Filed under: Best Buy (BBY), Circuit City Stores (CC), Sears Holdings (SHLD)
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Herb Greenberg picks Circuit City Stores’ (NYSE: CC) CEO Philip Schoonover as the worst of 2008. He also includes Sears Holdings (NYSE: SHLD) CEO Aylwin Lewis in that mix.
It’s an interesting coincidence to me. On Monday I appeared on CNBC to discuss my picks for the three best and worst CEOs of 2007. Two of my worst CEOs were Schoonover and Eddie Lampert of Sears. I agreed with Greenberg’s pick of Lampert as the worst CEO of 2007 and even though Lampert — who reportedly gets deeply involved in operational decisions — is not a CEO, but chairman. Lampert underinvested in Sears’ stores — he spent $1.33 a square foot, which is 20% of what its peers spend — and its stock fell 39% in the last 52 weeks.
But in my mind Schoonover is significantly worse. His 3,400 person headcount cut in March 2007 actually helped out Circuit City’s competitor in a very direct way. That’s because customers who buy electronics value the expertise of the sales staff. And in canning those highly paid sales people through what Schoonover called “transformation work,” he freed those salespeople and their customers to take their business to Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). As I pointed out, in my post, this “transformation work” helped Circuit City’s sales decline by 3.1% while Best Buy beat revenue and profit growth expectations.
Continue reading Herb Greenberg picks Circuit City’s CEO as worst of 2008
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Entries (RSS)