Keeping counsel

'Joining the Partnership, I was not sure if being a Lewis would be an advantage or a disadvantage,' says Patrick Lewis, great-nephew of the Founder, son of former Chairman Peter Lewis and the new Partners' Counsellor.

The Partnership is, however, 'a very long way from being a family business'. 'The culture takes people as they are,' he says, 'and, in all the teams I have worked with, I have been taken as me – I would prefer to be taken as me!'

He adds: 'I want the work we do to make the Partnership stronger because the idea is so special and successful.

'The great feeling on joining the business was that so many Partners feel like that and put in an enormous amount of work to have an effect on the longer-term success of the business.

'There is a strong sense of ownership being shared.'

Patrick didn't walk straight into the Partnership. After studying law at Oxford, he spent three days on work experience with a law firm, 'which was valuable to show me that I would enjoy doing something else'.

He then worked for two American companies to get a solid business background before joining the Partnership in 1994.

'The differences, even after a short time, were easy to see,' he says. 'All we looked at there was financial success for our shareholders. By contrast I found the Partnership – where our success is shared – more motivating and satisfying.'

The other side

Patrick started on the till in the china and glass department at John Lewis High Wycombe, working through eight different jobs and locations in as many years.

'I moved around a lot. You learn so much about how different teams tackle a job and the people I worked with were immensely generous, which really helped me.'

After 15 years at the retail coalface Patrick now finds himself on 'the other side' of the business.

'I felt excited and privileged to get this job because it means working with everyone in the business to develop what makes the Partnership extra special,' he says.

'I love the shopfloor, and although I may be one step removed from it, we need to stay close to what is happening there, and to work with the teams that are developing the Partnership.'

The Partner element

Patrick believes that Partners go hand-in-hand with commercial success. 'I have a strong feeling that if you get the Partner element right, this is step one in being a successful commercial business.

'When you look around, you see teams of people working well together and enjoying their jobs. It is no coincidence that, generally, the commercial outcome is good.

'My brief is to work with the leadership team to make sure we are pushing hard to develop that Partner element, so that what we leave behind in five or 10 years' time is – as well as a strong commercial business – an exciting and fun place to work.

'The Partners' Counsellor's role is a key part of making the Partnership steadily stronger in the long term. That ambition is shared with everyone else in the Partnership, but we do it in a different way.

'Our angle is through the eyes of Partners as owners of the business. It is a unique set-up because we are a very different type of business.'

High-speed change

The challenge, now, is how to retain that unique distinction while the Partnership gets bigger and the nature of retail itself develops.

'We are working in a fast-moving market and what customers want, such as online shopping, is changing quickly,' says Patrick.

'What Partners want from the Partnership is also changing: more flexibility, to enjoy having a bigger influence on our working life, to develop our skills and to have the opportunity to develop our pay. And that's on top of getting great satisfaction every day from the job we do.

'For us to be successful, we have to raise the bar on what we are trying to achieve as a Partnership and do it in a way that is financially successful.'

This ideal – running the Partnership on behalf of Partners – was introduced by the Founder, Spedan Lewis. And although he never met his great-nephew, his work is being carried on by the family name – even if it's now a family of 69,000 Partners.