Inside the Strategy and Culture of an Icon

25 September 2019

With guest Bari Harlam - CMO, Hudson's Bay Company

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From direct-to-consumer to augmented reality shopping, the retail industry is experiencing massive and rapid change. It’s not just new retailers that are disrupting the industry. Some of the best and most innovative retail experiences are happening at iconic brands that have been around for generations. The Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670, is the oldest company in North America. It has more than 300 stores, 40,000 employees, and iconic brands like Saks Fifth Avenue and Hudson’s Bay. Bari Harlam, Chief Marketing Officer at Hudson’s Bay Company, joins the podcast to take us inside the company’s “radically better” customer-centric culture. She explains how the company is merging online and in-store experiences to create a highly personalized, “unified shopping” experience.

Listen to this episode to learn:

  • Why the physical store and the personal sales associate are even more important in a digital world
  • What went into the company’s biggest research project ever: understanding the entire customer journey
  • The value of being “vaguely right” vs. “precisely wrong” when it comes to data
  • How General Stanley McChrystal’s “team of teams” strategy has helped Hudson’s Bay launch pilot programs across its stores that keep the company nimble
  • Why what you do with loyalty data is what matters most