A little later on this afternoon, BBC Radio 4 will broadcast an interview with Sir Terry Leahy.

Filmed in the final few weeks of his reign, the former Tesco chief will trace his path from Toxteth tearaway to retailing legend.

“Most of the people who work at Tesco weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth,” he notes at one point. In fact, Sir Terry draws a direct line from that culture to the supermarket’s ability to know what its customers want (although all the Clubcard data presumably helps).

As Tesco is to retailers, so Coca-Cola is for fmcg brands. The iconic soft drink again tops our latest rankings of Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands, racking up sales of more than £1bn in 2010, a country mile clear of the runner-up.

As the introduction to this year’s survey makes clear, being creative needn’t mean churning out new products every few months. Coke’s Ian Deste convincingly argues that innovation can mean excelling in marketing or finding new markets.

Deste also admits that the past year “could have been even better” for Coke, pointing to a damp summer and England’s flat showing at the World Cup.

That lack of complacency demonstrates what the top brands have in common with Tesco. Witness the supermarket’s surprise swoop for Mills Group deal at the back end of last year – today waved through by the Office of Fair Trading, in a move sure to infuriate many independents.

But if you want to get ahead in business, you have to look after number one.

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