In my opinion, the IT teams were run very inefficiently. For few years, nordstrom forgot that they are not a tech company. They need to stop this move to cloud madness and look into what went wrong.
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"Bad behavior has consequences" Right on! Nordstrom's layoffs were extremely poorly managed. Not only considering how long-term employees were treated but also how the layoffs were communicated. Upper management should admit responsibility for the current situation.
It is also true that those who have stayed are disgusted. Just a few days before the big layoffs even people who were going to be laid off were invited to a meeting to recognize IT employees. What a joke.
So our new CTO comes from Amazon, and has been giving the keys to the castle. Previous imports at the VP level from Amazon have all failed due to the Nordstrom culture simply not liking the change and agility (although we were told they left because they didn't fit in!). Agile is a joke in Nordstrom - nobody really understands how it should work which is why we deliver nothing on time and at great cost. Teamwork is pretty much null, the senior leadership doesn't have the respect of the teams and there is no understanding of strategic direction. If the CTO partners with the usual suspects at the top, then nothing will change for the better. The question, of course, is whether the CTO will be allowed to succeed, and then how many people will actually stay when the culture becomes much more rigid and delivery focused. It should be good for us all, but the disruptive nature of it applying will take a very heavy toll in my opinion.
"The key differentials for Nordstrom over Amazon are (1) Brand, (2) Stores and (3) Customer Loyalty". Internal and external customer service was a pillar of Nordstrom's culture.
The internal customer service is gone after how rudely Nordstrom IT employees were laid off recently. These outstanding IT employees offered long years of loyalty, very long work hours, strong commitment, and dedication.
Whether you can do it and have the guts to run a proper IT department will depend on the low morale and disgust of those who have stayed. Bad behavior has consequences.
What?! Are you nuts?
Nordstrom is not 20 years behind, but we did indeed bury our head in the sand when they gave the Tech Leadership the keys to the safe and allowed them to fritter away the money. Some great ideas came out of that, but at a tremendous cost with all the investment in duplicate solutions and throw-away software. That is part of what they are doing here - getting control of the rampant waste in the company. Unfortunately many of those still here are those who think that the days haven't changed, and they can still do things their own way and spend money as if it grows on trees. Must be addressed and quickly.
As for brick and mortar losing (that's how you spell it by the way!) traction, suggest you go and study Sports Authority for exactly what NOT to do. The key differentials for Nordstrom over Amazon are (1) Brand, (2) Stores and (3) Customer Loyalty. The stores are the flagship of the brand - do you see Nordstrom spending millions on advertising a la Macys etc.? No, because the stores are a major part of the branding. The stores themselves provide an avenue for the customers and something that (today) Amazon cannot duplicate. And the customers they have today are in the stores (Rack and Department) and shopping. The LAST thing that JWN should do is start cutting back on their major competitive advantage and going head to head with AMZN, because that is a battle with only one outcome (as I said, watch Sports Authority who are going down that path, and will go down completely).
Cost control, proper governance and leadership, experienced personnel for managing a modern technology team and vastly improved relationship with the business (can you say "trust"?) along with a major attack and vendor renegotiation on that millstone around the neck known as the $475 Million Merchandising upgrade (NGEN, likely the failing of Nordstrom) will get us back in the game. Now, the big question - can we do it and do we have the guts to run a proper IT department? ..Stay tuned!
It's moronic to think Nordstrom could continue to survive in this state. The cloud is a huge money cut for their ever increasing expenses. They are scaling well and this is one way to do it.
The problem is Nordstrom is easily now 20 years behind their competition because they put their head in the sand and tolerate this backwards mentality. Amazon will eat their lunch if they dont step it up, and brick and morters are loosing traction.