I have been asked by numerous media outlets for my comments about the failure of Sears Canada and, in particular, about the dividends paid in the past and their impact on the pension plan. While I take no issue with the decisions that the board of Sears Canada made with regard to dividends and certain…
Re: “What sank Sears Canada? The inside story of its downfall”, The Globe and Mail (published 20 October 2017) The article by The Globe and Mail on the history of Sears Canada and its ultimate failure ignores significant facts about the operating management and governance of Sears Canada and the impact that changes in the…
In my blog post on Monday, the main point I wanted readers to take away was that companies that refused to change or waited too long were worse off than those that took the risk to embrace change earlier. In any time of change, there will be winners and losers. Just because you try new…
Today I posted some thoughts on the Sears Holdings blog (SHC Speaks) related to the re-positioning of its store portfolio. Sears Holdings will continue to execute on its plan to integrate its store and digital capabilities, which will include adjusting the size and number of stores it operates. Additionally, Sears Holdings will continue to build and experiment…
At Sears Holdings’ annual stockholders meeting this week, we talked a lot about the difference between turnarounds and transformations. I want to share some of those thoughts here. Turnarounds happen when a company succeeds again at doing what it had once done successfully before. Transformations are almost entirely different – they occur when companies adapt…
It seems like many companies are spinning off parts of their business in 2014. Tribune Company, Time Warner, CBS, GE, Simon Property Group, and Darden Restaurants are all examples. Companies reorganize in a variety of ways all the time. Acquisitions, divestitures, spinoffs, LBOs and recapitalizations are part of the normal evolution in the life of…
“For the fifth consecutive year, Kmart is the top corporate fundraising partner in the St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign” http://prn.to/LU0Ag4
Here is a link to a post I shared on the Sears Holdings blog. As changes Sears Holdings anticipated are being recognized more broadly, I want to make sure that I connect the dots between what we started doing years ago and what is happening now. http://blog.searsholdings.com/eddie-lampert/are-the-new-ideas-about-how-retail-is-changing-really-new/
I read two articles this weekend that I found interesting. The first was a blog post by Ben Horowitz. http://bhorowitz.com/2014/01/02/can-do-vs-cant-do-cultures/ I found this to be very germane to large companies attempting to innovate and transform. To quote one paragraph of the blog: Big companies have plenty of great ideas, but they do not innovate because…
As 2013 comes to a close and as we welcome 2014, I am happy to introduce to you a site where I will post my thoughts and reflections on a variety of matters. I am not sure how often I will be able to write, but I will endeavor to share my ideas on matters…
Eddie Lampert's Blog 