John Spedan Lewis

Spedan Lewis, son of the founder of the John Lewis shop on Oxford Street, decided the gap between his family's income and his staff's was unjust. He transferred the business into a trust in two stages, in 1929 and 1950, so that it is owned on behalf of all its employees, called Partners, who share profits through an annual bonus and have elected councils. It is the largest employee-owned business in Britain, and its recent years of losses and restructuring show ownership alone does not guarantee success.