Sears, Roebuck & Company was the Amazon.com of America’s outhouse days. When a company’s sales are growing they can afford to hire the best talent and offer a career path with promotions. When sales go down there’s little opportunity for advancement and the best people leave or are laid off by a spreadsheet monkey. That leaves the people that no one else will hire, creating a death spiral of sadness and failure.
“spreadsheet monkey”
I am so stealing that! I know a bunch of those guys in our company.