Company profile
- Industry
- Department store retail
- Headquarters
- Hoffman Estates, United States
- Ownership
- Owned by Transformco
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
2 verified Decision Cases on Sears, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What Sears chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | The Cross-Subsidy | Buy into financial services | Allstate spun off to shareholders, completing the retreat (1995) | Read the story → | The Cross-Subsidy Casebook → |
| 1993 | The Counterfactual | Discontinue the catalog | Sears Holdings filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions (2018-10) | Read the story → | The Counterfactual Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Sears faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
Decision ForksThe Road Not TakenWhat did the decision you did not take actually cost?See the pack →Business ModelThe Cross-SubsidyWhich unit pays for the others, and has anybody ever approved it?See the pack →People & ControlThe Founder ControlWhat does holding control cost you, and what must it be worth?See the pack →
The analyses
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
Sears Killed a $3.3B Catalog and Tore Out the Data Its 1984 Head Start Needed
Sears co-founded an online shopping service in 1984 and sold tools on the web in 1997 - years ahead of Amazon's reach. Then in 1993 it killed a catalog still pulling $3.3B a year, and tore out the customer data and logistics that head-start needed to compound.
8 min
The Cross-Subsidy · Business Model
Sears Put a Stockbroker Inside the Store in 1981 — and Sold It Back Out by 1993
In 1981 Sears bought Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker to sell stocks and homes beside the socks and tools. The plan was cross-selling, not cross-subsidy — and four years in, the combined financial centers in 312 stores were still unprofitable. Sears announced the retreat in 1992 and spun the units out over three years.
8 min
The Founder Doctrine · People & Control
Eddie Lampert's $1.9B in Fees Left Him Up $1.4 Billion as Sears Died
Everyone says Lampert lost billions running Sears into the ground. The numbers say otherwise: factor in ~$1.9B in performance fees and his net position was a gain of roughly $1.4 billion — even as shareholders were wiped out and the stores closed.
8 min
Tools to try
- Ansoff move finderFramework: Ansoff Matrix
- Business model canvas builderFramework: Business Model Canvas
- Change readiness checkFramework: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
- Five Forces scorerFramework: Porter's Five Forces
- SMART goal builderFramework: SMART Goals
- SWOT builderFramework: SWOT Analysis
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