More On Lampert and Sears

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a Marketplace Section article on Eddie Lampert and Sears. It's one of many recent pieces documenting changes at the seriously ailing retailer. I wrote a few posts recently about the once-great retailer's difficulties, here and here.

The latest Sears CEO, Aylwin Lewis, has been discharged. And now, Lampert swears he's getting out of the 'hands on' management of the company. Apparently, according to the article, he has finally realized it's the only way he has a hope in hell of attracting someone qualified to continue the attempted turnaround.

Lampert characterized the as-yet-to-be-located Messiah as,

"... as a "mission-driven" leader who feels comfortable balancing multiple interests. "I want someone who will be able to deal well with complexity, who will be able to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, and is someone people will want to step up and work for,"

and that,

"He pointedly says he's not looking to give up his chairman's title."

That sure sounds like fun, doesn't it? Does anyone believe someone that good wants to inherit this mess of potage? In the meantime, a logistics guy is running Sears. Great. Just what you want in an intensely merchandising-dependent business. An operations wonk.

The interview began with this passage,

"Speaking by phone from the company's Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters, Mr. Lampert bristled at critics who lost faith in Sears as its share price fell from $195 in April 2007 to about $104 now,"

suggesting Lampert is still in denial about the gigantic, intractable mess he has on his hands. A near 50% loss of shareholder's value, and he's bristling? That's rich!

Further along, Lampert defended the recent plan to break Sears up into independent business units thusly,

"Other large, complex businesses have successfully adopted the business-portfolio model. He compares Sears with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in which managers are given a long leash to run businesses, and Mr. Buffett doesn't get involved in their day-to-day operations. He also says Sears can be rebuilt with a strong management culture, similar to General Electric Co., and Procter & Gamble Inc."

This is pretty amazing. Lampert is equating himself with Buffett as a successful manager of diverse, complex businesses within a single corporate entity. I agree there's a comparison, as I wrote here recently. But this isn't it. As the nearby, Yahoo-sourced price chart shows, Buffett's company only pulled ahead of the S&P500, for the past two years, four months ago.

Talk about having to time a stock!

Lampert's Sears has been in a stall since late 2006, and a swoon since last spring. It would seem that whatever 'management culture' it is to which Lampert refers will have to be imported, doesn't it?

It's a sad story. Lampert now retreating from his mandatory briefings by the minions who would fly to Greenwich every few weeks (Ed doesn't like to fly), but remaining chairman, looming over the shoulder of anyone brave enough to try to rescue Sears. And, as the recent Journal article noted, Lampert's through injecting more funds into the still-breathing carcass of the retailer.

What fun Lewis' replacement as CEO will have! Maybe as much fun as Lampert's fellow shareholders have had since he bought the company?