Move of the week: John Lewis Partnership’s new CIO Andrew Murphy

At an executive level at least, the market has paused for breath as retailers put all their focus into delivering the kind of Christmas trading performance that can turn a poor year into a moderate year and a good year into a great year.

One move has caught the eye this week, however, and that’s Andrew Murphy’s appointment as chief information officer at the John Lewis Partnership.

Murphy succeeds Paul Coby, the architect of John Lewis’s IT strategy and a key player in its transformation into a leading omnichannel retailer.

Murphy, a JLP lifer who joined the organisation straight out of university in 1992, has played a similarly integral role in the business’s recent development, having spent the past two and a bit years as group productivity and change director.

“CIO is a vitally important role for JLP and one that appears well suited to Murphy’s skillset”

Don’t be fooled by the rather abstruse job title: Murphy has been a driving force behind the delivery of JLP’s manifesto for change, set out in its 2016 annual report, which supports the new business strategy and aims to make the organisation more dynamic and agile.

His task has been to implement plans that support JLP’s productivity improvements, financial strategy and future organisational structure, and with finding efficiencies across both the John Lewis and Waitrose brands.

Productivity is a buzzword in business circles at the moment, in part because the UK performs so poorly on this measure against other developed economies.

Retail productivity is particularly problematic (the Government identifies it as one of five sectors that make up the majority of the UK’s productivity shortfall), however JLP has long been ahead of the curve in this respect and has acknowledged that its long-term financial health relies on maximising productivity and linking it with performance, pay and progression.

It is notable that Murphy’s own progression has taken him into a CIO role where the ability to think strategically is such a desirable attribute.

CIO is a vitally important role for JLP and one that appears well suited to Murphy’s skillset.

With the jobs market winding down, this will be my last article of 2017. I’d like to wish all readers a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2018.

Major moves this month