Tuesday, February 21, 2006

What's wrong with us?

Lying about a theology degree may not be good for David Edmondson's eternal prospects but it's definitely earned him a spot as grand marshall in the big Dallas-area parade of broken businesses. Take a look: Radio Shack, Pier 1, Blockbuster, Zales. They're all based here and they're all currently, inarguably, in the crapper. Why?

And why do they seem to be failing in exactly the same way -- by not changing? At all?

See though, Sam Cooke is always right. A change is gonna come. Because such flamboyant failure gets people talking: "the 62% plunge in fourth-quarter earnings and a slowdown in cash flow 'point to a company in a virtual state of collapse'....'RadioShack's eroding stock will likely reignite buyout speculation.'" Buyout? That seems so last week, so Pier 1ish. Yet I fear the buyout. Housecleaning, culture clash, organ rejection -- choose whatever analogy you want, it's never an enjoyable process for the average employee. So can we get us some smart, honest CEOs around here? Can we stop having our neighbors get laid off every 2-3 years? And can we at long last pull it together for the good of the community or at least for the sake of my property value?

Surely JCPenney can't do it all themselves.

2 comments:

HighJive said...

actually, you can add one more texas-based leader taking his business into the crapper: dubya.

but don't take it so hard. texas doesn't have a monopoly on failure.

Irene Done said...

It's not a Texas thing I'm worried about. It's Dallas-Ft. Worth. I just wonder why our current crop of retailing executives seems so unremarkable and so unable to right their ships. Is it a failure to attract top talent, to produce it through local universities, or to recognize it? On the upside, other DFW business segments seem mostly unaffected. Well, except for American Airlines...