My Dinner With Nordstrom!

Shares in Nordstrom jumped a bit this morning with news the company may be taken private.

They are going private to allow them time to create smaller, more engaging spaces to pitch their products. They are going to sell beer!  Just what we need!

This got me thinking about my meeting with Nordstrom senior management and some of the Nordstrom family. Here is the story from 20 years ago...

I few to Seattle and spent two days with them as they interviewed me and I reviewed their people and operations for the GM position there. The internet was a new business and they were figuring it out.  They needed some help.

At the end of the meetings I went to dinner with some of the owners and the Nordstrom family.  We met at a incredibly fancy, rich wood, gilded, dinning room.  The meal and wine were fantastic.

They asked me what I would to help their company grow and be more profitable.  I told them two things:

1.  I told them to put their best sellers on their website and to consider all point of sale one company.  I told them they needed to work together.  See, they had merchants that did not want to put their best sellers in the strange internet division because they would not get credit for the sales.  So the merchants were giving their weakest products to the internet division.  I told them some exclusivity at certain sales area was fine, but the best of the best needed to get to the broadest market possible as fast as possible.  Some of the management team looked at me llke I was crazy.  But, we had more wine.

2.  I told the Nordstrom family they should sell shoes online.  Nordstrom's heritage and strongest area was and is shoes.  They were not selling them online.  The older Nordstrom' were incredulous, they told  me that was impossible.  That shoes were too hard to fit.  Returns would be too high.  They could not service as they liked.  Then, I showed them print outs and images of a new company selling shoes online.  Zappos!

I went back to the hotel.  I called Renee and told her I thought the meeting was a bust.  I thought I had insulted the Nordstroms. 

When I got home the next afternoon, Nordstrom offered me the job.  The money, stock and opportunity were fantastic.  

I declined.

They offered me a new Porsche on top of the original offer.  I still declined.

See, I owned a struggling but good company in Wisconsin.  WinterSilks.  It needed work and I wanted to finish the job.  Renee told me, I would not sleep at night if I did not see things through. She told me I was not a quitter.

Thank you, Renee.

Norstrom followed my suggestions but has never really caught up to Zappos.

Zappos was purchased by Amazon and has gone on to be a multi-billion dollar company.

WinterSilks has moved through several iterations.  It, has merged with other companies and grown. (I resigned in 2007, one year after selling the company to Golden Gate Capital).

I don't think there is any great moral to my story.  Other than perhaps big successful companies often have a hard time adapting to change and new technologies.  And, that sometimes there are things that matter more than money.

 I could have had new car.  Instead, I kept my soul.

I wish Nordstrom all the luck in the world going private.  And, I hope they redouble their efforts to focus on their heritage in cool, new ways.

Chris Vig is president of The Vig Company and is an investor, artist, author, business consultant and former CEO living in Monona, WI. This article is for entertainment purposes only.  Do you own diligence when investing your hard earned cash.