agers interviewed, visitors strive to isolate one or two key ingredients –
silver bullets to make their competitive problems go away while preserv-
ing a traditional management culture. It’s the same pattern that we see
among manufacturing companies where efforts to emulate Japanese rivals
have led to the proliferation of Just-in-Time inventory systems, Total
Quality programs and corporate vision statements.’^10
The three secretive Nordstroms, all co-chairmen and usually known
inside the company as Mr Bruce, Mr John and Mr Jim, usually
refuse to explain to outsiders how their company works. When
pressed, they proffer self-effacing comments such as ‘We live for the cus-
tomer’ or ‘There is nothing special or difficult about what we do; it’s just a
lot of people doing a lot of things on their own.’^11 ‘Don’t be taken in by
this,’ says Francine Schwedel of theWall Street Journal. ‘The Nordstroms
are shrewd businessmen who are also masters at motivating their
troops.’^12
Complementary styles at the top have benefited Nordstrom. Mr Bruce
serves as ‘spokesman and ambassador’; Mr John is the ‘feisty merchant’
who can play the heavy; Mr Jim is the ‘focused operator’ who has a knack
for persevering toward long-term goals. ‘They go into a room and grapple
with a big issue,’ observes Nordstrom co-president, Daryl Hume. But no
matter how much fighting occurs behind closed doors, they always come
out with one game plan – never several different game plans. ‘It saps the
strength of a company when the leaders aren’t really aligned. The troops
can smell it a mile away.’^13
Nordstrom’s model rests on: (1) attractive surroundings, (2) competitive
prices, (3) a wide selection of merchandise, and (4) superior customer
service. In the first two areas, Nordstrom strives for parity with the best of
competitors. With respect to the third element, it stocks 50 per cent more
inventory than competitors both in terms of the depth of selection and
across the full range of sizes. The fourth arena provides a particularly for-
midable competitive advantage. ‘All this, of course, comes at a price,’
states Bruce Nordstrom. ‘High levels of inventory and customer service
add expense; we compensate by generating volume ... we depend on good
sales people to help us do it.’^14
Nordstrom is not just a high-end store. Its popular priced departments,
such as Town Square and Point of View, are very big in many locations. The
firm tends to layer in higher priced departments once a store is established.
It is store policy not to jack prices up and down with one-day sales events.
But when a competitor runs one-day specials, Nordstrom always matches
their prices not just for that day, but forever. The company strives to offer
the best quality available in a category by using its own labels at prices
lower than comparable branded items.^15
The recruitment and internal market domains 383