Major Facts
John Lewis Partnership is one of the largest UK corporations that is owned by the employees. The company is in charge of operating Waitrose and Partners supermarkets, The Jon Lewis and Partners stores, its banking and financial institutions and other activities related to retailing. A trust owns the company on behalf of the employees and has the responsibility of running the company business (Salaman & Storey, 2016). The employees of the company share the profit that the company makes annually and adds to their salaries. Being the most significant private sales company in the United Kingdom, John Lewis and Partners has its image set on the upmarket. This practice translates to the fact that the company target upper-class and middle-class shoppers.
The company has over time broadened its frontiers in the sales and marketing strategies to include all types of buyers by expanding the business. The expansion has included the addition of Value range to the John Lewis and Partners stores, Essential range to the Waitrose stores and general increment of the business. The company supplies branded food items attributed to Waitrose and John Lewis. Apart from food items, the company also sells a variety of products, ranging from high-end fashion items to household items. The company also deals with electronics and lighting materials. It is this versatility that makes the company a favorite among the shoppers.
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The company is made up of about 88,000 employees, who have an equal contribution to the company regarding branch forums and meetings. The meetings are aimed at evaluating the performance and running of every local store that the company owns. The company has a council, that is elected from the 82 representatives of the company stores. The council has the power to evaluate any matter that is of concern tot eh company. The council is also accorded the power to elect five directors who seat at the Board of Management. The other members who are not part of the management have forums that allow them to express their grievances and views to the company's board.
Major Problem
The major problem in the John Lewis and Partnership is the rapid shift from manual to online shopping (Cathcart, 2014). Consumers are now shifting their convenience from visiting physical stores of retailers to online shopping, posing a significant problem to physical retail shops of the company.
Possible Solutions
The company should develop an advanced face-to-face community between the consumers of their products in physical stores. This idea is aimed at creating excellent experiences that they could never get online. The company may accomplish this idea by organizing live events and social demonstrations as well as peer-help events that would make the consumers feel the community with the community. Entertainment options could be a good starting point for the company. The disadvantage with this idea is that for an existing company, it would be difficult. The challenge comes in due to the time factor and the fact that the company has to break things, personnel and change the way the company operates to suit the changes.
The company could put out-of-company thinking into practice regarding the improvement of production. For the physical retail shops that the company owns, the management should ensure that customers are open and do not always have to go with the old ways of operation of the company. This practice helps the management review performance against the traditions of the retail shops. The biggest drawback of this idea is that sometimes, the needs of the customers are many and varied, hence could be difficult to please and implement every opinion that comes in the way of the company.
The company should also try to break the norm of conservativeness and try doing business unusual. This practice will help the retail shops of the company to retain relevance among the consumers of their products. The company should try new ideas and marketing strategies to bring the desired change in the mode of operation of the company (Paranque & Willmott, 2014). It is not always sufficient to rely on things that have worked in the past. The only disadvantage with this idea is that there is no guarantee that the new plans will work to the benefit of the company. The company may input significant investments on such initiatives, only to find out that they are not working as desired.
The company should measure their agility by introducing the metrics on transformation. For the physical retails to remain relevant, ancient views of rates of change should not be a fact in the issue. The company should bring to scale the projects, the resources against revenue and cost efficiency. This idea would guide the retail shop to prospect what is relevant to keep the sales and returns going up. The possible disadvantage being that this idea requires much time to implement since benchmarking is necessary where the plan is being performed for the first time.
Choice and Rationale
I would choose and recommend solution A on establishing a good face-to-face between consumers and the community. The reason for my choice is that in implementing this idea, the purpose served will not only retaining the customers on the physical stores but also marketing the name of the company (Whittington et al., 2015). This strategy sees the company keeping many of its customers. The other solutions are effective but may prove to be too risky as there is no guarantee of positive results.
Implementation
In the implementation of the establishment of face-to-face interaction between the community and the consumers, the company should organize social events such as peer-help groups and social demonstrations in the localities. The company could open up bars and hold live events as a part of the entertainment options.
References
Cathcart, A. (2014). Paradoxes of participation: non-union workplace partnership in John Lewis. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 25 (6), 762-780.
Paranque, B., & Willmott, H. (2014). Cooperatives—saviours or gravediggers of capitalism? Critical performativity and the John Lewis Partnership. Organization , 21 (5), 604-625.
Salaman, G., & Storey, J. (2016). A Better Way of Doing Business?: Lessons from the John Lewis Partnership . Oxford University Press.
Whittington, J. W., Nolan, K., Lewis, N., & Torres, T. (2015). Pursuing the triple aim: the first 7 years. The Milbank Quarterly , 93 (2), 263-300.
