Why the most important asset is people

My Journey in the Footwear Industry that lead me to Zappos #152

Blog #151 I talked about How two Tom’s made a difference. In this blog I want to talk about Why the most important asset is people

I’ve found in my career that one tenet is always coming up. It came up in my early days and followed me every job since. The thing about this is I really didn’t fully realize it until after the Palo Alto job. Blake Nordstrom actually said it to me once. “People are the most important asset.”

Lessons from Martha

Martha ran a tight ship as I said earlier in Blog #44 & #45. It was amazing the respect she had from her team. They weren’t afraid of her, they just really respected her.

She had high expectations and followed through on everything she said. How many times have you ever said you were going to do something and then let it slide? She didn’t, she was meticulous on every expectation she set forth. And to this day her department was the best run department I’ve ever seen. Very impressive and tons of respect.

Gail

So I move on to other floors and the kid’s experience was pretty much a re-introduction to management with buying thrown in the mix. I was fortunate to have Gail there in my first buyer job as my coach/Mentor. She was great with people as she showed empathy and compassion. She was also a great role model.

Arden Fair

The Arden Fair experience was amazing too but here’s where I stumbled. We did so many things right and had great results. My mentor Rob had a big influence on me on how I bought shoes and maximized items. I developed a great team and had the most fun I’ve ever had at Nordstrom. I stumbled because I didn’t realize it was because of the team I put together. Yes, I put it together and I made really good decisions on the mix and such. But I didn’t bring the people piece until Half way through my time there at Palo Alto.

Needless to say my life would have been much easier. Don’t you hate it when you realize something after the fact? I ended up leaving the store better than I found it which was another Nordstrom saying but still.

Valley Fair