Bill Walsh, The Coaching Tree, And Multichannel Marketing

Former San Francisco 49er football coach Bill Walsh passed away today.

I've always been fascinated by his "coaching tree'. He had a group of assistant coaches in San Francisco who went on to become head coaches elsewhere. Many had tremendous success, like Mike Holmgren (being part-owner of the Green Bay Packers, I have a soft spot for Coach Holmgren). Holmgren's tree includes Mike Sherman, Andy Reid, Steve Mariucci, Marty Mornhinweg and Brad Childress.

In multichannel marketing (catalog + online, online + retail, catalog + online + retail), who are the leaders, and who are the disciples who carry multichannel marketing to new levels? Who are the folks who are doing genuinely innovative work, the folks who build upon what innovators have done, and create something new, interesting, successful, profitable?

Tell us about the folks you've worked with who have had an impact on multichannel marketing in the comments section.

I can honestly say that I've borrowed from the strengths of many different folks who I've worked with or followed over the years (and the company I worked with these individuals at):

• Ron Mowers, Garst Seed Company: Patience.
• Lori Liddle, Lands' End: Unparalleled passion for creating a 'perfect' circulation plan.
• Dave Johnson, Lands' End: People skills. I haven't worked with another individual who valued people as much as he did.
• Jim Fulton, Lands' End: His consulting practice is thriving because he figured out how to generate useful information from computer programs, information that shows how the future of a business is likely to evolve. This spurred my interest in what I now call "Multichannel Forensics".
• Bill End, Lands' End: It was great to work with a President/CEO that would take time to teach an arrogant, garden-variety analyst like myself how the world worked.
• Harry Egler, Eddie Bauer: Harry lets you do your job without micromanaging the details.
• Rick Fersch, Eddie Bauer: The President/CEO had one phrase that told you what you needed to do ... "Drive Sales Profitably". In other words, increase sales AND increase profit. The other phrase that proved prophetic was "Grow or Die".
• Brian McAndrews, aQuantive: I only spoke the President/CEO of aQuantive twice. The second time was when I resigned to become VP of Database Marketing at Nordstrom. He only had two questions for me. One was "... but do you still believe in our business model?". He stuck with the company from $78 a share to $1 a share to selling to Microsoft at $65 a share. How many other online leaders "sold out" when the going got tough?
• Blake Nordstrom, Nordstrom: He stayed away from gaudy, confusing, high-flung strategies. Most interesting --- in February 2005, I wanted to apply for the President of Nordstrom Direct position. Blake told me in plain, simple language that I did not have the skills he believed were needed for the position. He wasn't mean. He was simply matter-of-fact about it. The conversation fundamentally changed the direction of my career --- I knew it the moment I the conversation ended. Who knows what might have happened had he danced around the subject, or worse, been dishonest?
• Jim Bromley, Nordstrom: He was the President of Nordstrom Direct, and like Dave Johnson, accomplished a heck of a lot by believing in people over marketing gimmicks or high-flung strategies.
• Frank Buettner, Nordstrom: He cared about the $11/hour call center and distribution center individual. 'Nuff said.
• Brooke White, Nordstrom: The PR Executive who did things opposite of every other PR person I've met. Never heard her name before? There's a reason for that. She would do anything to protect the Nordstrom family, or the Nordstrom culture.
  
• Linda Finn, Nordstrom: The EVP of Marketing rescued me from a lousy situation. She also valued people over marketing gimmicks or technology.
• Don Libey, Guru: How many people would publish two books from an absolute nobody? These books kick-started my new endeavor. Who knows how many other kinds words he's spread about me that have helped me get this thing going?
  

Leaving Nordstrom

With mixed feelings, I have decided to leave my job as Vice President of Database Marketing at Nordstrom.

The positive side of this equation is that I am thrilled to be "running to something", not "running away from something". I will start my own business, appropriately called "MineThatData"!! My business will clearly explain the complex relationship between Customers, Advertising, Products, Brands and Channels to Multichannel CEOs and Executives.

My business will focus on the emerging field of Multichannel Forensics, a framework for understanding complex customer relationships coupled with a sophisticated forecasting tool used to understand the long-term sales, profit and growth potential of a multichannel business. Click here for a white paper on the topic of Multichannel Forensics.

I am so looking forward to starting this business!

This was not an easy decision to make. Nordstrom is a wonderful company to work for, consistently ranked as one of the top one-hundred companies to work for in the United States. I spent more than six years at Nordstrom, more time than at any previous company I worked at. That speaks volumes about the people I have worked with, and the environment at Nordstrom.

It will be particularly hard to leave the wonderful people who work in our Database Marketing department. My management team is among the most talented and experienced in the multichannel retailing industry.

• Few folks know more about multichannel circulation than Michael Einfalt. Not many folks manage teams that can explain the multichannel ROI of over 1,000 direct mail campaigns each year. Fewer people have linked clickstream behavior and retail purchasing to catalog response analytics. Almost nobody is a better manager of people than Michael. The latter is simply taken for granted. Few people truly see or appreciate his genius. Michael is too humble to brag about it.
  
• Few individuals are as innovative as Jennifer Thornton, our E-Mail Circulation and Online Analytics Manager. She has a rare combination of enthusiasm, energy, creativity, innovation, and an instinct to know whether something is 'right' or 'wrong', correct or incorrect. Jennifer has the potential to be a great leader in multichannel database marketing. I doubt anybody in our industry knows more about catalog circulation, e-mail campaign execution and analysis, and the use of social media in retailing. What a unique combination of skills. Jennifer is well-positioned for the future of our industry.
  
• Jay Long is our Director of Business Intelligence, the data mining, ad-hoc query and analysis arm of Nordstrom Database Marketing. No individual in the history of Nordstrom answered more questions about customer behavior (from a database) than Jay answered during the past six years. Jay completes more analyses per hour worked than any individual I have ever worked with. Couple that fact with his typical twelve hour day, and you have one of the most productive Business Intelligence individuals to ever work in multichannel retailing. Jay exhibits everything that is good about Nordstrom. Humble, honest, bursting with integrity and accountability, Jay has done more to make others look good at Nordstrom than any individual I have worked with. He sacrificed his career objectives to help others, always looking to support our Executive Team and our Decision Makers. Future leaders in Consumer Insights / Database Marketing will look great because of the foundation Jay built.

Linda Finn is our Chief Marketing Officer. She deserves huge kudos for providing an environment that allowed our team to do our job, without the micro-management and "do-it-my-way-or-the-highway" style exhibited by some leaders. She trusted our information, and trusted we were always trying to do what was best for Nordstrom. "LT", as she is known by, will go in the books as one of the better bosses I've worked for.

A few years ago, Jim Bromley was leaving his post as the leader of the online and catalog division of Nordstrom. Mr. Bromley asked me what I wanted to accomplish during the remainder of my time at Nordstrom. I told him that I "wanted to see how the story ended".

My first assignment at Nordstrom was to help Nordstrom Direct (catalog + online channel) become a profitable arm of a multichannel retailer. Several management teams later, the mission has been accomplished!

My second assignment at Nordstrom was to integrate separate teams that analyzed customer information and managed circulation for different divisions. Our employees did an exceptional job of building a team that looked at "one customer", across all Nordstrom channels.

My final assignment at Nordstrom was to use customer information to help our transition into multichannel retailing. I got to see what happens, politically, professionally, and financially, when a traditional catalog program ceases to exist. I learned what happened to the online business and the retail business when a catalog program is shut down. I observed what happened to customer acquisition when all traditional catalog acquisition activities end (list management, list brokerage, compiled lists, etc.). What a valuable learning experience!

Truthfully, I learned more about the impact of multichannel advertising during the past two years than I learned in my first seventeen years as a professional. That kind of experience can only happen when you essentially shut down one of your channels.

Having survived these assignments, I got to see how the story ended. I am ready to tackle my next endeavor. Thank you to everybody at Nordstrom, for making the past six years so educational, so memorable, so intellectually stimulating. I highly recommend Nordstrom as an employer, and think the world of my team at Nordstrom.