Bloomingdale's Chairman and CEO Tony Spring celebrated the 150th anniversary of the iconic retailer in 2022. He reflects on why hope is essential but not a strategy, how one plus one equals three, and why humility is not a lack of competence or confidence.
Here are a few questions, along with Spring’s answers (watch the video above for all “20 Questions”):
Lead with inspiration. Understand that although hope is not a strategy, it's a necessary ingredient in giving people a sense of possibility. As a leader, we are keepers and givers of hope, and we provide that inspiration that's so important to building the team and keeping their interest and their motivation going.
First is intellectual curiosity, being able to be open and be interested in what's new and what's next. Second would be a combination of passion and tenacity. Passion for the things that you believe in, conviction to show other people what's important, and then the tenacity to kind of see through the difficulties or roadblocks or obstacles that may come up along the way. And the last, which has become even more important in my time in retail is collaboration. I always use the adage one plus one equals three, not because my math skills are bad, but I really believe that collaboration yields a better outcome.
This past June was 35 years with Bloomingdale's, and certainly deciding to only work for one company could be perceived as a risk. In the end though, it's the diversity of experiences that you have. My opportunity to work in marketing, in merchandise, in stores, in operations, to meet people all throughout the country, work with vendors internationally. While I had one company, I had multiple experiences and what every person should be looking for and expect is the opportunity to learn and to grow. And if you can get that at one company, that's great. If you need to work in different companies to get that, so be it. Don't look at it as resume building. Look at it as building your retail acumen, your opportunity to learn more about the business and to be a more qualified and bigger contributor in whatever you do.
I'm a big believer in the balance of art and science. In a business that today has more information at our fingertips, it sometimes can be easy to think that the business is really just about the power of your algorithms, the ability to have insight and data at your fingertips, and miss the importance of seeing fashion, of seeing what's new and seeing what's next. Conversely, the person who is going from the gut and isn't taking advantage of all the powerful information that is now at our fingertips is at a complete disadvantage.
I would have to say the people. From the beginning, I was attracted to Bloomingdale's because of the quality of the people. From the time I worked in the stores and throughout my time in the central organization, I've had the chance to learn from other people, mentors that I met along the way, who helped me to grow and continue to learn, reverse mentoring, that I've had the opportunity to do for others, the chance to work on succession planning and make sure that the team of tomorrow is as good and hopefully better than the team that we have today. Retail ultimately is a business about people. The better your team, the better the quality of your team, the better your business is going to be.
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