JOhn Lewis environment forces

John Lewis, one of subsidiaries of John Lewis Partnership (JLP), launched its first store in London’s Oxford Street in 1864. The company then has implemented the organic grown approach, pursuing a dynamic business and corporate strategy. It has been successful by making the right strategic decisions thorough effective operation (O’Regan and Ghobadian, 2012). By 2012, the firm becomes the largest multichannel department store retailer in the UK, with 30 department stores and 9 John Lewis at home, providing Fashion, Home, Electronic products and Home Technology assortment. It publicised that profit before tax in 2012 was £15.8 million, almost triple of that a decade ago (John Lewis plc interim report, 2012). However, success cannot only be measured in term of finance, but also in term of stakeholders’ happiness. John Lewis achieved Britain’s Favourite Retailer Awards for the fourth consecutive year in 2011 and many other awards.
This paper is about to use environmental forces to explain the achievements of John Lewis over 150 years. The work contains mainly three parts: macro-environmental force focusing on four points, then moving to two elements in micro-environment and conclusion.
Macro-environmental forces
Macro-environment is also known as external environment which affects business decision in various ways and which can impinge not only on the transformation of the firm, but also on the process of resources acquisition and on the creation and consumption of output (Worthington and Britton, 2009). These forces can shape and moderate the behaviour of all stakeholders in the market including competitors, suppliers, customers and employees. The macro forces are often organised into political/legal, economic, ecological/physical, social/cultural and technology (Kotler et al., 2010, p.154). In order to clarify its influence effectively, the economists arrange them into few models such as PESTEL, DEEPLIST. This paper will apply the PEST model to consider: