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RadioShack CEO Resigns
xzvf writes to tell us Forbes is reporting that RadioShack CEO David J. Edmondson has resigned. Reeling from a 62% drop in fourth quarter net income the company has announced a sweeping restructuring plan. From the article: "Edmondson said in a separate statement Monday that new leadership was needed so the company's turnaround plan would have the best possible chance to succeed. The revamp announced Friday prompted mixed responses from analysts, who indicated the plan might be successful but, at that time, they doubted Edmondson's ability to pull it off after it became clear he had lied about his education."
It's interesting and more than a little depressing to see just how greatly Radio Shack has changed in the past ten years. In 1995 I got my amateur radio license. Everyone knew that Radio Shack's license exam preparation materials, done by one Gordon West, were rubbish that taught people how to pass a test without understanding any of the concepts between it. That's why I ordered the ARRL's dependable guide Now You're Talking from another store (check the book out if you are looking for an interesting hobby, it's also in many libraries). But Radio Shack was incredibly helpful for providing all the parts one needed to build little projects. Whenever I found an interesting project in the ham magazine QST, such as an audio amplifier or a QRP kit, I knew Radio Shack would provide the materials.
But now, things have changed, there's hardly more than a couple of soldering irons for sale in the back of a Radio Shack today. The hobby of tinkering with electronics is no longer profitable for a retail store, possibly due to the decline of amateur radio. Hams today order what they need from the Internet or the catalogues that a few specialty stores like to spam technophiles with. Instead, Radio Shack has decided to entirely focus on consumer electronics. But it can't win there either, larger stores like Best Buy or Circuit City will always have a better selection. I can't really see any way for this company to survive.
I tried to get some parts for an oscillator once and the guy just looked at me like I was crazy. I thought in the back of my mind, "This is Radio Shack right....??"
EvilCON - Made Famous by
the top sales associate before being offered the job as CEO.
How does being a good salesman equate with the leadership and organizational ability required of a CEO? I understand, CEOs must to some extent "sell their company", but many great CEOs are very introverted, out-of-the-limelight type of people.
I worked at a Radio Shack (a company owned store) for a few years, and the pressure to sell people expensive items, whether or not they needed them, was intense. Batteries were (and still are) the big killer profit-maker for them. They really beat it into our heads to sell those batteries. Why do you think Radio Shack gave out those coupons for free flashlights all the time? Because if just a few takers would buy batteries for them then they did very well.
Anyone that excels in sales in that type of environment plays dirty. Period. So the fact that he was a leading salesman tells me enough about his character to know that he is not someone that should be in charge.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
I deeply regret that the parent was modded "Funny." The post is insightfully correct, but it fails to point up the larger underlying principle: discrimination.
I was a test-engineering consultant for 20-odd years to companies such as Lockheed, Motorola and TI defense divisions, Dell, and so on. At the time, I was one of the top ten people in my (admittedly narrow/specialized) field in the U.S.
Yet, not one of those companies would have hired me as an employee to do the *exact* same work they hired me to do as a consultant because I did not have a degree. I never attended high school, but did get a GED.
(Side note: Tandy was one of my clients in the 1980s and 90s. Every Tandy computer manufactured in the U.S. was production tested with software I wrote and on apparatus I designed and built.)
When I burned out in that field, I switched careers and entered writing/journalism, eventually becomming a magazine editor (circ. ~100k)--still on a contactor/consultant basis. Yet, I'd be hard put to land even a proofreading job as an employee because I am "uneducated."
I hold that this is an unrecognized/unacknowleged form of discrimination and bigotry. Experience and ability should be the primary--if not only--criteria in hiring, not race, sex or orientation thereof--or education.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.