BUSINESS
Happiness
AND
PETER JONES
S
imon Fowler, the relatively new three retailers that offered him jobs. He
MD of the department store opted for John Lewis because it was “very
Peter Jones in Sloane Square, had human, very down-to-earth, very
wanted to know what kind of genuine, honest and uncomplicated: I
questions I would be asking in admired it hugely”. And 23 years ago, he
the interview. But no amount of careful launched his career at Peter Jones –
planning could have anticipated the starting in the lighting department.
place we got to in just 90 seconds. “When I first started at Peter Jones,” he
We’re still doing the biographical bit, recalls, “there was a staff trainer who
when Fowler brings up the subject of took me under her wing – as she did all
medicinal leeches and, specifically, a graduates – to ensure that our early days
chemical called 5 hyrdroxytriptomene, were filled with knowledge and learning
which stimulates the hypothalmus. and lessons for the future.
“We all have 5HT going through our “She told me to draw a long line on a
bodies,” Fowler explains. “It’s a bit of piece of paper. The left hand side of the
endorphine that makes you feel happier. line would be today’s world and on the
There’s a high percentage of 5HT found right hand side is whenever I wanted to
in bananas. So if you want to feel happy, retire and she told me to write down on
bananas are the things to eat.” that blank line what I would like to do.”
Born in Bangkok, schooled in Lusaka, “I still have that piece of paper and
Zambia, and Wiltshire, Fowler had once becoming MD of Peter Jones is on it.” He
entertained the idea that he might go took up the position earlier this year.
into medicine, studying chemistry, The John Lewis Partnership has an
biology and physics at A-level. But, he unusual history. The man known
says ruefully, physics was always a little throughout the business as “The
way out of his reach. Founder”, John Spedan Lewis, was
He read biology at Portsmouth and uncomfortable with the fact that, at the
medicinal leeches were the subject of his beginning of the last century, his father
final dissertation. And then, in what he and his brother were making as much
describes as a scattergun approach to his money as the entire workforce in the two
future career, he applied to be a news stores they owned, John Lewis on Oxford
reader at the BBC, a diplomat and to a Street and Peter Jones in Sloane Square.
number of retail outlets. Gradually, he began to introduce new
The John Lewis Partnership was one of systems and practices that improved
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