Upper Management = bean counters. The sad fact is, many of those corporate upper management know how to do one thing right, negotiate their own salary and bonuses. Sears has been around for how long? Established name that had made a good name for itself and obviously was doing something right since they could afford a damned tower in Chicago. Then, greed. Not on the companies part, but on the upper managements part. Short term profits to look good with no eye to the future growth or reputation of the company. The people who screwed it up originally are probably long gone and screwing up another company somewhere else. The people who took their position have either done nothing long term positive, or found that a damaged reputation is hard to repair and have watched sales plummet even further. Example of great business ideas by sears? Joining forces with K mart. Gee, lets partner up with another failing American icon who will soon be out of business. How about righting your own course before deciding to save everyone else. Americans bought Craftsman tools and paid a bit more for them for years. Why? They knew the quality. They knew the company would stand behind them. Then someone looking to maximize company profits and no doubt score themselves a big bonus for doing so, decided that cheaper imported tools looked like a good idea to compete with all the other cheap imported tools. I quit buying them at that point. So did many others. Now, some of that tool work is back here in the states. But, again it goes back to repairing a damaged reputation. Harder to climb that hill than ride the loaded wagon down it.
