A Better Way of Doing Business?

This book offers a thoroughly researched and accessibly written account of the John Lewis Partnership. It describes what the JLP is how it works and what other businesses can learn from it.The US/UK model of the firm with its emphasis on shareholder value and its openness to the market in the buying and selling of businesses is prone to a number of problematic consequences for employees suppliers and sometimes share-holders. The JLP represents a contrast to this model - one that has implications beyond the small niche of mutually-owned firms. The JLP has lessons for organizations that are unlikely to move towards the Partnership's distinctive shared ownership. This bookidentifies these lessons.The key questions addressed include: how does the JLP work in practice? What is the link between co-ownership the JLP employment model and the performance of the businesses? What is the role of management in the success of John Lewis and Waitrose? Are mutuality co-ownership and business performance at odds? What is the significance of democracy within the JLP? And probably most significantly: what are the implications for policy-makers and for economic agents of the JLP? This book is basedon detailed knowledge of the JLP and its constituent business gathered by the authors over a fifteen year period. Their conclusion: that the JLP is more complex even more impressive and more interesting than its admirers realise.