Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer, Macys
Search every verified Adrian Mitchell interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Adrian Mitchell, who became Macy's chief financial officer in November 2020, has focused on the company's transformation and financial health. He stated that the primary mission became survival and that the time was right for transformation. Mitchell noted that the company's Polaris strategy was always intended to be digitally led, and that the pandemic required a stronger pivot to digital. He observed that in 2021, stores rebounded while digital remained strong, and argued that shedding real estate would mean shedding customers. Mitchell emphasized the importance of financial health in 2021 to strengthen the balance sheet and create capacity for shareholder returns through dividends and share buybacks. Mitchell has described the biggest challenge as the accelerating pace of disruption in retail, stating that a five-year strategy no longer exists. He has advocated for simplifying the company's data architecture to create agility, and advised that a CFO must understand the operation to manage capital allocation effectively. Mitchell has expressed that in ten years, Macy's will be a digitally led business with a distribution model of physical assets, and that the company must continue to listen to the customer to remain relevant.
“When Adrian Mitchell became Macy's chief financial officer in November 2020, he focused firmly on the company's future because the present for department stores in general seemed bleak. The primary mission became survival, and the time was right for transformation.”
“Polaris was always based on how we needed to transform and so we really were always going to be digitally led. We had to pivot much stronger to digital through the pandemic and thank goodness we did that.”
“When we went into 2021, our thesis was that digital will continue to remain strong and stores will probably have a real tough time. What we saw is that stores really rebounded and digital didn't miss a beat as soon as those vaccine shots started going into people's arms.”
“When you shed real estate you shed customers, you're firing customers. Having stores really amplifies what you do in digital. Having an app connects all of it. Customers are doing research, price checking, checking with influencers, putting things on their social feeds.”
“The biggest thing that we had to accomplish in 2021 was financial health. We needed to make sure that we had the financial health, the strength of the balance sheet to be able to weather the storm. And now we have capacity to return value back to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks.”
“The internet business in many of these bricks and mortars is a pretty darn good business and maybe as a growing and strong e-commerce business, so these businesses could theoretically carry higher multiples than the company as a whole. But nobody knows the answer to that.”
“The customer experience cannot be disrupted. Whether the synergies are frictional costs of operating separate businesses with intercompany agreements, we also have to understand the execution risk because the key thing is we have to be agile in the way that we actually navigate the business; it's constantly changing.”
“In 10 years time we will be a business that is highly relevant, very much digitally led with a distribution model of physical assets around the country more than what you see today. It's all about customer relevancy and continuing to listen to the customer.”
“The biggest challenge is pace. The level of disruption that we see in retail has been ongoing for 10 years and the pace just continues to move faster. Consumer expectations are evolving and elevating as fast if not faster, so the notion of a five-year strategy doesn't really exist anymore.”
“A CFO has to think not only about the finances and the capital allocation but also about the strategy and getting to know the operation. I encourage my teams to get into the supply chain, walk the store, work with the digital team to understand what they're doing on the website. You have to understand the operation to...”
Chief Financial Officers now play a critical role in shaping corporate strategy and positioning organizations to meet future ...
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