How a Neiman Marcus exec gets workers into the office without forcing them: ‘It’s a magnet, not a mandate’

Two businesswomen having a coffee break at the window in office (Credit: Oliver Rossi—Getty Images)

After filing for bankruptcy shortly into the pandemic—and emerging, guns blazing, three months later—leaders at Neiman Marcus Group (NMG) realized that in order to keep up with an entirely new way of working, drastic changes needed to be made. 

The first major change: a vast, permanent downsize of its corporate office space in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, from half a million square feet to about 100,000, with no plans to grow it back.