Competitive Analysis and IT Strategies for John Lewis & Partners

This report provides an analysis of John Lewis & Partners, a major UK department store, focusing on its use of information technology and its strategies for achieving competitive advantage. It begins with an introduction to the company, its history, and its current business model, including its commitment to customer satisfaction and expansion plans. The main body of the report applies Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive environment, examining the threats of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers and customers, the threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. The report also utilizes Porter's Value Chain to analyze John Lewis's internal activities, including inbound and outbound logistics, operations, marketing, and service. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of IT and strategic planning in the retail sector.

Managing Information
and Technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................5
Porter's 5 Force Analysis of John Lewis & partners...................................................................5
Porter's Value Chain....................................................................................................................7
Deployment of Information Technology and use of innovative ideas in order to gain
competitive advantage...............................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Information and technology are the key factor development and growth for the
organisation. The IT sector is constantly evolving and have changed the face of business.
Present report is based John Lewis & partners which is an high end brand of department store
operating throughout great Britain (Ul-Hameed and et., al., 2019). Brand have wide range of
flagship clothings for men and women. It is an employee own mutual organisation and firm try
to provide unique fashion clothing fashion line two satisfy consumer. Furthermore the company
is committed to inspire and delighting the customer through different product, great quality food
and outstanding services with the motive to attract large number of audience.
Firstly the company opened it first store in 1864 in Oxford street London and there are
around 51 store throughout the Great Britain. It was founded by John Lewis and its headquarter
is located in London. There are around 38100 employees are working the in the organisation
which are working to satisfy the needs and wants of consumer. The first John Lewis store
constructed as the part of shopping centre which was relocated Jessops, in Nottingham which is
an Victoria centric as the part of 1972. The brand were the first department store group in UK to
adopt central buying, launching method which help management to have wide variety of product
and services for there respective customers.
Secondly in year 2009 firm announced the new format of John Lewis at home store in
which were located in pre existing shopping centre and focus on electrical, home and technology
product. This was a great success and company operate at different airports as to expand the
revenue which present in the company. Apart from this company is also known for producing
memorable Christmas television adverts which have gained heavy exposure on social media.
There main focus is on family and they advertise emotional content which makes a better impact
in UK market.
Thirdly company have recently announced that they are going to expand there business
into smaller cities over the next five years. With the help of technology firm is going to
improvise there strategies and make shopping more convenience for the user. The company is
moving online and this help in achieving larger sales and revenue for the company (Caldwell and
et., al., 2019). Beside this firm are providing there services through online terminals within the

store as well as click and collect services are available in some branches. Firm have to focus on
increasing the brand image of the product and service with the assistance of the quality.
Enterprise must take assistance of information technology because it provide product
information such new release, promotion and supply in a well define manner. Although, it also
emphasis on customer information regarding behaviour, distribution and offer the product and
services as per the needs and wants. Further John Lewis wants to create the business which are
both commercial allowing it to move quickly and to stay ahead of different rivals company
present in the market. The company have wide variety of product for different audience such
clothing, watches for all age group, jewellery, giftware, cosmetic, housewares, furniture and
food. Along with this they also provide home delivery services as improve the shopping
experience of the customer. They are also moving to digital service as they also use card and
online payment mode for there transaction.
MAIN BODY
Porter's 5 Force Analysis of John Lewis & partners
Competitive environment describe as the external factor within the company competes in
the market as to expand and explore business effectively. In present there are different rival
company are present and management have to focus on fulfilling the needs and requirement of
user (Shahar, Satar and Bakar 2019). This technique aid John Lewis & partner to improve
goodwill and brand image for a longer time period. As to understand the market competition firm
have to make use of Porters five forces model as to determine the level of competition in the
specific sector through which company operates effectively. Here is the detail explantation of
this model and its implementation in detail.
Porter's Five Forces Analysis
This is model which was given by Michael Porter in 1979 to observe the level of
competition and find the solution for the company to expand and explore the business
effectively. It is also known as the framework which is used by many organisation to track and
monitor different factor and make changes for profitability and growth. Such kind of analysis
are important elements which shape the level of competition as to make strong positioning in the
market. There are five forces present in elements through which firm can set different goals and
attain the market share effectively.

Threat of new entreats: It is consider as the initial stage for the company where
competition is high(John Lewis Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. 2019). New entrants in the
personal and household goods bring tuff competition in the marketplace. Hence this lead
company management to reduce the price to lower down the monopoly and this also aid in
retaining customers for longer time duration. This also create new value proposition to the
customer through this business can earn profit to an extent. So John Lewis & Partner manager
have to focus on all the challenges present and build effective barriers to safeguard the
competitive edge. Company have to focus on research and development of new products as to
offer new product to attract large customer. Furthermore management should identify the latest
trends and provide new design of clothing as this will gather huge attention from consumer.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Now s days every company in this sector industry
purchase there raw material from the suppliers. In result suppliers dominant the strong positions
which have slow down the sales of the company. So management of John Lewis & Partner have
to select different supplier as to minimize the needs of supplier (Khan, Benslimane and Yang,
2019). Hence this will assist firm to maintain the demand as well as supply present in the market.
Powerful supplier in consumer Goods sector use the negotiating power to extract high price from
the firm. The overall impact the higher supplier bargaining power is to lower the profitability of
the company. In order to reduce the impact of supplier company have to develop efficient supply
chain with the different suppliers as to as this will reduce the need of suppliers. Apart from this
company can use different ways with the product design and use various material so maintain the
price effectively.
Bargaining power of customers: The buyer have become a lot more demanding and
they have desire to have to avail best offer and product from the company. Hence this is essential
for the company to expand and explore the business and identify the needs and make changes to
provide satisfactory clothing products to respective customers. As the constant changing demand
of user put lot of pressure on John Lewis & Partner to earn more profit for longer time period.
The smaller and more powerful the customer base of John Lewis the higher the bargaining power
of the customer which have high ability to seek and increase the discount offer. As to slow down
this impact management have build large customer base as this reduce user bargaining power and
provide opportunity to the firm to streamline its sales and the production process.

Threat of substitutes products and services: When the new product or the services are
provided by the consumer than the firm take effective measure to meet profitability. In the
context of John Lewis & Partners company have to differentiate there product by creating unique
selling point or add some distinct features as to separate the product from the different
organisation (Saberi and et., al., 2019). This will help firm to different brand image which help
in creating larger market base. The threat of a substitute product or service is high if they offers a
value proposition that is unique different from present offering from the company. As to lower
down the threat firm have to focus more on service rather than focusing on product as this assist
in capturing large market share effectively.
Rivalry among existing competitors: Due to tuff competition in business is intense and
it drive down the price and decrease the overall profitability of the industry. John Lewis &
Partner is currently operating in very high competitive market. There are various rivals such as
H&M and M&S which tend to slow down the sales and revenue of the company. As to reduce
rivalry among the competition company have to focus on developing sustainable business model
by creating various factor as per the needs and wants. Another method for entity to collaborate
with competition as to increase the sales along with the market size rather than competing for
the small market.
From the above mentioned report this has been concluded that there are different forces
in the competition business and John Lewis and forces have to focus on the market trends to
sustain in market for longer time span(Sato and et., al., 2019). Apart from this, firm manager of
the company have to focus on suppliers and makes sure to implement new channel as to reduce
the bargaining power of supplier. Secondly organisation have to improve the quality of product
along with the services as consumer are more conscious regarding the product quality. Thirdly
enterprise have to reduce the price as this will lead to reduce rival presence and it will also create
a sustainable business model to survive in the fashion industry for longer time period.
Porter's Value Chain
This is the method through which company use to analyse the internal activities of the
company effectively. The main objective is to figure the performance as operational action going
in organisation. Management have responsibility to manage and control the function which help
firm to take effective decision regarding growth and expansion (Meziache and et., al., 2019). In
other words, analysing the internal activities are important for the company as to provide high

quality product and services to increase the market share effectively(Value Chain Analysis 2019
). The chain are mainly divided into inbound and outbound logistic which are explained down
below in detail manner:
Primary Activities
Inbound Logistics: Such kind of logistic focus on the transportation and storage of
income goods. This is essential for the company to understand who is liable to take the financial
burden in these transportation contracts when there is a voyage among seller and buyer. Beside
this cost of any damage which occur in the transit at different points. In the context of John
Lewis & Partner have improvise change in transportation and build an effective distribution
channel in order to provide timely services to consumer. Furthermore firm can use different
sources through which they can contract with suppliers and purchase the linen clothing to fashion
products. This can be taken one step further as the firm to hire fleet vehicles and drivers with
having close corporation between the managers and the pricing agreements to volume contracts
and delivery on proper time.
Operations:
Firm basically operates in the partnership model which is central and company is
governed by the council of the company. The company is democratically elected body which is
represent the stakeholders as the whole. Beside this management of firm focus on improving
there operational activities by using different policies and rules which directly improve the
service and productivity of the company (Shahar, Satar and Bakar 2019). Effective operational
activities leads to economic growth . Operations are fundamentally concerned about the inputs
such as raw material, equipment and staff. Tangible resources are mainly known as the
transformed resources which are mainly reuse as to make use of company resources effectively.
Secondly the company takes the series of steps for internal transformation process in the
overall delivery of the product and service as they progress and increase the sales. In the context
of John Lewis & Partners company manager have to quantify to measure the process as identify
the area of improvement. There are different factor which comes under operation are speed,
quality and flexibility in cost which determine the sales and revenue for the company. However
firm have to develop effective strategies such as batch process which aid entity to provide timely
services as per the needs and wants.
Outbound logistic:

Outbound logistic is the process of storing, transporting and distributing the goods to
customer. This process starts with the customers order any kind of product or services and
operation department move to warehouse for packing and providing timely delivery to customer.
In order to make outbound logistic run smoothly than John Lewis have to put emphasis on right
distribution channel and maintain a sensible inventory stocking system to optimize delivery
option for the user.
Outbound process:
John Lewis & Partners have to go through different staged where sales department first
receive the business or order from the client. The main purpose of the sales employee is to check
the inventory availability to ensure about that there has been stock of the product and company
can fulfil the demand of consumer. Then the sales department send customer orders to the
warehouse for picking and packaging and bill is made and product is out for delivery.
Support Activities
Firm infrastructure: By an essential of widespread and venerable benefits assisted by
the John Lewis & Partner has open structure which allow employees to pass on the view and
provide benefits to management to an certain extent. All the staff and recognised as the
associates and they are undoubtedly preserved as such when it comes to distribution out the
company and its sales (Khan, Benslimane and Yang 2019). The major decision regarding
policies and rules all are taken by the top level management as to increase the sales and
profitability of the company. The Chairman, the Partnership Board, the divisional Management
boards and the Group Executive formulates the managing body of the company.
The John Lewis & Partner is departmentalised as per the product and the function are
based upon the structure. However all the management makes all the essential decision and also
aid the company to capture large market share effectively. There are different boards of members
and divisional branch to carry forward operational function smoothly. There are other finance,
sales and marketing department which directly have to report to there senior management.
Technology development:
Retail is ever changing and it is difficult to understand and predict the trend effectively.
There are emerging trend and technology which company is using to attract larger customer
base and to earn more profit. So fashion giant like John Lewis & Partner have to spend more

resources on technological advancement as this help in facilitating customer with better services.
Here are some technological advancement emerge in recent years are given as follows:
Voice technology: In recent years voice technology have emerged rapidly. There are
different companies like Google and Amazon are developing the voice technology as improve
the customer experience. In the context of John Lewis & Partners have to implement voice
technology which help customer to search different clothing items through voice search.
Personalised shopping: This shopping experience has become more popular as the
passage of time. The fashion retail outlet is using smart home tech as it alter the retailers in
advance when the customer is looking for the product. Hence company can collaborate with such
technology and can offer better product and services for the consumer. It is essential for the
company to develop the outstanding experience for the customer which will help company to
capture the attention of larger market audience effectively. At last this also reduce competition
which is present in the marketplace and technology develop a sustainable business model for a
longer time period.
Deployment of Information Technology and use of innovative ideas in order to gain competitive
advantage
By using Porters five forces model and value chain it has been analyses that is important
for such business to implement information technology in the day to day business function. John
Lewis & Partner can use above technology such as voice search as this will provide satisfactory
services to consumer to achieve desire aims and objectives effectively (Bladergroen and
Chigona, 2019.). Apart from this, technology have become a battleground for the retailers as the
line between the physical and online shopping continue to reduce. For example, M&S and Argos
as the competition of John Lewis and they are spending more in digital technology as this
provide success and growth for the company in the smaller time frame.
John Lewis's retail director, Andrew Murphy, said the group was looking for ways to
better knit together the shopping experience in stores and online and for new ways to
communicate with users. Company is rapidly changing there product as well as services as per
the need as requirement of the consumer and make sure to make changes with the innovative
opportunities to build new customer proposition to wider the brand. However the company is
launching digital workshop which help entrepreneur to build and sold different technology which
help in expanding the business effectively.

With the assistance of technology company have discovered the way through which
consumer are finding and buying different food items as this can be done by clicking on
smartphone. From the technical side, the team use to provide constant delivery and use different
architect practises which allowing company to track the buying pattern of the consumer and
offering them effective service to respectively. Beside this management can increase the
transparency between system as well as obtain better tracking system to integrate the information
and consumer and company tend to offer services and product as per the need and wants.
CONCLUSION
This has been analysed from the report that information technology is essential for firm
and it also help to reduce competition present in the market. This is recommended to the
company is to focus on quality rather than service as this will aid firm to expand business
effectively. Also the company must improve the inbound logistic as this will improve the
efficiency and productivity of the company. Also, different types of analyses like Porter's 5
factor analysis etc. help organisations in not only identifying their strengths, weaknesses but
different opportunities and factors that can affect the operations of the company as well.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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Khan, F., Benslimane, Y. and Yang, Z., 2019, December. Managing Information Systems
Requirements Volatility in Development Projects: Mapping Research and Surveying
Practices. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and
Engineering Management (IEEM) (pp. 800-804). IEEE.
Meziache and et., al., 2019. Method and device for managing information exchange between a
main element, for example a NFC controller, and a set of at least two auxillary
elements. U.S. Patent 10,271,193.
Saberi and et., al., 2019. Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain
management. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), pp.2117-2135.
Sato and et., al., 2019. Management system for managing information system. U.S. Patent
10,169,303.
Shahar, S.M., Satar, N.S.M. and Bakar, K.A.A., 2019. The challenges in managing information
technology shared services operations. International Journal of Recent Technology and
Engineering, 8(1C2), pp.322-328.
Ul-Hameed and et., al., 2019. Remedies of low performance among Pakistani e-logistic
companies: The role of firm’s IT capability and information communication
technology (ICT). Uncertain Supply Chain Management, 7(2), pp.369-380.
ONLINE
John Lewis Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. 2019. [Online] available through <https://research-
methodology.net/john-lewis-porters-five-forces-analysis/>./
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. 2020 [Online] available
through<https://writepass.com/journal/2012/10/swot-analysis-and-porters-5-forces-analyses-of-
john-lewis-partnership/>./

Value Chain Analysis 2019 [Online] available through <https://www.essay48.com/value-chain-
analysis/8867-John-Lewis-Of-Hungerford-Plc-Value-Chain-Analysis>./