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—to apply I.M.I.

They created the Association of Department Stores in Paris in 1928[2][3] under the supervision of the first General Secretary Werner Kaufmann,[4] and were joined the same year by Harrods of London and Magasin du Nord of Copenhagen.

According to James B. Jefferys,[5] 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)[6][7] (although his approach was severely judged in America).

[11] After Kaufmann, Hermann Maria Spitzer,[12] Pasdermadjian and Jefferys, Erik Kalderen, of Sweden's Nordiska Kompaniet department store, became its first secretary, serving in that role for five years.

[19] IADS shares retail management experience and best practices,[20] through meetings for CEOs,[21][22] main functions at senior level in the member companies,[23] dissemination of information and reports[24][25] about department stores, and statistical and other surveys[26] and consultancy on specific issues as requested by member companies,[27] such as the increasing competition coming from online retail channels.