Do you remember when Jim Cramer of Mad Money fame told his viewers to buy Sears Holdings because "his good friend" Ed Lampert, hedge fund manager, was going to make them all rich? That was in back in 2005 and 2006. For many months analysts, investors, vendors and customers watched what was happening at Sears, wondering what Mr. Lampert was going to do. In the end, he followed a very traditional turn-around strategy, slashing employment, benefits, pay and inventory – and Sears became a much smaller business. But the value of having friends hosting TV shows was clear. Sears went from $30 to nearly $200/share on the strength of Cramer's chronic recommendation. As it became clear Sears was getting smaller with no benefit to investors, and no strategy to grow, the value crashed back to $30/share in 2008 (see chart here).
Lately, some shareholders are bidding Sears value up again. Largely entirely due to additional cost cuts, store closings and inventory sell-downs, Sears profits exceeded expectations (read article here). At the same time, senior leaders admit Sears has "a long way to go catching up to competitors that have been more consistent in merchandising and driving traffic to their stores." Creating profits by financial engineering and asset sales has not made Sears a more competitive retailer, and not likely to grow. Investors will be well served to ignore Jim Cramer, and recognize the fundamental decline Sears has undergone – and is continuing.
This same week, Walgreen (chart here) announced it was cutting 1,000 management jobs (read article here). As I've previously blogged, Walgreen has to figure out how to grow revenues in its existing stores – not just open new stores. The old Success Formula has run out of gas, and Walgreen needs a new one. But we don't see any plans for how it intends to open White Space and find that new Success Formula. Instead, only cost cuts have emerged, intended to improve profits if not revenue growth. Not a good sign.
And Best Buy (chart here)is finding that even as its #1 competitor, Circuit City, slowly goes bankrupt it can't grow revenues or profits (read article here.) Many were hopeful that the failure of Circuit City would create an opportunity for Best Buy. But faster than Circuit City can shut stores, new competitors are filling the gap. Not only are general merchandisers, like Wal-Mart, trying to sell similar products – but independents (like Abt and Grant's in Chicago) are fighting to bring in customers with product selection and better pricing. Last month, a basic refrigerator at Grant's was half the price of a basic unit at Best Buy, and the selection of high-end products was more than twice as large at Grant's and 4 times larger at Abt.
Retailing has been hit with significant challenges from market shifts the last few months. Critically, low cost and easily available credit that financed not only customer purchases but lots of inventory is now gone. Cost and supply chain efficiency will not sustain a retailer any longer. Nor will simply opening lots of new stores, financed by low cost mortgage debt. But none of these 3 leaders have Disrupted their old Success Formulas. Instead, each keeps trying to fiddle with minor changes, hoping their size and past legacy will somehow drive new revenue and profit growth. Rather than Disrupt, all 3 keep trying to Defend & Extend the old Success Formulas with cost cutting measures.
When big market shifts happen rarely are the old winners able to maintain their leadership position. Why not? Because they react by trying to do more of the same. These Defend & Extend actions – usually cost cutting and efforts at efficiency and execution – only serve to push the business further into the Swamp, and closer to the Whirlpool. In Sears case, the company is rapidly becoming irrelevant as a retailer. Honestly, what retail analyst closely monitors sales and profits at Sears any longer? Sears is closer to the Whirlpool than most would like to admit. Walgreen and Best Buy aren't nearly as close to irrelevancy, but we can see that the are stuck in the Swamp. Lacking Disruptions and White Space to develop a new Success Formula, we can only expect mediocre (or worse) performance out of them.
So who is the frequent winner from market shifts? New competitors more closely aligned with new market conditions. We don't yet know who the biggest winners will be. Perhaps it will be on-line players. Perhaps it will be an emerging retailer that today has only a handful of stores (like Abt or Grant's). Some kind of hybrid customer distribution? Some new sort of merchandiser? New competitors will do some things very differently than the old leaders, and in so doing offer better value that more closely aligns new market needs. Look not at large, traditional names. Instead, look on the fringe at competitors you may not know well, but that are continuing to grow even as times are tough.
As we move into 2009, we must keep our eyes closely on changing market conditions. As old leaders stumble, we can expect recovery only if we see Disruptions and White Space. And this becomes a wonderful opportunity for new competitors, perhaps not well known today, to emerge with new Success Formulas poised for growth. If so, a new wave of Creative Destruction will change retailing – just as Woolworth's (now gone in both the U.K. as well as the U.S.) once did a long time ago.