i can honestly tell you that i did have a way to save the company but no one asked me.
1) during the merger the entire shift should have been to take the best of both worlds and use them together. soft systems and hard systems alike. i.e. a blue light special on all craftsman tools. huzzah. soft systems and integration should have been fused and hard systems should have been initiated. during this time, there could have been a "sears liason" at every surviving k-mart store and vice-versa. to answer questions and learn, both vital to the upcoming shift.
2) the name should have reflected the change from "sears" and "kmart" respectively to "s-mart" or "sears mart" or "Sears, the Big K" or something uniquely it's own. both stores should have outfitted the red and blue together in a form of unity. and with the franchise "home-town" stores? there are five great solutions, but no time to type them.
3) sears should stay away from starting any more credit cards and combining the kmart and sears credit systems. though discover was a one-hit-wonder, let's not try that one again sears. there should be a "S-Mart" card: silver, gold and obsidian.
4) sears should continue with patent selling, trading, and improvising. i.e. bionic wrench, robogrip, etc...
5) sears should have immediately drawn a line in the sand and closed its lowest producing/profitable retailers.
6) the hard systems integration with ipad generated sales as their main POS should have gone into effect as soon as issuance of the idea.
7) tools should have a face lift. yes. bring the big three (craftsman, kenmore, die-hard) over to the kmart side. and YES, each section of each store should look almost identical. if they are too close to eachother (as in my case: lafayette, indiana) then you would have closed one down during part 5.
8) the big three (C,K,D-H) should be pushed as their own grouping. "the solution for dad, mom and the road" or something. yes, i agree that ace hardware was a fine choice to place the craftsman tools in, but i would have taken it a step further.
9) (a step further) the big three could have been made into a faux road-show with a "tour" around the country. over-stereotyping the "mom", "dad" and "mechanic" and have a web-based/youtube crossover series of how they solve problems. using their already well known names as a group would drive sales and increase profitability.
10 (a step back) this should NOT have been done with the "CRAFTSMAN". batmans mechanic who helps the justice league solve crime and shut down the bad-guys with his bolt-on tool.
11 several others. i'm late for sears. g2g ttfn
-pauly hart, june 13, 2013
