Kinda OT: Sad Dave Brandon
If you go to the CNBC.com homepage right now, the main article is about the impending bankrupcty filing for Toys-R-Us. The kicker is the picture for the article which features a sad Dave Brandon strolling through one of his stores. It's so beautiful.
September 18th, 2017 at 7:35 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 7:36 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 6:49 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 3:11 PM ^
I think the one thing that really drives people to dislike him was the way he treated fans - either with reckless disregard or downright disdain - in a number of instances.
I believe he came with good intentions, but the AD role was simply outside of his skillset, and too big of a change from the corporate world he knew. And because of that he lashed out at people and projected issues in a number of situaitons.
It's okay to be upset about it, but we also need to get over it as a fan base. What I like to think makes us better is our ability to not reduce him as a person to the times he was an ass. Be alert for it, and don't accept it. But we should be the bigger person here.
By all means though, we should be okay with wearing shirts mocking the most egregious moments (quit drinking and go to bed), macaroni noodles, or failed brand activations, we just can't be all-consumed by this every time something he touches comes up.
At least, that's my opinion and pep talk!
September 18th, 2017 at 8:37 PM ^
As someone who spends time around a lot of CEOs, it is insulting to call what he did to the UM AD "trying to implement a business CEO" model/culture/environment. Dave Brandon is the kind of CEO that deservedly gets a bad rap for using a combination of book intelligence and social connections to 'get into the CEO club', where he can feel superior to the plebes.
A good CEO is not an egotist, he/she is someone that has people intelligence and fosters an environment of collaboration while using knowledge and experience to coach others, while the company they lead has more success than they could have imagined. They create many jobs that give people financial and holistic fulfillment. Dave Brandon had fucking 'Firing Fridays' because he needed people around him to stroke his ego, and got rid of the people that had the best ideas. CEOs like him make short-term decisions to meet near-term compensation incentives, then those same decisions cause serious foundational problems within the company. Then they job-hop to the next gig based on their 'success' while the old company deals with their shitty decision making, or they get fired because they hold on too long and coast out on a golden parachute.
I don't root against Dave Brandon because of what he did to Michigan. I root against Dave Brandon and all other business people like him because they give a bad name to CEOs in general. Good ones are overlooked outside the business world and not recognized as key contributors to improving the general welfare of people worldwide with each passing generation.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 1:42 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
are suffering. Macy's is closing stores, Sears appears to have a kamikaze pilot in leadership, a large shoe company (mutiple brands) is closing locations. None of them got on board fast enough with this whole Internet thing.
Home Depot, on the other hand, does a relatively high amount of business in the web, out pacing what Lowes has in place.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
is killing Sears and K-Mart.
There's no reason for K-Mart especially to be struggling. They were WalMart before there was a WalMart. Mismanagement fucked that store.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:33 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
If Sears Holding had good leadership that wouldn't have happened.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^
But if I'm honest, we don't spend much money there. Much like Best Buy, it serves primarily as an Amazon showroom now. Retail stores just can't compete with Amazon on price.
Until they all go out of business and Amazon pulls a Standard Oil.
September 18th, 2017 at 3:25 PM ^
But this is so true. The only time I go to Best Buy is when I want to purchase something off Amazon, but I want to see it up close and personal before it arrives at my doorstep.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:24 PM ^
This guy is a bit of a tool, but hating him publicly is shameful. He loves U of M and is a Michigan man himself. He sincerely wanted what was best for Michigan when here but what not smart enough to figure out what that was. Part of that was his high level of narcissism but this man should have never even been is the discussion for AD in the first place. If you hire someone to run something they can't handle, then don't hate them for not being able to handle it. Absolutely terrible hire.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 1:47 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 5:40 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 7:19 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
A lot of good people may lose their jobs. I also can't really take any pleasure in mocking Brandon for his role in the failure. He is a UM grad. I presume he did the best he could under the changing dynamics of brick and mortar sales. He should never have been Michigan's AD, but that's an entirely different matter. Let's take the higher road here.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:26 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Serious question: How does he keep getting good jobs? He seems to fail at everythign he does. Why does he keep landing nice gigs?
September 18th, 2017 at 12:31 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:34 PM ^
Once you get to that level (corporate executive), it's a relatively small circle and companies like to hire people with corporate executive experience. It's similar to why the NFL recycles the same head coaches and coordinators over and over again. People are generally afraid of the risk of going outside the known circles
September 18th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
Brick and mortar stores are getting hammered by online buying. It's why every month you see more articles about "X Company is closing 200 stores nationwide"
September 18th, 2017 at 12:40 PM ^
We go there pretty often and I didn't notice any major changes before and after DB.
The stores are stale though. They probably could have used some of the DB Chobani noodle treatment.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^
It's all Dave Brandon's fault. Whatever is wrong in this world, there's a very real possibility that it was caused by Dave Brandon.
September 18th, 2017 at 12:36 PM ^
I don't care.
September 18th, 2017 at 7:23 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^
As much as I dislike DB for all the bullshit he caused here, I'm not going to take any joy in him failing at other endeavors. He wasn't a fit, we got rid of him, and each party is better for it. I've moved on.
I'm especially not going to take joy in the fact that many thousands of the people Toys R' Us employs will soon be out of a job. It sucks, but with all-encompassing companies like Amazon continuing to push into new markets and constantly breaking down old barriers, with now being able to do all of your shopping online and receive almost anything in two-day shipping, brick and mortar stores are going to go the way of the dodo.
Sears, Macy's, Toys R Us. They're all reeling right now. And with Amazon now entering the food market with its acquisition of Whole Foods, it's only a matter of time before you see a lot of your local / regional supermarket chains closing up shop. Some of the big boys like Publix and Meijer should be alright, but your mom and pop grocery stores are in real danger down the road. They'll never be able to compete.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^
Well said - I never want to see Brandon back in the AD role and certainly have my (massive) frustrations about how everything went down - but I'm not going to wish ill-will on the guy for the rest of his life. I have to get over and it we should be ready as a fanbase to move on (albeit while still making jokes about it from time to time!)
September 18th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
While this is probably a restructuring as others have said, I don't know that this will really extend the life of Toys R Us for long anyway.
Probably 75% of the time I take my kids there and we find something they want, we end up buying for a better price from Amazon. Brick and mortar only exists anymore in the rare instances you have to have something now and can't wait a couple days on shipping.
September 18th, 2017 at 1:30 PM ^
Or in Home Depot's instance, you need to physically see what you're getting, measure it out, or talk to an expert before buying it.
Places like Home Depot or Lowe's are still doing well because you don't want to buy $300 worth of power tools on Amazon and find out that none of it was really what you needed. Or the screws don't quite fit, or something else. Not saying your instance isn't valid, but there are other cases where it's worth making the drive over to the store. Customer reviews on Amazon are great, but when I need a real expert's opinion, I'd rather go into the store than trust someone online that I've never met.
September 18th, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^
Even though most of the time I order what I need online and then go pick it up at the store, there will also always be times when you need something right away.
September 18th, 2017 at 1:14 PM ^
Private equity companies own you and demand a profit.
Meanwhile, you have no meaningful budget to make the investments required to compete with much larger and better rivals.
Brandon then spends $100M on a giant macaroni noodle.....no, wait I mean, to improve the Toys R Us online business, which fails in spectacular fashion because software engineers they hired did not include and could not fix a subscription service feature for site visitors. ecommerce 101 stuff. Kinda dumb, but it was a Hail Mary anyway..
Truth be told, Toys R Us was a dysfunctional train wreck of a business before Brandon arrived.
So why would Dave Brandon be sad? The man is going to clear $50 million plus in salary and bonuses regardless of what happens here.
September 18th, 2017 at 3:45 PM ^
Right we should be feeling sorry for the regular people about to lose their jobs. Brandon like all the other corporate clowns will get a golden parachute for doing absolutely nothing but failing at his job.
Welcome to America where hard working people get shafted, but corrupt, shitty CEOs get paid millions.
September 18th, 2017 at 1:25 PM ^
Any chance he can become CEO of twitter?
September 18th, 2017 at 1:45 PM ^
So happy inside.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:09 PM ^
really isn't of Dave's making, the company was taken private years ago and loaded up with Wall Street debt with intentions of going public around 2010. That offering had to be pulled because Wall Street overestimated its market value and underestimated the impact Amazon would have on the retail market. Frankly they screwed the pooch and now Toys R Us is saddled with massive debt, no way to pawn it off on the public market and a declining revenue stream. Bankruptcy is one option being floated around most likely to try and get the debt restructuring banks to the table. Who to this point are very uninterested in restructuring retail debt and are fine with a darwin solution to the market.
Dave's a shit manager and I frankly have serious questions about him as a human being but this one really isn't on Dave. After his UM AD fiasco he took probaby one of the few jobs he could even get knowing full well it was a risk. But Dave will make out fine, he has a big salary continegent on nothing and I'm sure a slew of stock options and various other bonuses and when and if the dust settles he'll walk away with millions regardless of how the Toys R Us saga plays out.
He'll probably retire from here and write some stupid ass book at some point.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:09 PM ^
I pray that his next stop is a publicly traded company so that I can short the stock.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:52 PM ^
A huge book deal from Borders. An audiobook from Sam Goody. Put out those weekly book excerpts in Spy magazine.
Does suck for the 1000s of employees (my cousin included) but ya know....capitalism. Hopefully they can go into Chapter 11 and come out with a better business plan.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:59 PM ^
The way I see it, he's still a Wolverine. Whatever issues there were or missteps were made, the U-M I know has the capacity for forgiveness.
End result: Harbaugh and Jumpman are now here. I don't need to drink anyone else's tears to enjoy what we have.
September 18th, 2017 at 3:25 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 3:24 PM ^
Never could've seen this coming...
September 18th, 2017 at 4:03 PM ^
September 18th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^
(1) Brick & mortar retail is suffering, all the old chains are facing an uphill struggle.
- Doesn't excuse Brandon. I'm sure when he got hired he told them how he'd turn them around. He obviously didn't do it.
It's like taking over EMU, yeah they always suck, but if you go 1-11 for the 4th time, they'll can you either way. "But they've always sucked, it's not my fault!" And then a different guy comes along and they suddenly don't suck as much anymore. They aren't paying you that high salary so you can do just as poorly as any other guy would.
(2) Dave Brandon loves Michigan
- But he loves himself more. He's shown himself as a self-serving narcissist. His actions were only designed to serve Michigan's interest in the sense that he felt having Dave Brandon call the shots was the best thing for Michigan.
(3) It's only football! I don't wish him ill as a person.
Regardless of what happened to Michigan football, in life you should avoid people who couple poor judgment with a ruthless and unethical pursuit of their self-interest. If you do know them and are forced to co-exist with them, you should try to limit their influence to protect yourself and others.
September 18th, 2017 at 5:54 PM ^
His $6M mansion in Barton Hills (Ann Arbor) is still for sale. I think it was $7M when it went on the market two years ago:
https://www.redfin.com/MI/Ann-Arbor/660-Barton-Shore-Dr-48105/home/9935…
September 18th, 2017 at 7:29 PM ^