It would appear that there is an acute attention focusing on the .com sector from Macys leadership.
But is it to late for a game change?
The answer lies in a few deciding factors:
1- Is Macys willing to go for broke into the .com sector? Unfortunately for Macys to compete with it's sector peers that are light year ahead of the .com market in earnings and execution they would have to not only just " 1- up" the technology which we all think they do a pretty good job at that piece. But they will need more buildings, more people, more marketing surrounding the e-commerce experience which means they would have to plan and execute a massive portion of capital as in (60%-68%) into multiple $300m+ sites (as in at the least 26) such as the ones in Goodyear - AZ , Tulsa - OK, Portland - TN, and West Virginia. But also re-vamp store locations modifying them with conveyors and sortation units to make the stores also capable of direct ship to consumers from stores as well.
Hindsight being that all of Macys competitors are investing huge quantities of capital into their own e-commerce experience. 80% of them are lacking in technology and are not utilizing stand alone D2C buildings to direct ship to consumers but rather installing primitive technology and clunky business practices in stores alone to meet consumer demand.
(THATS where Macys has them beat) However the competition has been doing the e-commerce for far longer than Macys so currently they have the edge even with substandard equipment and business model. Merely because they have been doing it longer and because they have more ( A LOT MORE ) locations than Macy's. As well as shipping internationally vs. solely U.S.
2- Leadership has to understand that letting go of key stakeholders directly related of the e-commerce omni channel ( Can NOT Happen) such as R.B. Harrison, Scott Prieto, Systems teams and IT teams along with so many building level executives that surged the buildings forward and brain child the concepts and executions of the D2C's to begin with.
Letting go of these people or letting them leave is a massive mistake. They have irreplaceable value in building the buildings, systems and infrastructure that makes the Omni-channel so successful to begin with. Its kind of like having a 8 time super-bowl championship team in their prime (go PATS) and either trading them or letting them leave - And still hoping to make the super bowl again when 80% of your (A BALL PLAYERS) are missing.
Sure they can pay huge dollars to get brilliant minds in to replace them. But there will be a learning curve of epic proportion as in Decades worth of trial and error to re- live all over again.
3- And finally, Leadership at all levels can only succeed if their teams reporting to them above and below all have trust, integrity with the same values and respect for one another. And that only comes through (TRUE ENGAGMENT) Not paper engagement. But real transparent open and honest dialog that starts with (WHERE THE COMPANY IS AT FINANCIALLY) and (TRUSTING YOUR TEAM) to do the right thing,
Give Ownership of individual departments and objectives to even the lowest paygrade and give them the opportunity to develop, idealize and have valid input into decision making processes at a department level.
What if Macys rank structure looked more like This:
(CEO - Pres - VP - and everyone else was just a Macys employee- Take away the idea of a TITLE and Power that comes with that. Because people may respect the Title or position but at the sometime have absolutely no respect for the person filling that position.
So I say everyone is simply a MACY's Associate and no person is any better than any other person no matter what your pay structure looks like. That means if an area manager see's a water spill on the floor. Don't just "CALL SOME BODY" Take a Second - Go get a mop or rag and clean it up...!
If someone calls out sick - The Other MACY's associates will fill their position (No Mater Pay Grade)
If Macys was to utilize this methodology They not only would increase their revenues, increase stock performance but at the same time earn trust and true engagement from all of their employee's which would in turn reduce turnover and increase productivity because everyone would be truly happy with their place of business.
Its a Big Pill to swallow - But 100's of World companies have done it in Japan, Germany, France, Sweden, Mexico, Canada and even the U.S. and they went from rags to riches. and to be employed by one of them is a life time employment. None of their employees can be fired for any reason instead the harbor a culture of example, training and coaching to afford all of their employee's the same opportunities of success as even the CEO's of the companies.
Best of Luck BIG (M) - Perhaps they will listen.