LEG A CY
GENTLEMAN RETAILER
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lake Nordstrom, fourth- generation co-president of the eponymous 118-year-old US retailing dynasty Nordstrom, died unexpectedly at the age of 58—
just three weeks after announcing he had been diagnosed with lymphoma. At the time, he described his condition as
treatable and said he planned to continue to work at the Seattle-based Nordstrom family business. However, soon after the announcement, his company confirmed he had died. He is survived by his wife, Molly; son
Andy and daughter Alex; his two brothers; his father, Bruce, and other family members. Nordstrom was the great-grandson of the
company’s founder, John W Nordstrom—a Swedish immigrant who used the wealth he amassed during the Klondike gold rush to invest in Seattle shoe store, Wallin and Nordstrom, in 1901. Since then, the company has evolved into one of the country’s most renowned upmarket department store chains, famed for their customer service. Blake Nordstrom worked at the company
over four decades. In line with longstanding family policy, he started in the company’s lower ranks. As a schoolboy in the 1970s, he swept stockroom floors. In high school and college, he progressed to stocking shelves in the women’s shoe department. After graduating with an economics
degree from the University of Washington, Nordstrom worked his way up through management before eventually becoming president of the company’s chain of discount stores, called Nordstrom Rack. There, he increased profitability and implemented innovative revenue-increasing ideas. One of these was opening small stores, called Nordstrom Local, which offered
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alteration services, personal stylist advice, and returns processing, but stocked no apparel. Shoppers would use in-town outlets to pick up items they had purchased online and were able to pay by text. He became president of the Nordstrom
Group in 2000, at 39-years-old, after the departure of chairman and chief executive John Whitacre—the first non-family executive to hold the position. Nordstrom’s father, Bruce, became chairman in 2000, returning the company to full family control. Although Nordstrom was sole president
for 15 years, in practice, he ran the company with his brothers, Peter, and Erik. In 2015, his brothers were made co-presidents and together they steered the company through one of the retail industry’s biggest challenges—the rise of e-commerce. The Nordstroms dealt with online
competition by combining the company’s bricks and mortar stores with technology. Initiatives focused on services rather than merchandise, including equipping staff with mobile devices that can ring up a sale anywhere in the store, personal stylist advice, and same-day, curb side pick-ups of items purchased online. They also sought to highlight the company’s
customer service—the Nordstrom Way— introducing a generous returns policy without being quizzed by staff and thank you notes. In its 2017-18 fiscal year, the company
generated $15.5 billion in net sales, and reported a 16.5% increase in digital sales generating $948.5 million for the third quarter ending November. In 2018, the Harvard Business Review named Nordstrom one of the 100 best performing chief executives in 2018. The business remains under family
management, with Peter and Erik at the helm as co-presidents.
ICON
Blake Nordstrom (1960-2019)
Innovative leader of US upmarket retailer Nordstrom
1960
BLAKE NORDSTROM BORN IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON ON 4 OCTOBER
1982
GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON WITH AN ECONOMICS DEGREE
1988
NORDSTROM MARRIES MOLLY A LEWIS
1997
JOHN WHITACRE STEPS IN AS THE FIRST NON-FAMILY CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NORDSTROM GROUP
1998
NORDSTROM BROTHERS LAUNCH DIGITAL PLATFORM
NORDSTROM.COM
2000 WHITACRE STEPS DOWN AND NORDSTROM NAMED PRESIDENT OF NORDSTROM GROUP
2002
NORDSTROM ROLLS OUT STATE-OF-THE-ART MERCHANDISING SYSTEM, MONITORING SALES MINUTE-BY-MINUTE AT ALL STORES AROUND THE COUNTRY
2015
BROTHERS PETER AND ERIK NAMED CO-
PRESIDENTS ALONGSIDE NORDSTROM
2018
NORDSTROM ANNOUNCES HE HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH LYMPHOMA IN DECEMBER
2019
NORDSTROM DIES IN SEATTLE ON 2 JANUARY
ISSUE 75 | 2019
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