News

Sears Canada reinvention brings leadership, IT overhaul

May 2, 2016

Sears Canada is revamping its leadership ranks, deploying new technology and driving a cultural change in the quest to drive sales, profits and consumer loyalty.

Its new executive chairman believes it's not too late for the company to reverse its position and become a nimble and vibrant retailer.

Brandon Stranzl, who took the role in 2015, told the Financial Post that a key aspect has been the infusion of new blood in the corporate structure.

"This was a mature company with a lot of leadership that had been here for a very, very long period of time, and if you look at our senior roles, we have new people in almost all of those roles," Stranzl told the Financial Post.

At this point more than three quarters of the company's top leaders have just less than two years with the retailer and many boast new titles and roles, including the position of omnichannel chief.

"All of the functional people that worked together — merchandising, marketing, global sourcing, private label — they were all on different floors, and they are moving on to one floor," said Stranzl. "The cubicles are gone, it's an open concept workspace where they can talk to each other."

Sears Canada is also undergoing some major IT changes with a new research and development lab called Initium and a huge effort to replace two decades of legacy technology with a cloud strategy. The company is also prepping a new ecommerce platform which it hopes to have in place by the holiday sales period.

However, some analysts aren't convinced Sears Canada is doing enough or has enough potential to make needed changes, noting sluggish online sales as one indicator.