...the best company in britain to work for?

in the depths of what everyone keeps telling us is the deepest financial and economic crisis since the second world war, john lewis plainly has not done badly (operating profit up 20%, if you didn't read the business pages last week). that's partly because it stacks its shelves with goods of a certain quality, and sells them to a certain kind of customer with a certain standard of service... it also has something to do with the reason everyone was cheering so loudly last thursday: unlike other high-street names (unlike most companies, in fact), john lewis is owned by a trust on behalf of its employees, each of whom has a say in its running and a share in its profits. this is britain's largest and most venerable example of worker co-ownership. its avowed purpose is not the making of shedloads of short-term profit to placate a bunch of remote and greedy shareholders, but "the happiness of all its members, through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business" (that's from the partnership's constitution. it bears re-reading). and at a time when the limits of the more traditional capitalist model of shareholder ownership stand cruelly exposed, john lewis' ongoing success is increasingly prompting all three main political parties to point to it as a possible template – for other companies, for schools, hospitals, even local councils// jon henley, 03.16.10, guardian