Our guests today are Ken Murphy, CEO of Tesco, the UK’s biggest grocer and one of the world’s biggest retailers, and Sumit Mitra, CEO of Tesco Business Services and Tesco Bengaluru. Murphy is visiting Tesco India for the first time since taking over as chief executive of the group about 18 months ago. In this conversation, he and Mitra talk about the role of the CEO in managing multiple stakeholders, the growing role of technology, and experiments at Tesco for reducing the retail giant’s carbon footprint.

Notes:

(00:38) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation — The Big Picture episodes

(00:50) Our guests today — Ken Murphy, CEO of Tesco and Sumit Mitra, CEO of Tesco Business Services and Tesco Bengaluru

(02:15) A snapshot of Tesco, UK’s top groceries retailer

(03:38) Thoughts on some of the biggest changes in the grocery retail industry

(05:43) More on ‘quick commerce’ at Tesco

(07:36) Important changes initiated by Ken since he took over as CEO about 18 months ago

(09:30) A shift in Tesco’s definition of its purpose

(10:49) The big picture, from Ken’s vantage point

(13:15) More on doing the right thing — what it entails in practice

(17:38) Some broad strokes on Tesco’s tech strategy, including data analytics to anticipate consumers’ needs

(21:28) On Tesco’s net-zero initiatives, in the UK and at the Bangalore centre

(27:00) Automation — the tension between job losses and the ability to free up people to do more creative work

(32:04) More on the Tesco Bengaluru centre — moving from backend support to becoming more critical to the company’s global operations

(35:51) Tesco’s engagements with startups in India

(38:06) On Ken being named as CEO of Tesco, and his decision to take on this role

(40:37) How Ken cuts through the noise to focus on what’s important

(42:53) On the future — worries and optimism

(44:27) A couple of additional points — including how Tesco Bangalore is retaining its top talent

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