I review this book with cross agendas. If you worked for Sears and can recognize the times and the names, you would be very interested in the story told. Give it a five star rating. Otherwise I don't think this book would mean much to most people of recent generations. Give it a one star rating. For the management student, it is a must read.
The author does a great job in describing Sears at its inception. Then along came General Wood and the company's interest into the retail end of the business. World War II and the return of so many veterans and pent up demand thrust Sears into becoming the largest and most successful retailer on the face of the earth. Then in the late 1960's and mid 1970's, the corporation lost its way. Sears lost sight of its target customer and failed to recognize the changing and emerging competitors that the US was experiencing. It turned a blind eye to many new competitors. And as Sears began to generate less and less profit, it had to begin shedding generations of life long employees. Chairman of the Board, (rather bored in many instances) Ed Telling brought in Ed Brennan to completely revamp and save the sinking retail ship, while Telling diversified and looked for new income streams. The historical catalog operation was jettisoned as well as territories and groups where the true kings lived and ruled and the power rested in the company for so many generations.
Brennan changed the entire culture of the retail company. With the advent of The Store of The Future, transition from a decentralized to a centralized organizations and forced retirements of the old guard who were simply too old, too tired and unwilling to make the change to Brennan's way of doing things The company began to show signs of revitalization. The stories about the old guard, especially Joe Moran, are touching and so relevant as to what was so right for generations and then turned wrong as the marketplace changed. An inability to recognize the changing marketplaces doomed the giant retailer. Fifty years earlier and the company might have had enough money and competent personnel to make the necessary changes and survive.
The times had changed. New competition was forcing the giant to react. And when Sears finally got the message, it was too late. As good a merchant as Sears thought it was, as the times changed the leadership failed to change. And the great ship started to take on water until it was past the point of no return.
For those with a retail background, read this book. It's a fine example on "what not to do" in order to right the ship. When Telling put Ed Brennan in charge of saving the retail end of the business, he made the only logical move whether he knew it at the time or not. Brennan was a savior and he led the troops out of the darkness into the 21st Century. Unfortunately it was too little too late. Had Brennan taken the reins possibly 10 years earlier, the outcome might have been much different. And I highly recommend this book to all Sears employees, past as well as current.
But alas, thus passes the glory of Sears. A sad story of too little too late. The Big Store failed to recognize and adapt. Leadership was too well entrenched in the old way of doing things. It drowned in its own success and excesses. And then it died a painful and yet avoidable death. Leadership failed the entire organization and every one paid the price. The old Sears took its last breath and the new store of today doesn't have much of a future ..
All business is cyclical and even more importantly local.If you don't adjust to the times dictated by the competition and customer demand, you will soon become lost as Sears did. By its sheer size, Sears will hang around for a little longer. But it is slowly sinking into the sunset the same as Wards, Woolworth and other significant merchants of days gone buy.
Should you read this book? Depends on the amount of time you have invested in retail and specifically with Sears. Can you imagine the strength of the catalog had it hung on long enough to become a part of todays e-commerce. And would retail ride the shirt tail of a new and reinvigorated catalog which was our basic DNA and 1st generation Richard Sears. You be the judge. I have cast my vote. Say goodbye to a once dominant organization that fell by the wayside not because field and parent fought, but because the company failed to adjust to the ever changing market place. The Wal-Marts and Lowes and Home Depots and large specialty stores snuck up on the monster and ate its popcorn. The old regime thought that Sears was too large to fail while the competition, retirees and general public rejected Sears marketing plan in droves. Was Sears really too big to fail or too arrogant to consider ever failing? If this question and its answer tweaks you interest, then read the book. You won't be disappointed. And the greatest contributor to the fall of Sears was one Ed Telling. Through his lack of positive leadership and ability to team build, he sent Sears on a downward Spiral never to recover to its once glorious days.
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