tesco, and Tesco CEO Ian MacLaurin are firmly on the side of Clarke. They say that as Tesco's CEO, Clarke needs more time to get its business on track. Although shareholders attacked Tesco constantly, no one wanted Clarke to resign. Clarke said after the shareholders' meeting that these criticisms have strengthened their determination to continue their strategy.