Any other business: Have you wondered why there’s only one John Lewis Partnership, Mr Clegg?

‘A John Lewis economy’ was a strong soundbite from Nick Clegg, even if it failed to resonate with Netto shoppers lower down the social scale than the Cleggs. The Deputy Prime Minister is ‘pushing for real, early, radical action’ to make this ‘the decade of employee share ownership’, and no one can deny he’s picked a potent theme at a time when conventional capitalism seems hellbent on self-destruction. But having bagged a headline, he should pause to ask himself this: if John Spedan Lewis invented such a brilliant business model — which he did — then how come it hasn’t been copied again and again?

There are only a handful of enduring large-scale employee-owned businesses in Britain. After the Lewis-Waitrose combo the most celebrated is Unipart, the car component supplier that is 70 per cent owned by its workforce and pension fund, with sympathetic institutions holding the rest. Formerly the spare parts arm of British Leyland, it has been led since its 1987 buyout by one man, John Neill; what makes it tick, besides the commitment that comes with ownership, is a philosophy that Neill calls ‘the Unipart Way’, all about empowerment and self-improvement.