Why Tesco could teach No 10 a thing or two In 1979, Tesco sold as much butter as it did fruit and vegetables. Today, thanks to innovations such as the plastic tray that can take the products straight from source to shelf, it sells 40 times more fruit and veg than butter. This must be a greater victory for nutrition than all the propaganda ever put out by the British government. In 1979, Tesco sold one tenth of the number of products it sells today. In roughly the same period, food prices in Britain have declined, in real terms, by a third. Sir Terry calculates that "Tesco saved the typical household almost £5,000 on its shopping bills in a decade." Compare such achievements with those of government. Tony Blair, who reached his highest office in the year that Sir Terry reached his, ordered the computerisation of all NHS patient records. After nine years the project was dropped, having wasted £12.7 billion. It drives me bananas (18p each at Tesco Express) when I hear people attack shops like Tesco. For sure, there are problems about the treatment of vulnerable suppliers and the effect on high streets (and Sir Terry is slightly evasive on these points). It is also true that, just recently, the Tesco model has begun to show signs of strain. But the overall effect is a huge emancipation. New Labour talked about "the many, not the few," but it was Tesco that actually did something for them. How did it do it? By making the customer central to everything. Leahy cites Field Marshal Slim's idea that morale is based on "a great and noble objective." Leahy asked, "What is Tesco for?" He ended up defining it as "to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty" - products and profits were not mentioned, although the objective could not have been achieved without them. There is something risible, perhaps, in applying thoughts about generalship to shopkeeping, and yet the results show the benefit. If you stick to the "noble objective," you cut out so much nonsense. The customer therefore trusts you, and stays with you. This book advocates a formidable combination. On the one hand, it relentlessly favours change, in the form of technological and methodological improvement. On the other, with its emphasis on "values," it is conservative. Concepts such as trust, punctuality, discipline and good manners are central. Leahy is wary when companies start to chase after a "new challenge" that claims to overthrow the past. "Most problems have been faced before," he says. He is almost caustic about the phrase (much loved of politicians) "Doing nothing is not an option": it is often the best course. This book is presented as a work of business advice, and it will be very useful as such. But could it also apply to the way we are governed? In one way, not. The task of shops is simpler than that of politics: it is to supply demands. Politics has to work out how to deal with demands when they cannot be supplied, or when one demand clashes with another. It cannot (and should not) always have solutions, which business must. In another way, though, political leaders could profit greatly from this book. Leahy says that "the history of mankind is one of organisation," but he also says that "organisations are terrible at confronting the truth." The contrast between Tesco's success since 1997, and government's failure, shows the difference between organisations with a strong institutional memory and an ethic of service, and those that have thrown away both. Buy Management in 10 Words by Terry Leahy from Telegraph Books