Introduction/History In 1901, John W. Nordstrom established a small shoe store that eventually expanded into a large chain store called Nordstrom. Even with the expansion of Nordstrom, it has been in the family for four generations. Nordstrom's mission is to provide exceptional customer service, the highest quality merchandise with sizes for most, and be budget friendly for everyone. After the retirement of John W. Nordstrom, the business was passed on to the family second generation, his sons, Everett, Elmer, and Lloyd. Although Nordstrom was under new ownership, the three brothers remained customer focused and maintained the same mission as their father. Nordstrom continued to expand under their leadership, and they developed and implemented …show more content…
Under their leadership, they remained customer focused, and the company grew into a billion-dollar retailer. They began to empower members of management as well as the sales teams in each individual store to make decisions that were beneficial to the customers and not the store itself. They decentralized Nordstrom's purchasing process and allowed regional managers to make purchases based on their stores geographic. They preferred to hire "nice" people who were trainable in sales versus experienced salespeople who were not very friendly. They even began to reward employees for developing an entrepreneurial persona (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 153). Currently, Nordstrom is under the leadership of the fourth generation of Nordstrom's and the mission remains the same. Nordstrom's mission is to provide exceptional customer service, the highest quality merchandise with sizes for most, and be budget friendly for everyone. As this generation of leadership continues to build upon the mission that they began with, Nordstrom continues to be successful and has now expanded to 44 countries and 31 states (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p.