Julian Day, Radio Shack's email firer out!
Excerpt:
Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters received an e-mail Tuesday morning telling them they were being dismissed immediately.
"The workforce reduction notification is currently in progress," the notice stated. "Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."
Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.
Management experts expressed surprise at RadioShack's use of electronic notification instead of face-to-face meetings with supervisors.
Julian Day’s RadioShack Turnaround Has Been A Failure
Excerpt:
Five years ago Julian Day showed up at RadioShack, a rock star CEO ready to perform his turnaround magic on the struggling electronics retailer that was quickly becoming irrelevant. Known as a cost cutter, the former investment banker had helped revive Safeway while chief financial officer of the company. He had taken over as chief executive of Kmart Holdings when the discount retailer was in bankruptcy court in 2003 and presided over a stunning reemergence.
But after five years in Forth Worth, Tex., Day is leaving behind a mess. RadioShack today posted a 30% drop in first quarter earnings and its partnership with T-Mobile has been a disaster, leaving the company with uncompetitive product offerings and a contract dispute. The company also cut its revenue forecasts today. Day’s five-year contract with RadioShack expires this year and his last day with the company will be May 16.
Day has done things his way at RadioShack. He presided over the firing of hundreds of employees who were told about their job losses via email. He also mostly ditched quarterly earnings conference calls, analyst meetings and press interviews. But he could not find a way to offset competition from big retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, which offered one-stop shopping and deep discounts.
Still, Day has done pretty well for himself. He has received $21.4 million in cash and exercisable options for his five years at RadioShack.
Comment: A little overpaid for his failures!
I'm reminded of a dear friend's commentary on the new Radio Shack; "You have questions, we have blank stares."
ReplyDeleteI used to love Radio Shack ... now I don't even know where one is
ReplyDelete"he could not find a way to offset competition from big retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, which offered one-stop shopping and deep discounts."
ReplyDeleteHe could have had he bothered to have people who had actual retail experience on his team. But no, the arrogant Brit didn't see any sense in that. RS was nothing more than a stock to be managaged, not a retail company that needed EXPERIENCE in running it.
He and his team of twits took a company with a good reputaton and turned it into a laughing stock.