The International Association of Department Stores (IADS) is a retail
trade association founded in 1928 by a group of
department stores
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appea ...
with the goal of introducing modern management methods derived from the
scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
movement to their retail format.
History
In the middle of the 1920s, American management theories, such as the
scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
of
F.W. Taylor, started spreading in
Europe. The
International Management Institute (I.M.I.) was established in
Geneva in 1927 to facilitate the diffusion of such ideas.
Edward Filene
Edward Albert Filene (September 3, 1860 – September 26, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known for building the Filene's department store chain and for his decisive role in pioneering credit unions across the Un ...
, a member of the I.M.I. Board of Directors and Chairman of
Filene's department store in
Boston, decided—with
Emile Bernheim of Innovation in
Brussels (later known as
Galeria Inno), Pierre Laguionie of the
Printemps in
Paris and
Ragnar Sachs of
Nordiska Kompaniet in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
—to apply I.M.I.'s teachings about
scientific management
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...
to the department store retail format. They created the Association of Department Stores in Paris in 1928 under the supervision of the first General Secretary Werner Kaufmann, and were joined the same year by
Harrods
Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...
of
London and
Magasin du Nord
Magasin is a Danish chain of department stores. It has seven department stores with its flagship store located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The company is a subsidiary of the German department store retailer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf, Ma ...
of
Copenhagen.
According to James B. Jefferys, the interest of the IADS was first its limited scope, with memberships restricted to one per country to promote cooperation, and second its scientific approach, through methods laid out by one of the early General Secretaries of the IADS, Dr Hrant Pasdermadjian (1936-1954) (although his approach was severely judged in America). During his tenure, Pasdermadjian published scientific manuals on the different department store functions. as well as his book on department stores. His successor for 30 years, Dr James B. Jefferys, continued the task of bringing management research to department stores and continued publishing works on retailing.
After Kaufmann, Hermann Maria Spitzer, Pasdermadjian and Jefferys, Erik Kalderen, of Sweden's
Nordiska Kompaniet department store, became its first secretary, serving in that role for five years. He was followed by Maarten de Groot van Embden for 25 years, Armelle Mesguich for five years, and most recently Selvane Mohandas du Menil, who took office part way through the 2020
COVID-19 pandemic, during which most stores were under
lockdown. There have been eight general managers in the 85 years between 1936 and 2021.
As of 2021, IADS is the fifth oldest retail association in the world, after the Australian Retail Association (founded 1903), the
National Retail Federation in the United States (founded 1911), the Austrian Retail Association (founded 1921) and the German Retail Federation.
Operation and membership
IADS shares retail management experience and best practices, through meetings for CEOs, main functions at senior level in the member companies, dissemination of information and reports about department stores, and statistical and other surveys and consultancy on specific issues as requested by member companies, such as the increasing competition coming from online retail channels.
The membership has varied from 4 to 25 companies, with an increasingly greater internationalisation: since the 1990s it has included members from Asia and the Americas such as
Beijing Hualian Group
The Beijing Hualian Group (, using the trademark BHG) is a leading Chinese retailer founded in 1998, headquartered in Beijing. It is one of the fifteen large national retail enterprises supported by the Ministry of Commerce and the only Chinese r ...
,
The Mall Group, and
Falabella
The Falabella is an Argentine list of horse breeds, breed of small horse. It is among the smallest of horse breeds, with a height at the withers in the range ..
History
The ancestral stock of the horse of South America descended from horses bro ...
. As of 2021, it comprises 12 department store companies within its purview, with operations in 19 countries. The membership reflects the variety of the department store format,
and includes in alphabetical order:
Beijing Hualiang Group (
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
),
Breuninger
E. Breuninger GmbH & Co., is a Stuttgart-based German department store retailer trading under the name Breuninger. Targeted predominantly at up-market shoppers, the Breuninger range is mainly restricted to fashion, clothing and premium househo ...
(
Germany), Centrobeco (
Venezuela),
El Corte Inglés (
Spain),
El Palacio de Hierro (
Mexico),
Falabella
The Falabella is an Argentine list of horse breeds, breed of small horse. It is among the smallest of horse breeds, with a height at the withers in the range ..
History
The ancestral stock of the horse of South America descended from horses bro ...
(
Chile),
Galeries Lafayette (
France),
Lifestyle International (
Hong Kong),
Magasin du Nord
Magasin is a Danish chain of department stores. It has seven department stores with its flagship store located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The company is a subsidiary of the German department store retailer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf, Ma ...
(
Denmark),
Manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
(
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
),
The Mall Group (
Thailand),
SM Store
SM Retail Inc. is a private retail holding company based in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a subsidiary of the conglomerate SM Investments Corporation. SM Retail has been a member of the International Association of department stores si ...
(
Philippines).
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official website
Retail trade associations
Organizations established in 1928
Trade associations based in France