Profile: Pippa Wicks – the new John Lewis director unafraid to stare down the barrel

Joining from the Co-op as executive director for John Lewis, Pippa Wicks is experienced in mutually owned businesses while also bringing a savvy eye from her experience in turnarounds.

John Lewis may not be confronting the existential crisis the Co-op was when she joined, in the aftermath of the ‘Crystal Methodist’ scandal that almost brought the whole food-to-funerals group down.

However, as the retail landscape shifts to reflect new realities such as ensuring the continued relevance of department stores and rebuilding after the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, John Lewis faces a time of difficult change that Wicks’ skills should help it navigate.

Richard Pennycook, the former Co-op group chief executive who brought Wicks into the business to play a key part in its rescue and transformation, says the former Bain management consultant and Oxford graduate will bring the right values and expertise to John Lewis.

He says: “I think this will be perfect for her. The Co-op is member-owned with a strong ethical pedigree, and Pippa was highly motivated by that. John Lewis has similarities – employee-owned and with an ethical heritage.

“She is extremely competent, she’s got breadth, loads of experience, can grasp a situation quickly, get the best out of people and she knows how to cut through to what really matters. She’s good on strategy and good at turning strategy into action.”

‘Hugely powerful’

A Co-op executive who worked closely with Wicks is similarly complimentary.

He says Wicks’ time at the retailer, which she joined on an interim basis in 2013 before becoming chief operating officer and finally deputy chief executive in 2017, were “seven highly intensive years”.

He observes: “She’s a deep thinker and able to assimilate a lot, take forward what’s needed and discard the rest.

“Although she comes from an accountancy and management consultancy background, she has real empathy with the people she works with. She brought calmness when we were really in the doo-doo. She brought structure.

“I remember thinking, this is a person that can get us through this. When you’re facing into a barrel, that’s hugely powerful.”

John Lewis may not quite be staring down a barrel, but it faces a turbulent period. The department store business had a difficult Christmas and full-year profits plunged.

“I think the fact she’s not born and bred in department stores is a plus. More of the same is not going to work”

Richard Pennycook

That follows parent John Lewis Partnership prompting disbelief through a restructuring last year under former chair Sir Charlie Mayfield. It was designed to wring out the benefits of common ownership of the department stores division and grocery specialist Waitrose, but many believed it failed to recognise the differences between the two and were concerned by a management cull that accompanied it, including the abandonment of separate managing director roles.

Wicks is, in all but name, the successor to former John Lewis managing director Paula Nickolds who dramatically exited in January.

She joins as new partnership chair Dame Sharon White looks again at the changes made by Mayfield. Her speedy recruitment of separate leaders for each business – former Sainsbury’s executive James Bailey was named as boss of Waitrose – indicates that other big departures from the Mayfield strategy are possible.

It is likely to be a painful process. White has signalled the prospect of “difficult decisions about stores and about jobs”. 

Fran Minogue, managing partner of retail headhunter Clarity, believes Wicks will be suited to such challenging circumstances. She says: “She bought into the values of the Co-op, so she’s able to marry respect for culture with harsh reality, and say if we don’t change what we do then we might not be around in a few years’ time.”

Pennycook, who until recently chaired department store group Fenwick, agrees. He says: “I think the fact she’s not born and bred in department stores is a plus. More of the same is not going to work. If department stores have a future in the UK, then it should be John Lewis and [Wicks’ task will be about] thinking that through and following through with the execution.”

If she can keep the best of John Lewis and modernise the rest, Wicks will have helped safeguard the futures of two of the UK’s most treasured retailers and perhaps found a new purpose for department stores by applying an outsider’s eye to the format.