It’s hardly a surprise that someone who spent almost her entire career as a civil servant and quangocrat – sectors not known for workforce efficiency and customer service – didn’t know how to steer a major retailer through a challenging period of change. The only mystery is why anyone thought Sharon White – the first black person and woman to serve as Chairman of John Lewis, from which she has announced she is stepping down after just three years – was the right person to lead the company at this time. Did they have factors other than the best person for the job in mind, perhaps? Alex Brummer in the Mail reflects on her ill-fated tenure as it comes to an end.
The choice of elegant, accomplished economics guru Sharon White as Chairman of John Lewis always seemed slightly bizarre. Previous high street superstars – think Archie Norman at Marks & Spencer or Simon Wolfson at Next – have retail in their veins.
Dame Sharon is a high-minded Cambridge and UCL graduate who rose through the civil service to become a Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury before heading up media regulator Ofcom.
She might well have shopped in John Lewis when she took over in 2020 – the first woman at the top in the firm’s history – but her knowledge of the company’s inner workings probably didn’t go much further.
So it is sad, but no surprise, to hear she is throwing in the towel. She told the board yesterday that, after a disastrous reign at the store chain beloved of the well-heeled middle class, she will not seek a second term and will instead step down in February 2025.
White’s decision, after a single traumatic five-year term, is certain to be seen as recognition that it was a job beyond her competence. Bringing in outside finance to a partnership structure, in which the company is owned by a trust on behalf of its employees, and moving into new areas such as property (with plans to build 10,000 rental homes) will always be seen as mistakes.
Worth reading in full.
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