Brennan, the RNC Treasurer, drove Sears into the ground. Many people had great ideas on how to save Sears. Sears partnered with IBM to buy Prodigy and turn it into an AMAZON. But the middle management of Sears (and IBM) lacked the vision, the same way they were clueless what to do with the first CLOUD, ADVANTIS.
Martinez replaced Brennan (finally). Martinez had the right ideas for Sears. His ideas were supported by us at the bottom of the food chain. We demonstrated that we could collect sales from each store and order stock replacement in real time from Levi, Lees and other suppliers to be shipped in real time via UPS/FEDEX directly to the store... or even to the customer.
Middle management fought every good idea from Martinez, and then from Lands End and all the others with good ideas. Middle management salaries and pecking order was based on two things: head count and budget. The warehouse and truck distribution system was a gigantic bureaucracy with amazing corporate power.
The buyers did not want to relinquish restocking decisions to computers. It would decimate the headcount in their bureaucracy. Hundreds of staffers poring over quarterly report was good enough for them in the 50s and they were determined to keep it in the 90s and beyond.
Draining the Swamp is more comparable to the task of turning around Sears than anything I’ve seen in 50 years of consulting. Trump doesn’t need a Martinez with the SOFTER SIDE OF CONSERVATIVES. Trump needs a bunch of Chainsaw Als who are skilled at telling the deadwood:
You’re fired. Get a real job. The ability to say You’re fired is why Trump is president more than the wall or any other single thing. We can’t create jobs without some creative destruction of the job killers.
This right here should be on every front page in America.