strategy

June 21, 2012

There’s No Room for Revolutionaries on Wall Street

By Doug Stephens Several months ago, JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson and his newly formed executive team  made some significant changes to the pricing and promotional […]
January 3, 2012

The One and Only Question Facing Sears

By Doug Stephens Amid the sounds of tearing gift wrap and popping champagne corks, ailing giant Sears Holdings Corp. announced over the holidays its intent to close […]
July 6, 2011

What Duane Reade’s New Store Concept Says About the Future

By Doug Stephens Retail concepts in Manhattan don’t always make the best examples for emulation elsewhere but there may at least be some strong directional cues […]
June 29, 2011

Avoiding Your Napster Moment

In a previous post I talked about how companies are often blind-sided by what I call Napster moments.  Napster moments are radical, game-changing innovations that can […]
September 13, 2010

Who Needs Retail Anyway?

By Doug Stephens If we’ve learned anything from the advent of online social networks, it’s that ordinary people can be quickly organized around a common idea, […]
July 13, 2010

Generosity

By Doug Stephens Generosity: noun~ Willingness to give or share; unselfishness All successful relationships are underpinned by generosity. The willingness to give or share without expectation […]
June 29, 2010

An Inconvenient Truth About Bad Customer Service

By Doug Stephens The effects of bad customer service may take years to prove fatal but the eventual outcome is almost always corporate extinction.  Despite this, […]
November 18, 2009

Is The Home Depot Selling the Farm… One Parking Lot at a Time?

By Doug Stephens You know business is tough when you have to sell off parts of your parking lot to make your revenue numbers.  However, news […]