Adrian Mitchell on digital transformation
From Bloomberg Chief Future Officer: Macy's Adrian Mitchell · · Bloomberg Television
“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.”
On , Adrian Mitchell, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer at MACY'S INC, spoke about digital transformation during Bloomberg Chief Future Officer: Macy's Adrian Mitchell on Bloomberg Television.
About Adrian Mitchell
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.