Press Release: Sir Stuart Hampson, former Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, will officially launch the CIM Study Centre on Thursday 23 April

8 August 2011

Wednesday 8 April 2009

The University of Buckingham Business School has recently become an Accredited Study Centre for the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).

The University is delighted to announce that Sir Stuart Hampson, former Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, will officially launch the CIM Study Centre on Thursday 23 April with a lecture entitled “The John Lewis Partnership – creating an enduring brand”.

Sir Stuart Hampson said: “I’m looking forward to visiting The University of Buckingham. The recent turbulence in financial markets has sparked increasing interest in companies which have a non-conventional capital structure and I’m pleased to be able to talk about what makes the John Lewis Partnership’s approach to doing business so different.”

Creating a CIM accredited study centre is part of our strategy to engage the local business community in the first outside accredited professional course that the Business School offers.

The CIM Programme Director Anneke Edmonds, BA DipM FCIM, Chartered Marketer, said: “I look forward to developing a CIM programme which will bring together the expertise of the academic and professional community to better prepare marketers for a ‘survival of the fittest’ business environment. Buckingham Business School will also be offering a CIM course in partnership with the Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce.”

The John Lewis Partnership used to be “one of the nation’s best kept secrets” – enjoying a devoted following of regular shoppers. Now John Lewis and Waitrose regularly win awards as “the nation’s favourite retailers”.

Famous for being owned by its staff and “never knowingly undersold”, its highly principled approach to business, customer service and community responsibility provides competitive edge and resilience to withstand challenging economic times.

John Lewis measures success by the ‘happiness’ factor of its stakeholders – staff and end customers. Sir Stuart believes that the John Lewis brand has been built upon sound corporate social responsibility (CSR) business practices.

Sir Stuart was the fourth person to be appointed as Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and held the position since 1993. He was knighted in 1998.