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LUNDGREN OUTLINES MACY’S INVIGORATION PLAN

By Steve McLinden

Terry Lundgren’s keynote speech at Spring Convention was also one of his last as chairman, president and CEO of Federated Department Stores.

It’s not that Lundgren, 55, is going anywhere. The Federated name is. The Cincinnati-based retail giant officially did away with the name on June 1, when it became Macy’s, as part of a focus on the widely recognized yet evolving core brand. “We are just beginning to try new ideas and test new environments,” Lundgren told the near-capacity luncheon crowd at the Las Vegas Hilton. “That’s the main attraction of this event.”

One ongoing company initiative is to “embrace newness in all its aspects,” he said. That includes tweaking the identity of Bloomingdale’s by adding more contemporary women’s apparel and other new items to attract a wider demographic. “Five years ago [Bloomingdale’s] was caught in the middle,” he said. “It was kind of like Macy’s, but not like Neiman Marcus. Now, we see a clearer delineation.”

The company wants to gather more consumer information at the point of sale and migrate toward entertainment-themed, destination lifestyle shopping centers. “We’ve been slow to embrace this,” he said. “But we are now opening our eyes to fill-in stores for smaller boxes.”

The company also wants to make sure it puts the right people in the right jobs, through better screening of new hires and greater use of management evaluations, said Lundgren. Once workers are aboard, partnership and teamwork should be the emphasis, he said. “One of our core values is, ‘Teams win.’ I tell [employees], ‘Let’s not come up with 100 different ideas — give me two to three great ideas that will really win, and get them done.’ ”

The overall goal is to weed out indifferent and unproductive attitudes, Lundgren said. “Hire for attitude!” is his advice. “You are never going to be good at what you do unless you love what you do,” he said.

Once a week, Lundgren conducts a teleconference with his team, speaking for 15 minutes before answering staff questions. “They are much closer to the firing line than I am,” he said. Lundgren even answered written questions from the convention audience.

Regarding expansion plans, he said, “We are going to be one of the largest developers in America.” On the “threat” of on-line sales: “If customers want to shop that way, we embrace that. We just added mattresses to our on-line [selection], and that had the surprising effect of driving traffic into the stores from customers who wanted to feel them.”