John Lewis - Never Knowingly Having Retail Experience.

[One percent]

1 minute ago, The Masked Tulip said:

 

Well, if that person was LGBTQ then also being black and having the surname of White would be ticking so many PC boxes. Would you actually need any experience in running a woke retailer when you have total PC points? 

 

Nah, she would also have to be disabled and a lesbian. That would then tick all the boxes.  PC full house and fuck the company.  

[MrLibertyRedux]

32 minutes ago, The Masked Tulip said:

What do Yahoo, HP and a few other US tech giants have in common just prior to going into huge decline and ramping up lots of debt/losses?

Clue: It's cervix related.

Mmmmm.

Something along the likes of Carly Fiorina one would suspect...

[spygirl]

1 hour ago, Ash4781b said:

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/08/john-lewis-to-announce-radical-shake-up/

“The partnership will also trial a series of services such as allowing customers to rent John Lewis products rather than buy them, as well as use the retailer’s website to sell secondhand items to other customers.”

I Can’t wait for all the goods routed from China through dubious UK locations. Or maybe I can sell my old DVD’s like in that shop CEX? 

 

Thats a rag bad of ideas from tax credit women tring to make up their 16h.

Nuts.

 

[spygirl]

1 hour ago, Frank Hovis said:

Yes.

There is having a vision and there is going with the first things that pop into your head because you do not have the first clue how to run a business and should never have been appointed in the first place.

Career civil servant with no retail or even private sector experience as Chair.  Brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.

It is on a  par with Paul Flowers being appointed as Chairman of the Co-op Bank because he was a councillor and Methodist Minister.  Knowledge of banking sector clearly not a criterion when appointing the Chairman of a sodding bank.

Are all these Boards smoking crack before their meetings?

Why not start a haulage business or explore for oil around the Faklands? That's where John Leiws's core skills of dressing smartly and saying "Can I help you?" will really shine.  Surely.

The Coop bank pretty much sunk the coop group.

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north-west/137208-disposals-help-co-operative-group-return-profit

The Co-operative Group's chief executive Richard Pennycook this morning hailed a year of "solid progress" as the UK's largest mutual returned to the black for the first time since a series of scandals which rocked the 170-year-old society to its very core.

The Manchester-headquartered group made a profit before member payments of £124m for the year to 3 January 2015, compared with a loss of £255m a year earlier. Revenue fell from £9.75bn to £9.43bn amid a series of disposals, including the sale of its farm and pharmacy operations.

Total proceeds for the disposals exceeded £850m, allowing the mutual to pay down a significant chunk of its net debt and pay £313m in capital commitments to the Co-operative Bank as part of its rescue plan. Overall net debt reduced to £808m at the year end, down from £1.4bn in 2014.

If anything is to be learned its that if you have a bank in a group then it has to be run very very carefully.

Letting a meth addicted, rent boy bothering vicar near that leverage was never going to turn out well.

 

 

[SpectrumFX]

The golden rules of governance.

1. Don't appoint a numpty to run things.

2. If you cock up number one, sack the fucker as quickly as humanly possible.

[SNACR]

Close your eyes and imagine you’ve never heard of John Lewis and ask yourself what type of organisation typically behaves in the following ways

It’s headed by a career civil servant diversity hire 

It was previously headed by an Oxford PPE graduate who moved on to a political role as the mayor of Birmingham

It makes statements wobbling on about social housing.

[JFK]

3 hours ago, Nippy said:

It's a bloke isn't it. C'mon

[MrLibertyRedux]

9 minutes ago, JFK said:

It's a bloke isn't it. C'mon

Winner.

[King of Fools]

3 hours ago, The XYY Man said:

 

 

Why do they refer to her as a chair, when she's clearly a fucking boiler...

 

XYY

Good work, my friend.

[Bedrag Justesen]

4 hours ago, Nippy said:

Her face says she has just announced a “digital-first” approach in department stores, then somebody reminded her she is outsourcing John Lewis online expertise to India. 

[Bedrag Justesen]

“This appointment comes at a time where we are working hard to develop our people strategy,” partnership chair Sharon White said.

“Nikki’s impressive experience will help ensure the partnership continues to be a great place to work for current and future partners, that both rewards and develops partners, provides exceptional health and wellbeing support and improves our diversity and inclusion strategy, truly reflecting the communities we serve.”

 

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/07/john-lewis-partnership-hires-nikki-humphrey-as-new-people-exec-director/

[King of Fools]

2 minutes ago, Bedrag Justesen said:

“This appointment comes at a time where we are working hard to develop our people strategy,” partnership chair Sharon White said.

“Nikki’s impressive experience will help ensure the partnership continues to be a great place to work for current and future partners, that both rewards and develops partners, provides exceptional health and wellbeing support and improves our diversity and inclusion strategy, truly reflecting the communities we serve.”

 

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/07/john-lewis-partnership-hires-nikki-humphrey-as-new-people-exec-director/

Oh dear, they are well fucked. 

[Hopeful]

4 hours ago, Nippy said:

Sharon White - that's some misselling, surely

[One percent]

1 minute ago, Hopeful said:

Sharon White - that's some misselling, surely

Cultural appropriation me thinks.  

[RJT1979]

3 hours ago, The Masked Tulip said:

What do Yahoo, HP and a few other US tech giants have in common just prior to going into huge decline and ramping up lots of debt/losses?

Clue: It's cervix related.

Alison Platt at Countrtwide. Simply drove it into the ground through stupidity while everyone decent left. She blew 1 billion of market cap while being paid millions.

[Austin Allegro]

On 08/02/2020 at 11:13, dgul said:

It is the MBA problem.

There is (amongst the 'leaders'*) a complete acceptance that what is required is someone very well trained at running a business.  it doesn't matter 'what business' -- it is a generic skill that applies everywhere.

Whereas in reality what is required is someone very good at running the business.  If you want someone to run a retail company you actually want someone who is excellent at running a retail business in that particular market segment.

Vast numbers of companies in the UK are ruined by the MBA mindset.

[* which are all people who are converts to the MBA mindset.  Funny that]

I think there's a problem though in modern business in that there aren't enough capable people rising up through the ranks as there used to be.

Eg i worked in publishing in the 90s and there was an 'officer class' of higher level management who were parachuted in from various other industries, many of them financial sector, who knew/cared little about the business itself; the 'other ranks' were comprised of academic types who weren't interested in becoming managers, or SJWs who were but who clearly wanted to run the business on ideological lines. I think the days of the old fashioned Arnold Bennett hero who works his way up from teaboy to President are long gone, probably because of the requirement for a degree in pretty much any white collar job nowadays.

[sarahbell]

26 minutes ago, King of Fools said:

Oh dear, they are well fucked. 

Are we having a Christmas advert this year from John Lewis?

[Panther]

19 minutes ago, Austin Allegro said:

I think there's a problem though in modern business in that there aren't enough capable people rising up through the ranks as there used to be.

That together with the virtual removal of any general management within an organisation. Business units tend not to have a managing director/general manager any more, everyone reporting on separate lines outside the building instead, and managing directors/general managers tended to have come up through the industry whereas people like me flit around.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Panther

[Bus Stop Boxer]

Calling your customer services assistants "Martials" also not a great look.

I have a Waitrose 8 minutes walk from me. Ive not been in there since January.

I pass by it in the motor on the way to the wider aisled, cleaner, less expensive, more modern, nazi-less Aldi, and i regularly see queues of broken, socially distanced, broken Remaino-Karens waiting to be allowed in, to pay 4 quid for a bag of pigs ears for the fucking dog.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Bus Stop Boxer

[Bedrag Justesen]

3 hours ago, sarahbell said:

Are we having a Christmas advert this year from John Lewis?

Already done apparently.

Cost an estimated £600m.

Directed by Spike Lee, starring Idris Elba as Santa, John Boyega as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Lennie James as Bob Cratchit, Michaela Cole as Widow Twankey, and Stormzy as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Music: Strange Fruit by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Storyboard: Systemic racism within worker co-operatives impacting global delivery organisations, modern slavery, and eating less fried chicken and more green vegetables, to tackle BAME community obesity and diabetes.

Raising donations for Forever Family Force, Black Lives Matter, and the US Democrat Party.

In store roll out of George Floyd dolls and mugs from late October, likely out of stock prior to first run of TV ads. 

[wherebee]

7 hours ago, The Masked Tulip said:

 

She is female? I try not to assume these days? 

 

8 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

My usual objection is that I have worked for several great women bosses.

When however black men, black wome, white women. transexuals, in facts any cunting special identity group are appointed to senior positions because they are women that company is going to crash and burn.

FTFY

[Option5]

7 hours ago, Austin Allegro said:

I think there's a problem though in modern business in that there aren't enough capable people rising up through the ranks as there used to be.

It used to be that managers made decisions and if they made bad decisions they were found out and moved to somewhere they could do no harm or, if really bad, sacked. Now they just pass all decision making up the ranks until they are eventually taken by someone too high up to be sacked.

The new definition of management appears to be avoid blame at all costs.

[wherebee]

30 minutes ago, Option5 said:

It used to be that managers made decisions and if they made bad decisions they were found out and moved to somewhere they could do no harm or, if really bad, sacked. Now they just pass all decision making up the ranks until they are eventually taken by someone too high up to be sacked.

The new definition of management appears to be avoid blame at all costs.

Very much always been that way, but the difference was that the top brass would resign in disgrace or commit suicide if things were really bad.

Now they just move onto the next government job.

[spygirl]

10 hours ago, SNACR said:

Close your eyes and imagine you’ve never heard of John Lewis and ask yourself what type of organisation typically behaves in the following ways

It’s headed by a career civil servant diversity hire 

It was previously headed by an Oxford PPE graduate who moved on to a political role as the mayor of Birmingham

It makes statements wobbling on about social housing.

Andy Street was the MD of one of the larger stores.

The previous chairman was  an ex squaddy:

In 1992, Mayfield graduated from the Cranfield School of Management with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.[11]

He joined SmithKline Beecham as assistant product manager of Instant Horlicks.[2] He was later promoted to Marketing Manager for the Lucozade sports drink brand.[12]

In 1996, he joined McKinsey & Company as a management consultant.[1] During his time there, he worked with consumer and retail organisations.[13]

In 2000, he joined the John Lewis Partnership as head of business development.[14] He was appointed to the Board one year later as Development Director.[12] He was appointed managing director of John Lewis in 2005.[1] In 2007, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.[15] In March 2007,[13] he became the fifth Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership.[1]

in November 2010, Mayfield was appointed to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, a non-departmental public body, as chairman.[13] This post dissolved in March 2017 with the closure of the Commission.

On 7 November 2018, Mayfield announced that he would be stepping down as Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership. He was succeeded by Sharon White at a meeting of the John Lewis Partnership Council on 4 February 2020.[16]

Posh squaddy, marketing manager then management consultant. All very brief appointment. Deadly. Total fuckup.

Blundered around for 10 years opening shops here there and everywhere without grasping that  only a few areas can support a JL. And the JL has to big.

One thing JL did was not fuckup online, like MnS. However, Id guess thats down to a large core of long serving middle managers. Shazza is laying these people off - because they are expensive.

I think the problem is that, after never being close, the world of the public and private sector is even further apart. Public sector might as well be from Mars.

It was bad enough that the public sector were poor at organising and adapting to new things esp. computers. The last 20 years have seen the public sector stop doing the little they do and become a large protest/campaiging group for whatever- blacks lesbians, cripples muzzers etc. All on high salary/pension cost.

 

 

[spygirl]

9 hours ago, Bedrag Justesen said:

“This appointment comes at a time where we are working hard to develop our people strategy,” partnership chair Sharon White said.

“Nikki’s impressive experience will help ensure the partnership continues to be a great place to work for current and future partners, that both rewards and develops partners, provides exceptional health and wellbeing support and improves our diversity and inclusion strategy, truly reflecting the communities we serve.”

 

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/07/john-lewis-partnership-hires-nikki-humphrey-as-new-people-exec-director/

Daft bint.

They dont have an issue with their people. Its a fucking retailer.

They have a problem with a lot of stores that are not hitting their fucking numbers.

Shazza needs to work on a quick n dirty 'Is this store worth keeping open?' test. And apply it, quickly.

People go when the store goes.