RadShack

Good old Radio Shack is on the ropes, with a bankruptcy filing imminent. The company has re-invented themselves on several occasions, and was in fact one of the driving forces behind the personal computer revolution of the late 70s and early 80s. So what went wrong? Why are they face down in the economic mud?

That's easy to answer, actually. This went wrong:

Just nine years ago, RadioShack enthusiastically opened its new $200 million headquarters, a complex of 900,000 square feet situated majestically on 38 acres on the banks of the Trinity River. With a 500-seat cafe, an open floor plan and a fitness center, it was supposed to help propel the chain to greater entrepreneurial heights.

A bloated corporate campus staffed by prancing HR drones, Deputy Vice Presidents of Creating Useless Paperwork, and more administrative assistants than you can shake a stick at is NOT "entrepreneurial heights," it's corporatism at its worst. I am sometimes amazed by how easily otherwise successful companies can fall into the tar pit of bureaucratic overburden. When the people who bring the money in the door are marginalized in favor of the non-producers in a corporate hierarchy, failure is inevitable.

Maybe Radio Shack can restructure out of the bankruptcy. If they can get rid of all the corporate flotsam there might still be time to re-invent themselves yet again. They were a fixture in every mall when I was growing up and I'd hate to see them disappear forever.