Some believed that George Jones was on the right track with changes he was implementing at Borders Group. Others clearly were not satisfied with the pace of change on the bookstore chain's balance sheet even if they thought Mr. Jones was on the right track with moves such as placing kiosks in stores to enable consumers to burn their own CDs, self-publish books and make travel reservations.
As of yesterday, Mr. Jones is out as CEO of Borders and he is being replaced by "turnaround expert" Ron Marshall, the former top executive at Nash Finch. Before joining Nash Finch, he was chief financial officer at Pathmark.
Mr. Marshall is not entirely new to the book business after having served in management roles at Barnes & Noble's college bookstore unit and at Crown Books.
"Borders is a powerful brand with millions of loyal customers who love to shop in the stores," said Mr. Marshall in a press release to announce his hiring. "These are tremendous assets that can be built upon once the balance sheet is strengthened and the company is on more solid financial footing. I've led turnarounds at other retail organizations and look forward to leading a new management team at Borders to drive profitability and help ensure lasting success for this great name in retail."
The chain announced a number of other personnel changes, as well. Mark Bierley was named chief financial officer and executive vice president, finance, replacing Ed Wilhelm. Anne Kubek takes over as executive vice president, merchandising and marketing from Rob Gruen. Dan Smith was named to the newly created position of chief administrative officer from his previous position as executive vice president, human resources for Borders.
David Schick of Stifel Nicolaus & Co. told The Associated Press that continuing turnover in Borders' executive suite is likely to create more problems than it solves.
"We believe such powerful macroeconomic factors are at work that a management change could confuse the key constituents (vendors) and cause incremental friction in the model. Borders has seen too much change in three years, in our view," Mr. Schick wrote in a note to clients.
Discussion Questions: What do you think about Borders management changes? What will Ron Marshall and his team need to do to turn Borders around?