Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen Keller
On June 27 2018, I had the honour of judging the first theme of our new, always on, innovation programme — JLAB. This has always been a responsibility I take very seriously to help ensure I can help the John Lewis Partnership select the right types of business to solve the real life problems, and to help the startup or established business by providing important feedback and questions that can help them accelerate their proposition, whether they are successful at the JLAB pitch day or not.
Over the past 4/5 years I have had the privilege to see over 500 pitches (JLAB and other mechanisms) and the one thing that has really stuck with me is the resilience these people demonstrate. Not just during the pitch but also after, and how they move from idea to idea, opportunity to opportunity and sometimes failure to failure; but never giving up. It can never be easy to stand up in front of a group of corporate decision makers for five minutes and share a dream that has consumed your life for the past month, year, decade or longer. I admire this courage and is something I am always learning from.
It was a beautiful sunny day in London and the location for the first JLAB pitch day of 2018 was the conference room at London & Partners. To help you visualise the space we were in, this room overlooks the river Thames and is simply amazing. It was serendipitous, hosting an innovation programme in such a location because looking out from the floor to ceiling windows is like taking a time machine back through time. If you look down to your feet you can see HMS Belfast, a cruiser that took to the seas in 1939. To your right you have Tower Bridge, a suspension bridge that dates back to 1886 and directly in front of you have the Tower of London, Her Majesty’s Royal Palace, a castle on the north bank of the river Thames. It was fitting that we had the privilege to hear from eleven talented and fearless people in a location that is surrounded by engineering genius, creative beauty and structures of strength, designed to protect and support and continue in the face of adversity.
Reflecting on the day I was very inspired by the standard of all the pitches, as a selection of startups and established business responded to our health and wellbeing theme. We shortlisted three businesses and as colleagues now start to work with them we have recently launched the second of our JLAB themes.
Entries are now open until the 5 August and the John Lewis Partnership is interested in innovative concepts which could significantly reduce the impact of plastic waste in John Lewis and Waitrose. Visit jlab.co.uk now for more details.
