Quality Management at Sears Holding Corporation
Felicia J Town
Keller Graduate School of Management
Managing Quality
GM588
Professor Taylor
October 10, 2011

Quality Management at Sears Holding Corporation
Richard Sears, a Minneapolis railway station agent, sold lumber and coal to the local residents to make extra money. One day he received an unwanted shipment of watches from a neighboring jeweler and the light bulb in his head lit up, he was ready to start his own watch company. In 1886 Richard W. Sears began Sears Watch Company with the watches that he purchased for resale. In 1887 he teamed up with a watchmaker Alvah C. Roebuck, a young Indiana native to later form the firm Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 1893. In 1896 the first general catalog was created. By 1945, Sears had opened a retail store on the west side of Chicago and sales exceeded $1 billion. Sears continued to expand and offer a variety of services. It was until the early 1990s that Sears noticed a significant blow to its sales. 1992 was the start of the retail giant’s culture shift from senior management down to the hourly sales associates (Sears, 2011).
A deliveryman, clerk, bookkeeper and teacher- these were all the hats worn by Sebastian S. Kresge. His ambition to succeed and his penny-pinching attitude led him to become a successful businessman. Through five and dime stores to Kmart stores, he became a millionaire. In 1966 sales topped the $1 billion mark. Kresge once said, "I think I was successful because I saved and because I heeded good advice … I worked—and I didn't work only eight hours a day, but sometimes 18 hours. When one starts at the bottom and learns to scrape, then everything becomes easy," (Sears Holdings Corporation, 2011).
In 2002, with 2,114 Stores, Kmart hit financial hardship and needed to rectify the problem. The solution was to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy