Last Monday a major milestone occurred: Sears filed for Chapter 11. While that may not be a striking event for those in their 30’s and 40’s, for us baby-boomers, it was like losing a part of our history.
Growing up in a small down in the 50’s and 60’s, Sears was the place where dreams began. It all started with the gigantic “Wish Book” catalogue that was delivered to our house once a year. It was thicker than “War and Peace”, and in it was everything from clothing to sports to go-carts and motorcycles. At one time Sears even sold houses and cars. (That’s right…check it out)
Then came Sam Walton from his small town in Bentonville, Arkansas. He and his Walmart stores took over America, and they pushed Sears aside to become #1. In doing so, they also created the demise of many small, independent downtown shops.
Now Walmart is being challenged by Amazon, and the race is on. Walmart is increasing their online shopping. Here is what puzzles me the most: Why isn’t Sears the Amazon.com? They had almost all the mail order and catalogue business. That didn’t happen for a lot or reasons. Let’s summarize by listing the five stages of “How the Mighty Fall” as related by author Jim Collins:
Hubris Born of Success
Undisciplined pursuit of more
Denial of risk and peril
Grasping for salvation
Capitulation to irrelevance or death.
These are the traps. If we want to get great and stay great like Apple and Disney, we can’t ignore these fundamentals.
