Business Research Plan: Analysis of John Lewis Partnership Strategies

This business research plan focuses on the John Lewis Partnership, analyzing its operational and functional activities to identify areas for improvement and competitive advantage. The report begins with an introduction highlighting key issues such as funding and liquidity challenges, as well as various business risks. The literature review delves into strategic business and marketing plan development, including performance evaluation, success factors, and the SOSTAC framework. It examines the company's marketing strategies, including its multi-channel approach, brand loyalty, and market entry strategies. The research outlines aims, objectives, methodology, sampling, ethical considerations, and deliverables, culminating in a Gantt chart implementation timetable and conclusions. The plan assesses the company's performance, market positioning, and marketing mix, providing a comprehensive overview of its strategic approach.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH PLAN
Business Research Plan: John Lewis Partnership
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author’s Note

Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................2
2. Literature Review (Background of the research).............................................................2
2.1 Strategic business and marketing plan development for John Lewis Partnership.....2
2.1.1 Strategic business analysis..................................................................................2
2.1. 2. Marketing plan development............................................................................4
3. Research Aims/Objectives...............................................................................................7
4. Research Methodology....................................................................................................7
4.1 Research philosophy..................................................................................................7
4.2. Research approach....................................................................................................7
4.3 Data collection method..............................................................................................7
4.4 Research design.........................................................................................................8
5. Sampling..........................................................................................................................8
6. Accessibility...................................................................................................................8
7. Ethical Issues..................................................................................................................9
8. Significance....................................................................................................................9
9. Deliverables....................................................................................................................9
10. Required Resources.....................................................................................................10
11. Implementation Time Table (Gantt-like chart)............................................................11
12. Conclusion..................................................................................................................14
References..........................................................................................................................16

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1. Introduction
From analyzing the issues of John Lewis Partnership it has been defined that, the
company is facing many issues with their operational and functional activities. In order to gain
competitive advantages from the market place detail market analysis is very much important.
The project risk and uncertainty could be minimized or reduced through the adoption of proper
management business strategies (Lau 2016). It has been defined that in order to satisfy the
business requirements John Lewis Partnership is unable to generate and access enough amount
of fund and investment. The business liquidity requirements those are apparently managed with
the help of both short term and long term cash flow forecasting are strictly associated to the
trading patterns of the company.
However, for resolving both funding and liquidity issues, the funding levels are needed to
be managed. With the help of interest rate derivatives the fluctuations of the interest rate are
managed. A foreign currency risk is another risk that exchanges the rate of arising from
supplier’s partnership. The other risk associated to business background of John Lewis
Partnership (JLP) include financial risk, capital risk, energy risk, insurable risk, managing
change risks etc. These business risks are needed to be resolved by the management head of the
company so that it could get enough competitive advantages and measurable revenue structure at
the same time. The main issue of the company implies that it is unable to make balanced score
sheet between the project investment input and expected outcome.
2. Literature Review (Background of the research)
2.1 Strategic business and marketing plan development for John Lewis
Partnership
2.1.1 Strategic business analysis
Performance evaluation
It is stated by Kamthunzi (2014) that success can be measured in both financial figures as
well as softer measures. As non-financial indicators helps in affecting the profitability of the
firm, it is quite important to evaluate the accounting driven performance as well as their related

perceptions of various stakeholders. According to Ouma and Gichinga (2017), the number of
Waitrose the John Lewis department stores has grown from the year 2010 and therefore the
managing director of the company is predicting that the company will expand its double till the
year 2023. The future strategies are basically dependent on the expansions but it is analyzed that
competitors mainly outperforms in terms of its size in all he stores of UK. However, it is mainly
reported that the revenue growth within the organization has outperformed the major competitors
in context to sales growth in the recent years. It is found that despite of the rising profits, the
fierce competition of price ahs generally affected as well as adversely impacted Waitrose’s
returns.
Success factors
There are number of business reasons that help in succeeding John Lewis Company.
The factors include:
Ownership structure: Unlike the most of the retail firms, John Lewis is owned by many
partners who generally help in easing the pressure on the company for reporting as well as
complying with external stakeholders. According to Laudien and Daxbock (2016) this not only
assists in providing the opportunity of long term rather depending on various visionary
investments but also assists in providing high staff retention as well as motivation. In fact, the
structure of partnership that is followed by the company depends on some of the business
reasons as it is identified that customers generally engage in forming more committed as well as
dedicated workforce.
Customer experience: John Lewis helps in addressing a focused customer base that
generally prefers service as well as quality over the cost (Ochoa, Lara and de la Parra 2017). It is
identified that the shopping experience that is received by the customers includes both high end
location s as well as products which dedicated support as well as proper warranty policies both
online as well as in stores which are quite essential for the firm.
Multi-channel approach: It is stated by Nestic and Stefanovic (2015) that multi-
challenging effectively helps in providing consumers the choice of where and when to shop that
helps in enhancing sales across various touch points of the customers. The firm Jon Lewis is
considered as one of the multi channel retailer in the recent years.

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Brand loyalty: It is analyzed by Oyeku et al. (2014) that due to the dedicated as well as
consistent form of customer satisfaction. A company helps in building proper loyal customer
base that rarely helps in questioning the higher prices with other retail branches. It is identified
that John Lewis helps in ensuring the reputation as well as brand recognition of the company
with targeted as well as effective marketing communications.
2.1. 2. Marketing plan development
According to Yeng and Mat (2013), the marketing plan for the organization “John Lewis
Partnership” is mainly developed on the basis of the framework that is known as SOSTAC and it
was mainly developed in the year 2013 by Smith. The way in which the framework of SOSTAC
is implemented by John Lewis is elaborated below:
Situational analysis
It is identified that a number of key range issues generally emerge from John Lewis
SWOT analysis. According to Deshpande et al. (2017), expansion of international market is
found as one of the attractive opportunity for business which is not used presently by the
company. Therefore, it is found that proper engagement by the company in the internal market
expansion would be considered as one of the effective response for various types of marketing
issues. In addition to this, it is identified that the formation of proper strategic partnership in the
global market can create positive impact on the long term growth of John Lewis.
John Lewis Global marketing strategy
John Lewis is mainly recommended to depend on various traditional strategies of
business that generally helps in ensuring its success in the marketplace of UK. It is stated by
Meyer (2016) that the strategy that is utilized by John Lewis mainly involves in targeting high
earners for offering high quality services as well as products at premium prices. It is opined by
Vargas-Hernández and Jimenez (2016) that the target customer segmentation for John Lewis in
the market can be specified by female and male whose income has been enhanced during the last
years by utilizing the opportunities of business that is mainly evolved within the country.
According to Weiss and Pollak (2016) the brand of John Lewis in the market can be
easily developed in a way that reflects that the brand is associated with achievement, prestige as

well as social status. The choice of branding approach in the market is considered as the
successful criterion that helps in valuing the preservation as well as social status of the country
due to rapid economic development. On the other hand, it is opined by Lopes (2015) the element
of marketing mix that is adopted by the company mainly includes methods of advertisements as
well as public relations. Specifically, it is analyzed that the advertising of John Lewis is mainly
done with the help of broadcast ads with various attracting celebrities as well as successful
persons.
It is stated by Thompson (2013) that engagement in various public relations by the
company “John Lewis” can be generally facilitated with the help of periodical release of press
applications as well as kits and by organizing different types of speech seminars as well as by
enhancing various types of community relations. Moreover, the company utilizes viral marketing
campaign with the help of various social networking websites.
Market entry strategy used by John Lewis
It is identified that number of marketing strategies are present before John Lewis for
entering into the market. It is identified that the most popular market entry strategies mainly
includes contracts, exporting, formation of joint ventures, licensing as well as franchising. It is
found that among the various market entry methods, formation of subsidiaries can be considered
as one of the most suitable method for John Lewis (Wang et al. 2013).The subsidiaries that are
wholly owned generally helps in providing number of substantial advantages which include
technology protection, ability of engaging in global strategic co-ordination, ability of releasing
location as well as the strategy selection. It is generally acknowledged that the choice as well as
selection of wholly owned subsidiaries is mainly associated with number of risks as well as
disadvantages that generally include high cost as well as risks (Bly 2015). Although it is
analyzed that the alternatives of new market entry methods like joint ventures, licensing as well
as franchising are quite suitable options but their choice is mainly based on the lack of control
over the quality of operation as well as on the compromising freedom in context to
implementation as well as formulation of strategies.

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Marketing Mix
According to Keller and Strohschein (2014), a business firm generally helps in
controlling four different elements of marketing that helps in combining process in such a way
that it helps in reaching the target market of the firm. These mainly consist of product, price of
the product, and means of distribution as well as promotion of the product. It is identified that
John Lewis strategy in context to marketing mix is formulated in the sections below:
Product: The product that mainly ranges of John Lewis department stores in other
countries mainly differ substantially from the products range that is offered in the stores of UK.
However, proper focus must be on the positioning of the product. It is opined by Wang (2014)
that product positioning is mainly defined as the perception of the customer’s product n
comparison with investments as well as competition that is generally made on the products of
John Lewis with proper notions of achievements, prestige as well as success.
Price: According to Wood (2014), price is mainly defined as the actual amount that is
paid by the customer for a service or a product and the products of John Lewis is mainly priced
at a premium level that is above the market level. This is mainly coupled with various services as
well as products of the customers for selling it with the perception of achievement, prestige,
success as well as social class which are mainly associated with the brand of John Lewis.
Place: It is opined by Weiss and Pollak (2016) that place is where the products as well as
services of John Lewis can be offered and thus the importance of this element of marketing mix
can be considered greater for retail business as compared to other business. In addition to this,
financial investments are mainly made by the company “John Lewis” for setting up proper
department stored as well as various types of modern shopping centers in order to enhance the
business of the company
Promotion: It is stated by Meyer (2016) that the element “promotion” of the marketing
mix is mainly communicated by the markets for informing, persuading as well as reminding the
potential buyers of a product for influencing an opinion or eliciting a response. It is identified
that promotional strategies that are adopted by John Lewis mainly include optimal use of various
promotional mix strategies that include personal selling, sales promotion, advertising as well as

public relations. However, greater focus must be provided on advertising that is on the broadcast
ads for the growth of the business.
3. Research Aims/Objectives
The aims of the research are as follows:
 To identify the operational and functional issues associated to John Lewis
Partnership
 To analyze the market surroundings for identifying the target audience
 To develop a business plan based on the business requirements
4. Research Methodology
4.1 Research philosophy
Three different kinds of research philosophy are there such as positivism, interpretivism,
and realism. In order to understand the research reality, for this particular business area the
researcher would use the positivism research philosophy (Alvesson and Skoldberg 2017). For
developing an accurate business framework the business analyst is needed to make scientific
analysis. It would help the analyst to understand the research topic in details. The research will
be conducted efficiently if this particular positivism research philosophy is adopted.
4.2. Research approach
Two different research approaches are available in the research field; those are widely
used by most of the researchers to gain effective revenue structure such as deductive research
method and inductive research method (Smith 2015). Based upon the business background of
John Lewis Partnership, it is defined that, adoption of deductive research approach is much
beneficial from the business aspect. For successful completion of the research method this
approach helps to fill the research gaps by establishing former theories. For identifying the
hidden facts associated to strategic business planning deductive research approach is defined as
the most helpful one.

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4.3 Data collection method
Two different data collection approach are there such as primary and secondary. The
primary data collection method is done through collecting information by developing research
survey questionnaires (Flick 2015). The participant who are taking part in the survey are allowed
to give answer to the survey question and from the gathered information set the researcher would
be able to get the effective resultant. The other data collection approach is the secondary data
collection approach which is done through analyzing already published journals, books and
articles. Again two different kinds of data are there such as qualitative and quantitative data. In
order to develop a strategic business plan for John Lewis Partnership (JLP), mixed data are
collected with the help of primary data collection approach (Neuman and Robson 2014). For
qualitative data the executives of different large organization who has advanced and strategic
business plan are surveyed and on the other hand for the quantitative data interview is used as the
most useful research tool. The thoughts of the researchers would be influenced from the
feedbacks gained from the survey.
4.4 Research design
It is a set of methods as well as procedures which is used to collect and analyze of
measures of variables specified into the research problems. It defines the type of research study.
There are three types of research design such as: descriptive, explanatory and exploratory (Flick
2015). It is mainly the framework used to analyze the answers of selected research questions. In
this particular study, descriptive research design is used. This research design is used to depict
the respondents into accurate way so as to understand the collected data.
5. Sampling
It is the process to select people from large number of population to do the research
study. Sampling theory is field of the statistics which is involved into collecting, analyzing along
with interpretation of the collected data from random number of samples of population under the
research study (Gioia, Corley and Hamilton 2013). The people are selected from John Lewis
Partnership organization, and the participants are the employees those are working into the
organization. The sampling size is 50 employees. From the survey of the employees, it is easier
to develop the conclusion from the analyzed data.

6. Accessibility
The people those have valid access to the collected data and only accessed those data and
used it for the research study. The significant part of research work understands the levels of
accessibility of selected websites of the selected organization. Without prior permission of the
authorized person, no other person can able to access to the collected data and information
(Marshall and Rossman 2014). Accessibility provides a mean to incorporate perspectives of the
populations whose inputs are not taken into considerations in development as well as
implementation of the research study.
7. Ethical Issues
While conducting the research study, the researcher should be concern on the ethical code
to collect of the data. It is required to maintain the ethical ground of the academic as well as
business journals related to selected organization. The research reports are stored under the strict
codes. Various online data respiratory are used to access of the confidential data related to the
study. The researcher followed of the organizational policies as well as regulations to maintain of
collected data into the digital form. At the time of performing the online survey of the
employees, those are not interested into the survey are not forced to provide their feedback. None
of the participants are harassed at the time of providing the feedback through online survey.
There is also some possibility that the data are stolen from any third party person.
Based on the ethical issues, the researcher has to provide and also conduct of standard
process to evaluate the selected research topic. The ethical codes are to be maintained properly
so as to provide a standard research report.
8. Significance
The significance of this study is that it provides of strategic business and marketing plan
development for John Lewis Partnership. This study will provide us information on different
business strategies which are used by the retail organization to increase value in their business
operations. It also helps the organization to gain more productivity and profitability in their retail
business. Development over the marketing plan provides the organization to achieve a
competitive advantage into the UK marketplace.

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9. Deliverables
The list of deliverables for this particular research study is:
1. Title of the project and description
2. Introduction to the project
3. Project progress report
4. Literature review
5. Gathering of the data from the organizational reports
6. Gathering of the data from online survey of the employees working in John Lewis
Partnership
7. Draft of the report
8. Description of the research methodology with evaluation of the research
techniques
9. Document on ethical codes and research standards
10. Final research report
10. Required Resources
The project resources are provided below:
Task Name Resource Names
Schedule development
Project initiation
Identification of non-current asset Operation manager, Project manager
Defining current assets audit executive ,Operation manager
Defining current set of liabilities Operation manager, Project manager
Defining system equity audit executive ,Operation manager
Risk assessment Operation manager
Feasibility study audit executive ,finance manager
Project planning
Monitoring and project integrity Project manager
Appointing auditors audit executive

Evaluating business committee business team members ,finance manager
Gross profit calculation Operation manager
Revenue calculation audit executive ,business analyst
Identification of other operating income Project manager
Identification of finance income business analyst ,business team members
Project execution
Borrowing and overdraft calculation audit executive ,business analyst
Calculating payable another trades HR manager, Operation manager
Finance lease liability business analyst ,business team members
Derivative financial instruments finance manager ,Operation manager
Retained earning business team members
Cash and cash equivalent audit executive ,business team
members ,finance manager
Derivative financial instruments Operation manager, Project manager
Project closure
Stakeholder signoff HR manager
Posy project evaluation business analyst ,Project manager
Maintenance plan business team members
11. Implementation Time Table (Gantt-like chart)
WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish
0 Schedule development 133 days Tue 11/14/17 Thu 5/17/18
1 Project initiation 34 days Tue 11/14/17 Fri 12/29/17
1.1 Identification of non- 5 days Tue 11/14/17 Mon 11/20/17