Introducing Mr. Lundgren before he came on stage, President Brown had this to say about the man, "I want you to listen well, you will never find another executive who cares as much about you." Once President Brown says something like that about an executive, you tend to pay attention.
The presentation began with a couple commercials for Macy's, and a hilarious YouTube launched initiative featuring Martha Stewart and her frat house takeover! (Available for you at the end of this entry)
Read the entire thing--->Click link below :)
Mr. Lundgren explained this as one of the first new initiatives Macy's is taking to tap into our generation's market, with youth under 30 being mainly responsible for a huge increase in the .com business, a 30% .com increase for BOTH Macy's.com and Bloomingdales.com!! With numbers like that it is no wonder they are focusing on the youth, especially with Macy's trending markets currently being Young Contemporary, and Juniors.
Mr. Lundgren's beginnings are not so much what you would think. Originally wanting to become a Veterinarian, he studied at the University of Arizona. However it was his Sophomore year there that he also realized he did NOT want to be a Vet after all! (Bad incident with the artificial insemination of a cow believe it or not!) So Mr. Lundgren went after the business major.
His wake-up call was the moment his father cut him off financially after an "underwhelming" report card, this is when he really focused on the importance of becoming very assertive, and really chasing what it is you want. Another great tip he gave from his experience was that when meeting with interviewers, especially college recruiters, "If you don't like the college recruiters, don't work for them!" With this he touched upon the importance of LIKING who you work with, and bringing a positive attitude to the team.
And to avoid going on-and-on about how amazing he was, I will highlight some of my favorite things learned from his speech and Q&A:
1. The Sales Associate IS KEY!! -he learned this when he had to go into department stores and manage large numbers of employees, and they were the ones making the sales.
2. Having a POSITIVE attitude in life! -Sure this may seem like a no-brainer, but his examples of business after 9/11 and his good friend Mr. Dean was quite inspiring, "You can't control planes going into buildings, but you can control your attitude."
3. Being a CEO, and a leader is about YOUR TEAM!! He advises hiring people smarter and more creative than you to help you and to hire great people that may be better than them! In the end it all makes YOU look better!
4. The bigger the role, the smaller the ego should be!!
Some of my favorite quotes from him tonight were
- "If you don't love what you do, stop coming to work!"
- "Attitude is a critical message"
- "I am only as good...as my weakest link"
- "The harder I work the luckier I get, but it's not hard work because I love what I do!"
- "We have little tiny problems compared to loss of life." -an extremely inspirational line when talking about having a positive attitude, and he poked fun a little at big problems being small issues like a vendor not shipping you on time.
And one of the most important things to remember from his advice tonight is that: "The customer will decide."
It is clear that Terry Lundgren is a genuinely nice guy, who just happens to also be the CEO of one of the worlds largest retailers. He does care about the FIT community, and I wish you could all have been there tonight! But if you couldn't, I hope I could share at least a little of his core messages. Now enjoy Martha dealing with frat boys :D
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