Chalie Mayfield

The suave former army officer continues to make his mark on both the Partnership and the wider world. As the employee ownership model espoused by founder John Spedan Lewis gains traction elsewhere in both the public and private sectors, the views of Mayfield are in more and more demand.

Mayfield didn’t have the easiest first year

in the hot seat, although John Lewis’s weak showing was offset by Waitrose powering ahead. But in the past 12 months, the Partnership has come back strongly, showing sales growth on a two-year as well as a one-year basis. It has also resumed its aggressive path of development, with powerful new formats emerging on both sides of the business.

Critical comments and suggestions of discord in the famously lively letters pages of the Partnership’s magazine, The Gazette, bears testimony to how the pace of change initiated by predecessor Sir Stuart Hampson has accelerated. Ringing the changes in such a traditional organisation does not come without a degree of pain, and this year the ordinarily very stable Partnership has experienced a higher than usual number of departures at top level.

However, the positive results are evident in the sales performance of a business that continues to follow an upwards path, with its marketing and its multichannel development being recognised as market leading. The increasingly statesmanlike Mayfield sets the tone throughout the organisation, and the Partnership seems well set for continued growth under his leadership.