As a CEO, there are few things more frustrating that reading your top-secret business plans in the national media. In that moment it’s easy to go to a dark place. Who leaked them and why? Sharon White – Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership – could be forgiven if she was asking herself these questions when details of a possible change in ownership structure appeared in the press. Unfortunately, when secret plans become public, it adds another big thing to the CEO ‘to do list’ which is more urgent than all the others. That is to regain control of the narrative.
There were already a few items on that list. 1. Build momentum in core trading. 2. Reduce cost. 3. Develop new revenue streams. 4. Do all this while keeping their employees – the Partners who own the business – onside. Not to mention navigating an ownership structure which is enshrined in legislation as a sort of long-term defence against any carpet-bagging-would-be-demutualists. But times have changed, reform is needed and there are no easy solutions. Few people in the business community carry as much support as Sharon, but what are her options now that John Lewis is sitting so high on the news agenda?
In my experience, when your business is suddenly in the headlines, the reaction of the CEO is to want to lunge into the debate and set people straight on the facts. It impacts at the personal level too. During those moments everyone you meet looks at you slightly sympathetically, assessing whether or not to comment on the headlines. It’s a bit like having an illness where people are not quite sure whether or not they should ask. Whenever a business I led was in the news my mum would ask (in a judgemental tone) what I had done wrong. Gradually, the fuming CEO is battered into submission by eloquent and diplomatic PR types who explain that it will all pass in 24-48 hours, and the best course of action is to suck it up and wait. Normally I’d agree.
But this story is unlikely to pass quickly. John Lewis is too much of a ‘National Treasure’ for people to just wait and see what happens. We all feel like we own a bit of it. Worse, if the dreaded label ‘troubled retailer’ starts to appear, it will impact trading. Consumers love to shop at a place that is seen as being on the way up. If a business is seen as being in trouble, it can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. By contrast, few brands have the national treasure status that John Lewis occupies. This might be one of the rare occasions where valour is the better part of discretion.
Could John Lewis now seize this moment and make a virtue of being the subject of national debate? Could the leadership frame the debate and steer it through the media, regaining the initiative and building wider understanding of the challenges it faces? This might be a moment where the leader needs to listen to the PR advice carefully but then ignore it all, put on the mask of command and take the stage. The alternative could be that opposition to perfectly sensible ideas becomes entrenched before they have gone anywhere beyond the PowerPoint deck.
I think the vast majority of us want John Lewis to succeed. There is a strong, emotional connection to the brand. My wife – who is Polish – says that all the while there is John Lewis, she knows that the country has not really gone to the dogs. Retail is a super-fast moving sector and most retailers that succeed have a bias for action. For what it is worth, my advice to Sharon would be to seize the moment and step into the debate. As they used to say at Dixons: “If in doubt, do something.”
Joe Garner was previously Chief Executive at Nationwide Building Society and BT’s Openreach Division.