A Detailed Report on Corporate Strategy and Governance at John Lewis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the corporate strategy and governance of John Lewis, a major UK department store chain. The report begins with an introduction outlining the aims, objectives, and rationale for the study, followed by a literature review that explores key concepts in corporate governance, including the Anglo-Saxon model, stakeholder accountability, and the significance of corporate strategy. The research methodology section details the research type, approach, philosophy, design, data collection methods, and sampling techniques employed. The report examines the background of John Lewis, highlighting its structure and operational context, and identifies key issues related to corporate governance, such as conflicts of interest between management and employees, and the impact of various strategies. The findings, recommendations, and conclusions are presented, offering insights into improving corporate governance practices within John Lewis and addressing the challenges of conflict of interest. The report also includes a Gantt chart, references, and appendices to support the analysis. This assignment is a valuable resource for students studying corporate strategy and governance, offering a practical case study and a detailed examination of real-world business challenges.

CORPORATE STRATEGY AND
GOVERNANCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Aim and Objectives................................................................................................................1
Rational...................................................................................................................................1
Literature review....................................................................................................................2
Research methodology...........................................................................................................3
Gantt chart..............................................................................................................................4
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT.......................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................6
Background of research...........................................................................................................6
Background of company..........................................................................................................7
Review of problem faced.........................................................................................................7
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................9
Anglo-Saxon model of corporate governance.......................................................................10
Corporate governance............................................................................................................11
Issues related to conflict of interest.......................................................................................13
Measure role of corporate strategy and governance..............................................................14
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................14
Introduction..........................................................................................................................14
Research type........................................................................................................................15
Research approach................................................................................................................15
Research philosophy.............................................................................................................15
Research design....................................................................................................................16
Data collection......................................................................................................................16
Data analysis.........................................................................................................................16
Sampling...............................................................................................................................17
Validity and reliability..........................................................................................................17
RESULTS......................................................................................................................................17
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................27

CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................29
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................30
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................32

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
INTRODUCTION
For the effective management of John Lewis, it is required to control and manage all
codes of conduct, rules, practices and working processes. This will motivate company and
workers to work according to the set of codes of conduct and policies. It is important for firm to
provide satisfaction and profitability to all stakeholders with the help of proper management of
procedures and policies (McCahery, Sautner and Starks, 2016). Thus, this will include
requirements of corporate government and strategy within John Lewis.
John Lewis is a chain of high-end department stores operating throughout the United
Kingdom. The firm provides home-ware, fashion, furniture and other products and services to
customers. Electrical services are also provided by business. The corporate governance and
strategy needs to be effective to become a successful management of business to achieve
objectives. The major issues related to corporate governance and strategy is the proper
management of board members, independence of directors, accountability of stakeholders,
executive compensation and risk management etc.
Aim and Objectives
Aim: -
To determine issues or problems in corporate governance or strategies: A study of John
Lewis
Objectives: -
 To evaluate importance of corporate strategy and governance within businesses. To identify conflict of interest as issue of corporate strategy and governance in John
Lewis.
 To measure role of corporate strategy and governance within John Lewis.
Rational
Corporate strategy and governance topic is taken for this report due to the increasing
importance and use within businesses. John Lewis is chosen for the analysis of corporate
governance and strategy (What Is Corporate Governance in Strategic Management? 2018). The
firm has 40% fare budget, rest 23% is from government funding, 20% from borrowings, 8%
from profits and finally 9% from congestion charges. This is the issue, firm is facing relating to
conflicts and disputes between workers of company that has a negative impact on its reputation.
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The issue of policy and strategy formulation also must be considered by John Lewis. Poor
financial management, policy and strategy formulation, 0-hour contract are some additional
problems faced by firm. These are some important corporate governance issues for business for
which the strategies are formulated.
The main issue which is related to John Lewis is that of conflict of interest between top
and lower level management. It is very much important to avoid conflicts of interest so that there
is no problem into framework of corporate governance. This issue arise at time when employer
and other member of management are having financial interest which is directly conflicting with
objectives of the company like that of John Lewis.
Literature review
Rasche, Morsing and Moon, (2017) stated that corporate governance is a way of
governing policies, strategies and procedures within firm. This strategy helps business to manage
and direct activities to eliminate issues of conflict of interest. The firm needs to plan for effective
positive environment in order to increase effectiveness of corporate culture to lead proper
corporate governance. Effective management of corporate strategy and governance will help to
ensure economic growth, development and success of business. According to Tricker and
Tricker, (2015) corporate governance has a positive impact on share prices also on management
to ensure formulating the best policies for workers (What Is Corporate Governance in Strategic
Management? 2018). Corporate strategies and governance is crucial for businesses in order to
manage their competitive environment to remain stable and effective in the market. The main
aim of corporate governance is to eliminate barriers for growth and development including
positive culture and environment for all the workers effectively.
According to McCahery, Sautner and Starks, (2016) it was noted that if company is
facing issue like that of conflict of interest then they should be creating an environment of team
working and transparency as well. This helps them to create healthier and happier surrounding in
company like that of John Lewis. Management of company need to make their efforts in
resolving their issues if any with employees and labour as conflict of interest arising in
organisation should be working according to objectives set.
Jacoby, (2018) said that corporate governance describes balance between stakeholders
and structure of the firm and people who are interested in policies and profits of business. In
addition to this, corporate governance is used to enhance accountability of business to avoid
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disasters before they occur. Corporate governance includes processes in which corporation
objectives are set and pursued in the regulatory, environment and social context. It is a system of
rules, practices and policies in which the firm is directed and controlled effectively. The aim of
corporate governance and strategy is to ensure commitment of board in order to manage business
in transparent manner to increase long term values. This also helps to ensure economic growth,
development and corporate success, lower cost of capital, positive impact on share prices and
maintain confidence of investors towards business effectively.
As it was included by Visser and Tolhurst, (2017) that conflict of interest will arise at
time when employee and employer are not having same vision or objective or employer is not
able to satisfy labour. If there are long times pertaining conflicts between interests of people
working within company then management should be making their efforts for reducing impact of
these problems.
Research methodology
The process is used to determine, select and analyse information regarding topic. This
helps researcher to determine validity and reliability of research in order to solve issues of
conflict of interest to understand process and investigation of services and products. It provides
justification for using particular enquiry on topic.
Research type: There are two types of research such as qualitative and quantitative in which
quantitative used to solve problems using numerical data (Formentini and Taticchi, 2016). Apart
from this, qualitative includes, sounds, feelings, words and emotions. For the present study,
research has used exploratory research type in order to exploring aim and objectives related to
conflict of interest within company which is covering the corporate governance.
Research approach: Three types of approaches are available for researcher to conduct research
on topic such as inductive, deductive and abductive. These approaches help to provide
contribution towards new deductive tests of validity of assumptions and theories. Researcher
used inductive approach for the present study which will help in finding out impact of conflict of
interest in corporate governance.
Research philosophy: Positivism, interpretivism, realism and pragmatism are four types of
research philosophy available for researcher in order to deal with nature and source of
knowledge. Researcher used positivism philosophy to determine key findings.
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Research design: Research design is a crucial topic that a general plan is required to answer
questions regarding investigation (Visser and Tolhurst, 2017). Conclusive and exploratory are
two types of research designs. For the present study, descriptive design has been used by
researcher for finding up conflict of interest among employer and employee of company like that
of John Lewis.
Data collection: Data collection helps to collect information regarding topic in order to
understand topic in depth and effectively. There are two methods of collecting data such as
primary and secondary data collection method. For the present case study primary method is
used by researcher to gather information.
Sampling: Sampling includes probability and non-probability two categories to provide chance
to population to participate in study process. For the present case study, 20 employees of John
Lewis are taken and given questionnaire to fill. For this, simple random sampling is used.
Data analysis: Data analysis is important that researcher analyse information and data collected
from primary method in order to accomplish aim and objectives of research. It is important to
analyse interpretation of figures, numbers and attempts to determine rational behind findings.
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Gantt chart
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SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
INTRODUCTION
Background of research
Corporate Governance is the set of rules and regulations that will be determining internal
and external strategies for organisations which are mainly formulated, directed and controlled by
top level management. Under this various responsibilities and roles of personal working in
organisation is selected so that it could be continued at time of decision making procedure. There
are number of participants who are working for company in order to achieve targets and they are
those who are having certain amount of interest in profits or products of company (The Role and
Benefits of a Corporate Governance Framework, 2018). These are known to as stakeholders of
company who are shareholders, creditors, debtors, auditors, employees, suppliers, board of
director and customers. This plays very important role within decision making of company as it
will ensure that all judgements which are made should be focused on interests of stakeholders.
Corporate governance will be directed towards controlling and directing organisational policy
setting with approval of roles and responsibilities of functional position of firm. For any
company it is very much common to having issues related to corporate governance like that of
oversight issues, accountability, transparency, conflict of interest and ethics violation. But
majority if there are different type of people working together who belong to different culture,
background and having various race, ethnicity, choice and age then it is very common that
among people there is conflict of interest. This rise at time when aim or objective of 2 different
party is not aligning or it could then when person who is having position in company will be
deriving personal benefit from action or decision that is made by them at official capacity as
well.
So this particular research report will focus on Corporate Strategies and Governance of
John Lewis which is departmental chain. The report will include various issues of conflict of
interest and part of corporate strategies with measuring the role of governance within
organisation. So this report will help us to find out related problem of conflict of interest ion
company like that of John Lewis so that solutions could be derived. It will help in finding
effectiveness of corporate strategies with company so that it becomes easy to determine and
achieve targets and goals of company.
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Background of company
John Lewis & Partners is the high-ended chain of departmental stores which is working
all across UK, Australia and Ireland as well. It was started in year 1864 by John Lewis and then
in 1929 it was owned by John Lewis Partnership. Company is having 50 stores all around UK
which opened in 2016 in Australia and Ireland as well with having 38000 employees working
(John Lewis Partnership, 2018). The company is having its departmental stores, retail
supermarkets and banking services as well. It is the subsidiary company of John Lewis
Partnership (JLP) which is owned by trust which is working as per their employees and sharing
annual profits of company as well. JLP is 3rd largest company of UK and having special image as
upper class and middle class shops with the marketing strategies towards its buyers as it is selling
range of product with essential to value range of products.
Review of problem faced
The current report will discover many issues related to corporate strategies and
governance like that of getting right of board, performance evaluation of directors and removal
of independent directors with risk management as well. These problems are majorly faced by
company at time when they are making their strategies and reviewing performance of employees.
So this report is concerned with problems and issues of conflict of interest faced while
formulating decisions and policy for company or employees (Issues on Corporate Governance
and Strategic Management, 2018). The problem which is identified at time when they are
making their strategic decision company could be facing problem so this needs to be clearly
identified so that firm is able to resolve their issues of conflict of interest at starting or ground
level only. So this report will focus on corporate governance and strategy its meaning and
importance in regard to John Lewis and its related issues of conflict of interest as well.
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Figure 1: Relations of intersection and integration between corporate governance and strategic
management
[Source: Issues on Corporate Governance and Strategic Management, 2018]
The relationship between targets of company and its stakeholders helps in governing and
managing whole firm and working is maintained in accordance with set goals. There is
relationship between strategic management and corporate governance but it is from different
view point which is studied in various investigations before. The first viewpoint is that there is
no such relationship among both as they could not have any interconnection as well (Issues on
Corporate Governance and Strategic Management, 2018). While the other view includes that
there is intersection or integration between strategic management and corporate governance (like
shown in above Figure 1). The third view states that both are associated with each other under
which corporate governance is intelligent and strategic management must be courageous. So in
order to grow into market it is the company who decide that whether they will focus on strategic
management or on corporate governance but that too only after considering strength and
weakness of both these opinions.
Company will be facing issue like that of conflict of interest which means that their
employees are not having same opinion as their employer or management. like the person is not
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working according to his or her given target and only doing the job to fulfil their own interest the
at this time conflict with manager or employer will arise.
The type of model to be followed in a way gaining high amounts of profits and
considering interest of stakeholders is a major issue or problem faced by organizations. The
strategic issue in John Lewis will concern to shareholder’s value maximisation, independent
auditors, business exit strategies and audit or compensation as well. As the corporate strategies is
divided into internal and external parts of John Lewis. The internal part is covering ownership
issues, board of directors, managerial incentives and employee profits as well (The Role and
Benefits of a Corporate Governance Framework, 2018). While on other hand external corporate
governance will be concerning to management of labour markets, product market, and corporate
control as well.
The strategic management and corporate governance is a major and important section for
future growth and development of company and affects its stakeholders as well. The
management team of firm must be running it business for formulating rules, guidelines, rights
and responsibilities of stakeholders and management team as well.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Mason and Simmons, (2014) Corporate Governance in strategic
management refers to set of internal policies and rules which show how a business is directed.
Corporate governance also decides strategic decisions by managers, board of directors and
shareholders effectively. It can be also described as an interaction between different participants
such as management of business, board of directors and shareholders. It is hierarchically the
highest strategic plan of John Lewis to define objectives and goals and also ways to accomplish
them. Moreover, corporate strategy is a way from which firm create values with help of
coordination and configuration of multiple business activities. The initial purpose of corporate
governance is to facilitate effective entrepreneurial ventures in market. Corporate governance
will be having direct impact upon profits and reputation of company if they do not have any
good or strong policy then it could be exposed to lawsuit, fines and loss of capital investment as
well. So it is required that John Lewis is not having any such issue related to corporate
governance which could hinder their market position and reputation in industry as well. The
concept of corporate governance is used to make strategies and plans for operational activities
which include systems and procedures to structure authorities, balance responsibilities and
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