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This thesis revolves around Tesco plc, one of the world's leading retailers. Opened in 1919 by founder Jack Cohen, his first day's sales were ￡4 with a profit of ￡1. By 1947, the company floated on the stock exchange with a share price of 25p and by 1979, its annual sales has reached ￡1 billion. In 1983, Tesco Stores (Holdings) Ltd becomes Tesco PLC. Nowadays, the company has entered various other markets including the USA, China, Korea and many other European countries. It has also diversified into other industries, including financial services and is currently making profits in excess of ￡2 billion. It is the UK's biggest supermarket in terms of turnover with 2,115 UK stores and employing 280, 373 staff in the UK alone (Tesco annual report 2008) .Such an organisation has been chosen for various reasons, namely because:

It is a listed company, and hence according to the London Stock Exchange rules, it needs to adhere to the principles of the UK Combined Code on Corporate Governance on a Comply or Explain basis. Therefore, I will be able to determine whether such a big company is really being a good corporate citizen.

Most of the data that I will need to conduct my research is readily accessible through its website, including its financial statements and annual reports.

Data on similar organisations, such as Sainsbury's plc is also readily accessible, which would prove to be very useful for comparison purposes. This would help me to make an analysis on how those two similar organisations are complying with the UK combined code on corporate Governance and whether the departure from for example a specific code is usual for these companies or ot.

Tesco plc has a very large number of stakeholders and hence it is interesting to find out how the company is working towards fulfilling its responsibility towards them. In other words, how it is being corporately responsible, especially how it is dealing with the principal-agent problem.

In addition, according to the company's annual report, Tesco follows a diversification strategy, laid down over 10 years ago and which has been the foundation of its enormous success in recent years.

Due to the company's size, Tesco has segmented itself into 5 main areas:

CORE UK

COMMUNITY

NON FOOD

RETAILING SERVICES

INTERNATIONAL

The UK is its biggest market and the core of the business. The main aim here is to provide its customers with excellent value and choice.

As well as deriving high shareholder value, the company also tries to be a corporate citizen. In addition to its annual report, the company also publishes a Corporate Responsibility report to show that it is a responsible business.

Over the past decade, the company diversified into the non-food market whereby it offers a range of products, from laptops to mobile phones, etc...The aim here is to be as strong in food as in non-food, competing on 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。