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:
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Brand,
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Stores and
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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!