Dance of the Dinosaurs!

Was in Chicago yesterday, speaking to several thousand execs. Boom. Sears-Kmart! Or: THUD! I was asked to comment: “I can’t. My Mom taught me to be polite in other people’s houses. Let me just say, hypothetically, that I consider mergers between Dinosaurs, aiming to deal with hot competition … from, say, small Southeastern states … to be the height of stupidity. Sure, the new Kmart CEO is a shrewd … maybe even genius … financial Engineer … and he’ll make a killing. No prob. But will true value be created? Will the American Economy be better off? Will Lee Scott [Wal*Mart CEO] lose sleep in Bentonville? I think Lee will think he mistakenly tuned into Comedy Central!”

Sad footnote: I said to a very prominent exec, “I can’t believe we had no inkling of this at all, that there were no leaks.” He responded: “You’re right. We didn’t. Maybe nobody really cares.” Whoops!

Tom Peters posted this on November 18, 2004, in Strategies.
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