Topics:<\/b> Change; Decisions; Leadership; Planning; Risk; Vision<\/p>\n
Reference:<\/b> Matthew 25:15<\/p>\n
Sewell Avery, former chairman of Montgomery Ward & Co., was responsible for Ward\u2019s failure to open a single new store from 1941 to 1957. Instead, the big retailer piled up cash and sat on it. Montgomery Ward amassed $607 million, earning it the Wall Street nickname \u201cthe bank with the department storefront.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avery did not follow Americans to the suburbs because he was convinced that depression had followed every major war since the time of Napoleon. \u201cWho am I to argue with history?\u201d Avery said. \u201cWhy build $14-a-foot buildings when we soon can do it for $3 a foot?\u201d<\/p>\n
Meantime, Ward\u2019s rival, Sears, Roebuck & Co., had a different idea. In 1946, Sears began a costly expansion into suburbia. Had another depression occurred, Sears would have been financially devastated. Instead, Sears doubled its revenues while Ward stood still. Sears never looked back, and Ward never caught up. Ward eventually went bankrupt.<\/p>\n
How could corporate planning go so wrong? Sewell Avery banked on wisdom from an earlier era, misread the cultural cues of his day, and eventually wiped out his business.<\/p>\n
\u2014John McCormick, \u201cYou Snooze You Lose,\u201d Newsweek<\/i> (July 21, 1997)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Change; Decisions; Leadership; Planning; Risk; Vision Reference: Matthew 25:15 Sewell Avery, former chairman of Montgomery Ward & Co., was responsible for Ward\u2019s failure to open a single new store from 1941 to 1957. Instead, the big retailer piled up cash and sat on it. Montgomery Ward amassed $607 million, earning it the Wall Street … Continue reading “RIDING
\n WAVES OF CHANGE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}