Robin Lewis

It’s not surprising that without enough strategic foresight, Nordstrom would default to its “lowest hanging fruit,” and apparently its easiest path to growth -- the Rack. And I could speculate the same about Kohl’s under its CEO, Tom Kingsbury, formerly the successful CEO of Burlington’s off-price chain of stores. Is Kingsbury defaulting to the model he previously led and best understands? Stay tuned for more about Kohl’s potential slippage. The Race to the Bottom Surges On There are, and will continue to be, more downsizing and/or …

Is Nordstrom Slipping into the Vortex of Deflating Value?Read More

Here’s a glimpse of a strategic disaster. I gave Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, kudos as he took the top job as, in my opinion, Amazon was slipping into maturity. I said the meteoric ecommerce frontrunner needed a level-headed business professional to turn the growth strategy from the “get big fast” culture created by its brilliant founder to a more sustainable and profitable forward arc before it might tip into the abyss. One of the big failings of entrepreneurs like Bezos is that they don’t know when to let go of their breakthrough innovations. …

Amazon Dumps Yet Another Failed Brick-and-Mortar ExperimentRead More

Let’s speculate about Geoffrey, the lovable giraffe-like “mascot” of the once category-killer Toys”R”Us stores. To review, the brand went public in 1978, and during the peak of its power in the 1980s, had 1450 locations globally, selling 18,000 different toys, including all of the major toy brands. Indeed, they owned a 25 percent share of the overall toy industry. Geoffrey also became somewhat of a TV star as TRU’s marketing strategy rolled him out across the country. The store’s TV spots also became even more iconic with a catchy jingle …

Is Toys”R”Us a Rising Phoenix Metaphor?Read More

Best Buy has gone through several strategic iterations not only to survive but also to flourish. CEO Corie Barry (since 2019) succeeded Hubert Joly following his very successful seven-year tenure repositioning Best Buy to compete with its two major competitors, Amazon and Walmart, who were squeezing them to death. For this iteration, Barry seems to be reversing one of the key strategic moves that Joly implemented, namely increasing in-store superior service, including associates at an Apple Genius Bar level of expertise, and leveraging its …

Earth to Best Buy: Resurrect Your One-Upmanship Over AppleRead More

Oh noooo! Are we going there again? No, I’m not going back to my years of ranting about Eddie Lampert, the brilliant financier who acquired Kmart and Sears in the early 2000s, declaring he was going to return those two iconic brands (failing at the time) to their once glorious positions in retail, only learning quickly that was not doable. He then pivoted and brilliantly managed them down and out over a period of almost two decades. And due to expert financial engineering, he was able to pocket a lot of money … maybe billions? Who cared about …

Coach and Michael Kors: An Eddie Lampert Echo?Read More