A Call for Collaboration

Solving Problems/Improving Leadership:

This week we had the opportunity to meet and discuss with Tony Spring, the CEO of Bloomingdale’s for nearly two hours. For these roundtables with executives the interns submit questions a week in advance and during the session the executive answers our questions. Many of the questions asked were centered on the relationship between Macy’s (the parent company) and Bloomingdale’s such as “What is the relationship between you and the Macy’s CEO? How do you determine what strategies you align on with Macy’s and which you differentiate?”. Tony’s response to these questions revealed a broad area that could be improved: the relationship between Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. Bloomingdale’s is incredibly fortunate to be under Macy’s because they receive many of the benefits of a large company such as accounting while also having privacy and independence. Tony Spring relayed that the relationship between Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s is pretty independent and that Macy’s doesn’t step in unless something has gone wrong. The CEO of Macy’s meets with Tony once a month. As a result of this stance, there does seem to be a disconnect between the two companies. When I went to a meeting on retail sustainability with an employee from Macy’s, many of the policies that Macy’s employees implement and the resources they receive were entirely unknown to Bloomingdale’s employees. The Bloomingdale’s employees felt frustrated that they were not aware of the resources that should be provided under Macy’s inc. I have sensed this frustration between Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s when working directly with my buying team. They said that the general feeling is that Macy’s looks down on Bloomingdale’s because of their smaller scale and that some employees don’t even realized that Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s are located in the same building. Overall, I think that this disconnect between the two companies is problematic if Bloomingdale’s wants to continue to utilize the resources of such as a large parent company. This is a case of under-use of leadership for both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s and the top executives of both companies should interact more with one another. Last week I went to a central address for Bloomingdale’s and this issue could be addressed by having a central address for both Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s executives and employees. Additionally, there should be more initiatives for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s employees to interact such as service events. In a changing retail environment, I think that it is critical for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s to foster this relationship so that they can both learn from each other and so that Bloomingdale’s can utilize the resources of Macy’s.

Secondly, throughout the summer I am working on a project that I will present to 100+ stakeholders. My project is to provide feedback and recommendations on how to make the move in the corporate offices from Manhattan to Long Island City seamless. One of the largest challenges for our team is how to foster a more interactive culture. From talking to employees, they feel as if there is a divide based on floor and on division/ team and a problem with communication. They are hoping that this new office will foster more interaction because of the open layout. As of right now our main recommendations are a “Little Brown Board” where each team posts about what is going on with there area. We are excited to make our recommendations to the Tony Spring and other executives and employees during our presentation at the end of the internship.