Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon - Hardcover

Turner, Marcia Layton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471435937 ISBN 13: 9780471435938

Publisher: Wiley, 2003

Synopsis

An insightful look at how Kmart's management destroyed the company
Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins spins an intriguing tale of the missteps of a retail giant who once had the industry in the palm of its hand and foolishly let it all slip away. This engaging book weaves corporate history in with financial analysis and commentary that leaves the reader with a better sense of where Kmart has been and what its potential is for a turnaround. This first in-depth examination of Kmart clearly identifies and discusses the ten missteps and miscalculations Kmart's CEOs have repeatedly made, including resisting investments in technology, brand mismanagement, and haphazard expansion, to name a few. Author Marcia Layton Turner taps many of her vast contacts within the retail business community to get the inside scoop on what really brought this once mighty retail giant to its knees. Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins is written for readers who find themselves wondering how a company with such bright prospects could end up filing for bankruptcy.
Marcia Layton Turner (Rochester, NY) is the bestselling author of The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business. With an MBA in corporate strategy and marketing from the University of Michigan, she spent several years with Eastman Kodak in marketing and marketing communications. She is currently a freelance writer/author and ghostwriter for college-level business textbooks. Turner has also written for several top magazines and Web sites.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

News that discount giant Kmart was filing for bankruptcy in early 2002 sent shockwaves through the retail community. How could a brand as widely recognized and firmly fixed in our cultural lexicon be teetering on the brink of extinction? Depending on who you talk to, Kmart’s fall from grace can be attributed to any number of factors. In the first in-depth examination of Kmart, author Marcia Layton Turner reveals the real reason behind Kmart’s troubles–bad management–and discusses how the large personalities and even larger dreams of Kmart’s misguided leaders played a significant role in transforming this once profitable retail titan into a bankrupt behemoth.

Even though Kmart has emerged from bankruptcy, the truth is that the company has made a number of bad decisions throughout its forty-year history–some seemed like good decisions at the time, while others were obviously off base. But what really hurt Kmart is the fact that most of these decisions were made by rogue managers who shirked their duty to shareholders and company.

Kmart’s Ten Deadly Sins spins an intriguing tale of the missteps and miscalculations of a retail giant which once had the industry in the palm of its hand, and foolishly let it all slip away. Interviews with financial analysts, former employees, and industry observers, coupled with in-depth research of SEC filings, news reports, and background data, paints a clear picture of exactly how Kmart management’s thinking emerged as well as what went on behind the scenes–and why.

Weaving corporate history with financial analysis and expert commentary, this engaging book identifies and examines the ten management mistakes, which ultimately brought Kmart to its knees.

You’ll learn how a combination of . . .

• Brand mismanagement
• Lack of customer knowledge
• Underestimating the competition
• Lousy locations
• Ignoring store appearance
• Technology aversion
• Supply chain disconnect
• Loss of focus
• Changing strategies frequently
• Repeating the same mistakes

. . . eventually ended Kmart’s retail reign.

Kmart’s Ten Deadly Sins digs deep to uncover the real reason behind Kmart’s undoing, and will leave you with a better sense of the potential for its future. Can Kmart’s management sins be forgiven? Maybe, but only time will tell.

From the Back Cover:

Advance Praise

"It’s not a pretty story, but it is a well-told story of the decline and fall of Kmart, the discount chain that pioneered the new category that brought us Wal-Mart. Every would-be entrepreneur should read this cautionary tale."
–Al Ries, Chairman, Ries & Ries

"A well-written comparative analysis of why Kmart failed and Wal-Mart continues to thrive. The management lessons found in the book can be widely applied."
–Eugene H. Fram, J. Warren McClure Research Professor of Marketing, Rochester Institute of Technology

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0471435937
• ISBN 13: 9780471435938
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240