Leslie Thornton, Nordstrom, Lectures on Culture, Compensation, and Business Strategy.

Leslie Thornton, VP Compensation and Leadership Benefits at Nordstrom, and MILR alumna, explains how important it is for a company’s culture, compensation, and business strategy to reinforce one another.

Ms. Thornton spoke to the graduate (ILRHR 6690) and undergraduate (ILRHR 4631) Managing Compensation classes on October 13th. She discussed the history of the company and virtues of the continuing strong ownership interest of the Nordstrom family. In fact, many of today’s company leaders started as Nordstrom salespeople. Ms. Thornton illustrated the successful alignment of Nordstrom’s HR practices with its culture and strategy through the employee handbook – clear, simple, and printed on two sides of just a single card.