His hairline alone would be dismissed as a cartoon fantasy.Â
Sears became 40 duchies that all saw themselves as the true claimant to the retail throne. So rather than the heads of different product lines all using the same marketing department -- which is how a sane retailer works -- the appliance department, tool department, clothing department, etc. all did their own marketing. Dozens of expensive CMOs were brought on to perform the same task.Â
Because the departments were only evaluated on their profits, no one could afford to care about the whole company. The divisions instead treated each other as bitter rivals to the point where executives hid their laptop screens in meetings. The apparel division cut salespeople on the assumption that customers would force salespeople from other departments to pick up the slack. Divisions wouldn't promote Sears' in-house brands, like Kenmore and Craftsman, because it was cheaper to sell competing products. Departments had to bid for flyer space, leading to a Mother's Day ad for a boy's bike. Customers were no longer enticed to visit with discounts because any department offering one would take a hit to their bottom line.Â
Store infrastructure decayed, workers protested, bed sheets were hung to hide empty shelves. By 2012, Sears was named one of America's worst employers, probably because of the reports of screaming matches and their "climate of fear." By 2017 you could read "Inside Sears' death spiral." Under Lampert's reign, a 120-year-old brand had to navigate bankruptcy court after losing half its value and most of its stores. Naturally, he's still worth over a billion dollars and owns a yacht called Fountainhead, because if there's one thing Rand definitely loved it was rewarding the incompetent.Â