Sir Andy Street Visits HGS
Former West Midlands Mayor and CEO of John Lewis, Sir Andy Street visited HGS on Thursday 3rd July to speak to our GCSE Business Studies students.
Sir Andy gave an inspiring speech where he talked about his career starting on the shop floor of John Lewis in London and ascending to be the Managing Director of John Lewis. He told the boys that he had actually been rejected by Marks and Spencer before joining John Lewis and he also explained why the values of John Lewis suited him personally.
Sir Andy then took questions from the boys, and he said that he was most impressed by the quality of the questions.
Many thanks to Mr Harvey, Head of social Sciences for inviting Sir Andy to the school.
Mr Conway
Year 10’s inspirational journey through the world of business with Sir Andy Street began when he gave a brief yet very thorough introduction of John Lewis’s values and company structure. This helped us gain a very enriching experience in how an experimental company flourishes and succeeds in a modern business landscape. Not only was it very intriguing, but he also added elements of interactivity into it to keep us engaged throughout his talk. He made the speech very relevant for us by explaining the path he took when he was our age, such as his light-bulb moment with an economics teacher at a King Edwards VI school, and how we could apply it to our lives.
Sir Andy Street surprised us when he mentioned that John Lewis was not in fact his first choice, but rather as a social worker, despite having a Politics and Economics degree at Oxford University. However, he was rejected twice.
After 20 years of pure dedication, skill and passion, his hard work was recognised when he was appointed the Managing Director of John Lewis. However, the turbulent economic climate of 2008 meant that profits were falling, and urgent change was needed to help save the company from going underwater. His brilliant advertising schemes, such as the well-known Christmas ads, and his huge gamble on e-commerce helped boost company profits and employee satisfaction.
His career at John Lewis ended at the end of 2016 with a grand gesture of a 15% bonus for all employees, costing nearly £180 million for the company due to a massive windfall in profits. However, his journey was not complete. He wanted to give back to his community by running as the first Mayor of West Midlands, and his re-election was won by a landslide of 50,000 votes due to his ethos of trust and approachability.
We finally ended our session with some very thoughtful questions from the Year 10s. Through these, we learnt more about Andy Street as a role model, and his friendly approach was displayed as he ended his oration with a group selfie!
Sir Andy Street is always welcome at our school, and we would love to have him back again.
Jaskaran Virdi – Year 10
