Dave Lewis has faced many challenges since he took the wheel at Tesco, so we shouldn’t be surprised he’s re-inventing it. Or rather, scrapping it entirely, as we reveal this week.

His alternative has been dubbed Dave’s Big Six. Yet it will be hard for Lewis to match the success of Sir Terry Leahy’s Steering Wheel strategy. 

“Dave’s Big Six is a far harder sell than Sir Terry Leahy’s Steering Wheel strategy”

And his biggest task will be to carry the troops with him. 

Social media this week reveals hordes of Tesco staff bidding farewell, sometimes whole teams with decades of experience. Creating new values for the business while colleagues are sacked and stores close is even harder than setting staff new health targets. (It’s trying that too.) Indeed, having scrapped the Final Salary Pension scheme, this week it emerged that hundreds of thousands of its employees received handouts from the government in the form of low income support. 

Leahy’s Steering Wheel, and balanced scorecard created the framework for Tesco’s astonishing growth and as such came at the perfect time. 

Dave’s Big Six launches under far less auspicious circumstances. 

Ian Quinn, chief reporter