Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon [Hardcover]

Marcia Layton Turner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471435937 | ISBN-13: 978-0471435938 | Publication Date: July 18, 2003 | Edition: 1

An insightful look at how Kmart's management destroyed the company
Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins spins an intriguing tale of the missteps of a retail giant who once had the industry in the palm of its hand and foolishly let it all slip away. This engaging book weaves corporate history in with financial analysis and commentary that leaves the reader with a better sense of where Kmart has been and what its potential is for a turnaround. This first in-depth examination of Kmart clearly identifies and discusses the ten missteps and miscalculations Kmart's CEOs have repeatedly made, including resisting investments in technology, brand mismanagement, and haphazard expansion, to name a few. Author Marcia Layton Turner taps many of her vast contacts within the retail business community to get the inside scoop on what really brought this once mighty retail giant to its knees. Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins is written for readers who find themselves wondering how a company with such bright prospects could end up filing for bankruptcy.
Marcia Layton Turner (Rochester, NY) is the bestselling author of The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business. With an MBA in corporate strategy and marketing from the University of Michigan, she spent several years with Eastman Kodak in marketing and marketing communications. She is currently a freelance writer/author and ghostwriter for college-level business textbooks. Turner has also written for several top magazines and Web sites.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Kmart was Wal-Mart before there was a Wal-Mart.
Originally a chain of retail stores along the lines of F.W. Woolworth's "five and dime" outlets, the former Kresge's evolved into the larger Kmart in 1962, with 18 "super-stores." Wal-Mart began the same year with a single rural Arkansas location.
Kmart cruised along nicely for the first 25 years or so, but by the end of the 1970s profits began to dip, coincidental to Wal-Mart's ascendance.
Business journalist Marcia Layton Turner offers a remarkable, no-nonsense examination of Kmart's fall. Her carefully documented tale relies on reporting from the trade and general press, amplified by testimony and commentary from a number of expert witnesses. It's a grim story; reading it is somewhat akin to watching a train going off a mountain, but the tragedy of Kmart is a tale of human incompetence, ignorance, greed and hubris.
Here, according to Turner, are Kmart's 10 fatal mistakes: 1. Brand mismanagement; 2. Not knowing its customers; 3. Underestimating Wal-Mart; 4. Lousy locations; 5. Ignoring store appearance; 6. Technology aversion; 7. Supply chain disconnect; 8. Loss of focus; 9. Strategy du jour; 10. Repeating the same mistakes.
Squeezed by thrifty and technologically savvy Wal-Mart on one side, and trendy, more fashion forward Target on the other, one wonders if the once-mighty Kmart still has a prayer. Hard to say, but if the chain's immediate history of monumental mismanagement offers any clues, it's just a matter of time before Kmart flat-lines — barring a miracle. (The Miami Herald (circ: 327,000), Sept. 29, 2003)

From the Inside Flap

News that discount giant Kmart was filing for bankruptcy in early 2002 sent shockwaves through the retail community. How could a brand as widely recognized and firmly fixed in our cultural lexicon be teetering on the brink of extinction? Depending on who you talk to, Kmart’s fall from grace can be attributed to any number of factors. In the first in-depth examination of Kmart, author Marcia Layton Turner reveals the real reason behind Kmart’s troubles–bad management–and discusses how the large personalities and even larger dreams of Kmart’s misguided leaders played a significant role in transforming this once profitable retail titan into a bankrupt behemoth.

Even though Kmart has emerged from bankruptcy, the truth is that the company has made a number of bad decisions throughout its forty-year history–some seemed like good decisions at the time, while others were obviously off base. But what really hurt Kmart is the fact that most of these decisions were made by rogue managers who shirked their duty to shareholders and company.

Kmart’s Ten Deadly Sins spins an intriguing tale of the missteps and miscalculations of a retail giant which once had the industry in the palm of its hand, and foolishly let it all slip away. Interviews with financial analysts, former employees, and industry observers, coupled with in-depth research of SEC filings, news reports, and background data, paints a clear picture of exactly how Kmart management’s thinking emerged as well as what went on behind the scenes–and why.

Weaving corporate history with financial analysis and expert commentary, this engaging book identifies and examines the ten management mistakes, which ultimately brought Kmart to its knees.

You’ll learn how a combination of . . .

• Brand mismanagement
• Lack of customer knowledge
• Underestimating the competition
• Lousy locations
• Ignoring store appearance
• Technology aversion
• Supply chain disconnect
• Loss of focus
• Changing strategies frequently
• Repeating the same mistakes

. . . eventually ended Kmart’s retail reign.

Kmart’s Ten Deadly Sins digs deep to uncover the real reason behind Kmart’s undoing, and will leave you with a better sense of the potential for its future. Can Kmart’s management sins be forgiven? Maybe, but only time will tell.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471435937
• ISBN-13: 978-0471435938
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marcia Layton Turner is an award-winning, bestselling author and writer who specializes in writing about small business, real estate, parenting and saving money. In addition to authoring, co-authoring and ghosting non-fiction books, Marcia also writes for magazines. Her work has appeared in BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Woman's Day, Health, Parenting, Black Enterprise and many others. She shares tips for writers and authors at www.becomeasixfigurewriter.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book with Some Frustrating Shortcomings, December 24, 2003

By 

Mark K. Mcdonough "Mark McDonough" (Reston, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon (Hardcover)

Marcia Turner does an excellent job of laying out what KMart has done wrong over the years and builds a very convincing case, citing mostly secondary sources such as retail trade journals. The writing is clear and lively, but the "10 Deadly Sins" idea is rather tentatively executed. Many chapters discuss multiple sins, and partly because the entire history of the company has to be addressed in each chapter there is a fair amount of repetition.

But for me, the most frustrating thing about the book is that it is entirely an outsider's perspective. Turner does such an excellent job of documenting Kmart's persistent stupidity over many decades that at some point you want to hear from an insider to answer the question "what could they have been thinking?"

A particular strength of the book is laying out the competitive landscape of discount retailing. One major unanswered question (which, granted, would be very difficult to answer) is how big a role pervasive corruption has played in Kmart's decline. The conviction of a senior real estate executive for bribery indicates that self-dealing in the company may have gone back much further than the executives who put the company in bankruptcy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All lights were clearly out at this company's corporate HQ, October 13, 2004

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon (Hardcover)

Kmart debuted around the same time as other American discount retailers, but while they constantly adapted to changing times and styles to keep their relevancy, Kmart luxuriated in a 1970's/early 1980's holding pattern regarding customer shopping and store decoration.

Insisting that discount shopping meant 'cheap' (despite the numerous negative connotations within American culture) Kmart itself turned American shoppers off from spending their money in these stores. Disaffected shoppers then began turning to the other discount stores.

Things became so bad that 'store brands' (usually a godsend for thrifty shoppers) were pulled only because of name stigmatization. It is a bad omen when a store is ashamed of it's own brands.

Kmart actually was unable to figure out why it's clientele base shrunk while Wal-mart and Target respectively grew into the powerhouses of today. By the 21st century, the only people really in love with Kmart's business decisonmaking were the executives who apparently got paid no matter what bad decision they fastened the company to.

After reading this scathing-but fair indictment for myself, I also am amazed nobody from the inside was concered about the shortcomings. The early 1990's 'Big K' concept failed because the company merely put a new sign on the same dinky and dingy stores of yesterday. Constructing more new stores AND a new training program would have made the critical world of difference.

In a Kmart as late as 2003, I was openly taken aback by the dirty floor and cluttered layout. I had honestly chalked that one 'current' experience up to the 'back to school' rush, but if most of the stores in a company are in this condition---there are very big management problems. No amount of downsizing or 'new' brand introduction can bail out a company with such obvious disgust for customers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched, well written. Well Worth Reading., January 6, 2004

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon (Hardcover)

When I picked up this book, I expected to find some interesting insights into why KMart, once so widely known and popular, ran into all its problems. A company whose stores were once part of the American landscape and whose blue light specials were exciting mini-events, spun into bankruptcy on January 22, 2002. What happened?

I looked at the author's credentials and, frankly, was a bit dismayed that she was author of "The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business." Even though the title is described as a best-seller, I questioned whether such an author would be able to produce the kind of study that the K-Mart subject demands. Looking further through the book, I discovered that my concerns were totally unfounded. This book is quite well researched, as evidenced by the abundant footnotes at the end of each chapter. Turner lists, in her acknowledgements, some of the people she conferred with in putting this book together. Impressive. Almost academic.

The book begins with two features I appreciated. One was a chapter, called the introduction, which effectively sets the stage for the in-depth look at what happened... and why. The other feature is a time line that includes progressive events at Kmart and at Wal-Mart. A fascinating fact to ponder is that Kmart and Wal-Mart were started in the same year. Throughout the book, Turner interweaves and compares the strategies-and implications-of Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Target, as well as other retailers. This approach adds value to this book for every retailer-every business leader-who designs strategy with anticipated results. The bibliography and comprehensive index make this book a most usable tool.

A chapter is devoted to each of the Deadly Sins: Brand Mismanagement, Lack of Customer Knowledge, Underestimating Wal-Mart, Lousy Locations, Ignoring Store Appearance, Technology Aversion, Supply Chain Disconnect, Lack of Focus, Strategy du Jour, and Repeating the Same Mistakes. You'll learn about strategic blunders, tactical mismanagement, and operation deficiencies that crippled the potentially powerful chain retailer. Details even go down to the level of describing how insufficient staffing levels in the stores confounded efforts to keep the aisles clear of incoming merchandise, let alone serve the customer.

While you'll shake your head numerous times as you read this educational and insightful book, you'll gain new perspectives and cautions in the way you run your own business and life. Highly recommended.