‘In the end, Sharon White is leaving a job only half-finished at John Lewis Partnership’

Sharon White’s departure from JLP is not surprising because she has faced a Herculean task and been at the eye of storms throughout most of her five-year tenure – storms that would take a toll on anyone.

When she joined, she had to address the mess left by her predecessor Sir Charlie Mayfield, whose restructuring included scrapping the roles of separate managing directors for John Lewis and Waitrose, and who left the company as profits were coming under pressure.

Not only did White need to draw up and enact a transformation strategy, she had to do it as the pandemic raged, bringing unprecedented disruption to life in general and retail in particular. That was swiftly followed by the cost-of-living crisis when inflation bore down on companies and costs spiralled at levels not seen in decades.

White is standing down because she believes the worst of those conditions are now behind us. However, she will leave when her strategy that many people doubt – including a push into financial services and rental housing – is only partially complete. 

Uncertain times

When the retailer released interim results last month, it was revealed that it would take two years longer than hoped to fulfil the ambitions of the transformation plan – 2027/28 rather than 2025/26. 

White will be gone by then, standing down in early 2025. The partnership said she has “asked the board to review the accountabilities of the chairman’s role to ensure that these continue to support the successful transformation of the business”.

On the face of it, it sounds reassuring that the retailer’s path will not change. But there can be no such certainty. A new chair may want – and will demand the authority – to take the business in a direction that they think is right.

“Any business needs a clear strategy. What is just as important is the execution. The partnership certainly has some talented directors but there is clearly much to do”

In the coming months, as the recruitment process gets underway, and allowing for a period during which the new chair familiarises themselves, there’s little doubt that there will be a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the retailer.

White appointed the first chief executive in the partnership’s history – Nish Kankiwala – earlier this year. He was formerly a non-executive and is presumably aligned with White’s strategy but he must know that in little more than a year, his priorities could look different.

Any business needs a clear strategy. In retail, what is just as important is the execution of that strategy. The partnership certainly has some talented directors but there is clearly much to do. Waitrose has been hit by some fundamental problems, such as lack of availability, while John Lewis is still without a permanent managing director.

It’s hard to draw any conclusion other than that John Lewis Partnership would benefit from a retailer as chair, as has proved so successful at arch-rival Marks & Spencer where Archie Norman has galvanised huge change.

Big decisions

A lot will ride on John Lewis’ deputy chair Rita Clifton leading the recruitment process. Happily, she brings experience from a range of consumer and retail businesses, including Asos and Dixons, where she was a non-executive.

White held true to many John Lewis values; she spoke up for and acted upon them. That she famously considered bringing in external investment to the partnership set the cat among the pigeons, as many wondered whether it would spell the end of a business model unique in UK retail.

That one controversy took up time and energy that could have been better used.

No doubt, some progress has been made at John Lewis. But in the end, while White seemed willing to make the big strategic decisions, even to dramatically break with the past, she won’t see her strategy through.

While her predecessors typically held the role much longer, she will be leaving a job half-finished. That’s unlikely to instil confidence in the retailer’s 74,000 partners.