Nordstrom's greatest risks are associated with deviating from a formula that has nearly worked for over a century. Yes, you are probably thinking that I’m discussing the “no brainer topic” customer service, but that is not the whole story. Nordstrom’s tales of outstanding customer service is well documented, but I am talking about the importance of communication between the store workers and the decision makers. In 1995 the company was left to John Whitacre to run, the first non-Nordstrom CEO to run the company and Whitacre focused on “multiple initiatives that went nowhere” (Timberlake, 2011, P. 2). After 5 unsuccessful years at the helm, Whitacre was replaced with Peter and Erik Nordstrom in 2000. The two men went back to the basics and they “focused on getting back in touch with the floors—Blake still gives salespeople his e-mail address and extension number—and improving antiquated inventory management systems” (Timberlake, 2011, P.2). Well, in the minds of both Peter and Erik Nordstrom, the decision makers of the company were always the store salespeople and they changed the way Nordstrom’s maintained inventory within the entire Nordstrom system. This trust in the store workers could ultimately become one of Nordstrom’s greatest risks. This is placing a great deal of ownership and responsibility to the…show more content… So far this inventory strategy has paid off for the company, but who knows what will happen when the economic landscape changes or when they lose highly trained salespeople and are unable to replace them with the same