Geoff Colvin on the Rise and Fall of an American Retail Icon

Making a Killing with Bethany McLean

Longtime Fortune magazine writer, author and analyst Geoff Colvin writes about the sobering bankruptcy of the once dominant Sears Roebuck & Co., saying that: “the Sears story should scare us.” In this episode, Bethany and Geoff discuss the rise and fall of Sears—where did Sears go wrong?—and if its decline was inevitable, or fixable. And what can other incumbents learn from it, before it’s too late? Oh, and how did private equity contribute to its demise? Private equity buyouts play a larger and larger role in shaping our economy. Can we draw any lesson from Sears that tell us whether this particular trend is a good thing... or a very dangerous one?

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