Building partnerships for innovation
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Robert Garnish, General Manager John Lewis, talks about the importance of partnerships for innovation and how they work for John Lewis.
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Building partnerships for innovation
- 1. Robert Garnish, General Manager Innovation Manchester Boardroom: Building partnerships for innovation 12 May 2010 Prepared for:
- 4. Partnership in the past
- 5. Never knowingly not planning for the future…
- 7. Democratic structure Chairman Partners Partnership Board Partnership Council Chairman’s Management Committee Trustees of the Constitution Waitrose MB John Lewis MB Corporate John Lewis Divisional Council Waitrose Divisional Council John Lewis Branch Forums Waitrose PartnerVoice Corporate Forum
- 8. A different sort of company Different because each of us is a Partner with a shared responsibility for the Partnership and a drive to put its success first. What’s more, we take pride in treating each other with respect and honesty, in delivering a truly outstanding customer experience and in enjoying a share in our financial success
- 12. Preaching and practice Taking responsibility for business success Easter Sunday trading in Scotland Creating real influence over a working life
- 14. Encouraging enterprise The Good Suggestion scheme
- 15. The future? John Spedan Lewis April 1957
Editor's Notes
- Good morning / afternoon and welcome – thank you to Kate Pickering for inviting me along today. Introduce – current role, role at Trafford – previous experience So what can I tell you about John Lewis?
- Much of what you know about John Lewis may be from your time as a customer…..or indeed as a relative of a Partner but perhaps more likely you watched the recent BBC2 documentary…..one episode was more popular than two of the election debates! I’d like to take some time today to tell you a bit more about the detail which lies behind the façade…..how did we come to be? Whose idea was it? Who was he? What are the key benefits of being a Partnership and how does it work in practice. Before we do that though – I’d like to show you a short DVD about the Partnership – it’s called Partnership Spirit ….click
- The original John Lewis was born in 1836 and it was he who setup his own business by buying a draper’s shop on Oxford Street in London in 1864 – it took 16 shillings and 4p on it’s first day – he was very Victorian in his outlook (ladies with red hair) Meanwhile across London in Sloane Sq, a gentleman called Peter Jones from Newport in S Wales was opening his own shop - good employer with good conditions….it was bought by John Lewis in 1905 when Peter Jones died for £20k Spedan Lewis was born in 1885 and joined his father’s business in 1904 but within a year or so was uncomfortable about the amount of money he and his father and brother were taking from the business in relation to what the employees got to take home (£16k a year – all of the rest of the 300 employees put together) In 1909 he was badly injured in a riding accident and in his time of convalescence he started to work on how he could revolutionise the business for the future and for the good of the employees….in 1916 he left Oxford Street to run Peter Jones full time and it was soon apparent how different he was running PJ vs his father at Oxford St
- This phrase had it’s origins in 1925 at PJ – and it’s fair to say much of our working practices in C.21 st were originally thought of by Spedan Lewis – Gazette, C for C,
- Purchased Odney in 1926…initially a social club – rooms could be rented Senior managers lived there and commuted to London! Swimming (Thames), football, cricket, tennis, bowls By 1928, JL Snr had died having never retired and JSL was left in overall charge….and in 1929 he started to put the bones of the modern day Partnership into place….a constitution, shares handed over to trustees, business valued at £1m Formation of a medical and legal service and by 1930s, was acquiring businesses outside London – Jessops, Knight and Lee, Tyrrell and Green Acquired Waitrose in 1937 and 15 shops from SPS in 1940….some remain, some have been sold on 1948 – Central Council founded; meetings 8 x a year with branch reps + branch councils in each shop to discuss local matters 1950 – 2 nd Trust settlement which handed the business over entirely to the employees within it – only way to dissolve is thru and Act of Parliament
- Decision making and direction moves down the diagram, opinion and holding management to account moves up the diagram High standards of corporate governance are at the heart of the Partnership: our structure gives our management the freedom to be entrepreneurial and competitive in the way they run the business for long-term success, while giving the company's owners, the Partners, the rights and responsibilities of ownership through active involvement in the business. The Chairman, the Partnership Board, the divisional Management boards, the Group Executive, and the Business Strategy Group form the management of the company. The Partnership Council, which elects five Partnership board directors, the divisional and branch level democracy, make up the democratic bodies that give Partners a voice and hold our management to account
- So what we have is a visionary and successful way of doing business….an ideal which is the outcome of over a century of endeavour An organisation which balances the power of the Chairman with the influence of Partners – commercial flair and corporate conscience When John Spedan Lewis set up the Partnership, he was careful to create a governance system, set out in the company's Constitution, that would be both commercial - allowing the company to move quickly and maintain a leading position in a competitive industry, and democratic - giving every Partner a voice in the business they co-own. This combination of commercial acumen and corporate conscience, so ahead of its time, is what makes us the business we are today
- “ Working here isn’t just a job – it’s about enjoying my ability to make a difference”
- Journalism and communication Mention anonymous letters
- Principle 1 talks about the happiness of Partners in the business – to achieve this we aim to give every Partner a relevant, consistent and rewarding experience which is based on these 3 commitments Responsibility is how we do business Relationships is our difference Real Influence is our aspiration
- PACT example – installing PC programme on the shopfloor to enable Partners to assist customers with online purchases if we were out of stock in-store Creating real influence over working lives – Mark Bower – autistic, diabetic and with speech and learning difficulties - won a Skills for Work award – confidence impact etc is amazing Easter Sunday opening – Aberdeen, driven by Branch Forum….opened on the day (2 months out was start point) and took 30% more than expected
- Cheadle delivering a new fitted kitchen by canal boat – belief in the skills and talents of our teams
- Explain the two and how they work: Branch Forum…input into the AGMs this year – drives attendance and input Good suggestions….a number of them have been picked up centrally
- Explain where the text is taken from – BBC interview Interesting to read this in the context of 2010 and where we’re at now – the co-operative co-ownership model has seen varying degrees of interest and uptake over the years and has indeed seen something of a revival in terms of ‘air time’ in the last 12 months….but I think it’s fascinating that no one really has made it stick in quite the same way, on quite the same scale.