Breakfast Briefing with Sir Charlie Mayfield - 31st October 2013
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a breakfast
briefing hosted by The Westminster Business Council where the guest speaker was
Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of The John Lewis partnership. The main topic of discussion was the effect technology was
having on retail and Charlie started by laying out the past and the effect that
technology has had in the development in retail.
Quoting one of his mentors of the past Sir Geoff Mulcahy "human beings have the tendency to over-estimate the impact of technology in the short-term and under-estimate the impact in the longer-term".
When asked how John Lewis motivate and retain their staff Sir Charlie highlighted the excitement the company feels at 9.30am on results day when their profit shares are announced and that they started their online 'Partner Surveys' on working for JLP 10 years ago and today have a 90% return rate. Total staff turnover at JLP is half the retail industry average.
Sir Charlie also reminded the room of the leadership culture at JLP, with a strong defence against complacency being the strong accountability to all of the partners. The drive to innovate, be the best and motivate the teams is re-enforced by the yearly vote taken to assess the confidence in the Chairman by JLP's top 70 managers.
Sir Charlie confirmed that two thirds of all sales at John Lewis have involved the internet as part of the sales process and that the growth of click and collect from Waitrose stores had been 'marvellous'. Highlighting the changing focus at Waitrose he said that the fact that 'we have a publication team with a whole media focus illustrates a shift from being just a retailer to being more and more of a retail brand'.
Whilst commenting on the resounding success of the MyWaitrose cards, free coffees and the pilot coffee cafes he was quick to say that although it has developed customer loyalty they have not been so successful that they will be opening a coffee chain!
