Comments on: Good to Great to Gone

By: Lee R

Lee R — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:56:10 +0000

Circuit City has suffered the same fate as many other corporations. With thousands of new MBAs graduating from top schools, big corporations got top heavy with brilliant young minds that had no real world experience. They thought it would be clever to add a commission structure to employee pay(thereby reducing the amount they had to pay in raises), but then failed to implement the proper training and standards. The net result was customers felt like they were being attacked by ravenous wolves when they enetered a Circuit City store. It didn’t take long and people were driving across town to see, and buy from, the helpful people at Best Buy.
Fire the sales force? No, fire the boneheads who made this decision, get proper training for the sales people and you still might have a chance. Christmas is just around the corner.

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:47:27 +0000

Interesting; I was told the RSS feed is not working. Is it for you; or are you Spamming your way in here with that nice comment?
Your reply to this will tell me. I can usually spot those, but yours sounds sincere; I hope that it is.

By: This

This — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:00:34 +0000

This…

Have you been blogging long? maysblog ” Blog Archive ” All about careers is a great blog, you have a great writing style too. Found this post last Wednesday and i’ve been reading your blog since. I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed and I am excited …

By: Lestie

Lestie — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:49:39 +0000

Hello All, I assume Circuit City was/is in the electronic communications field - mobiles etc? Anyway, as mentioned above, critical HR issues come to mind, poor hiring and training practices, lack of proper controls everywhere including ‘headoffice’ and as you say Ron “Duh!?” If I have assumed product correctly, then product training was also (or would have been) crucial - there are and will always be many peope who avoid insurance sales for the same reasons, product offerings and terms and conditions of leasing and use of product just too complicated unless presented properly and with understanding, both to the mass market and to the individual customer. Hopefully, a lot of the good, better best people will be picked up by the retail market; top sales people we know are worth their weights in gold! If this were South Africa, I would also suggest that in the interests of good governance, a very close check be kept on severance packages and bonuses paid out to failed executives in the know - and if there is any transparancy at all, for this to be dealt with appropriately. What chance do you have of that happening in the US? Would be interested to know.
Cheers
Lestie
Johannesburg S A

By: James Kerr

James Kerr — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:09:25 +0000

Companies don’t destroy companies - nor does the economy! Companies destroy themselves.

Circuit City failed on a number of fronts, including:

1. holding onto legacy, out-of-reach locations when customers were wanting more convenience

2. missing important market trends like the strong demand for hand-helds.

3. inability to roll-out Firedog quickly and smoothly.

Combine the above with thin margins, brutal competition and management’s fumbling of critical HR issues and you’ve got the baiser de la mort (kiss of death!)