A Chat with Eduard Bjorncrantz, Vice President, Direct Marketing at Day-Timers, Inc.

CS: What was your biggest challenge at Sears?

EB: The biggest challenge I had was after Sears brought in an outside consultant who concluded that there was little synergy between Sears catalog and retail. I really disagreed with their conclusion: the decision was made to split the catalog business from the retail business. Spinning off and eventually abandoning the catalog business was akin to a catalog company spinning off their e-commerce business. They lost the impact of being multichannel marketers. So I left Sears and went to Lab Safety Supply. That was 1990. Lab Safety was an entrepreneurial organization. Decision making was fast. They were on a growth curve. It was an exciting business. After three years there, I accepted the position of vice president at Moore Medical, and general manager of their Professional Division. We were marketing medical products to office-based physicians, surgical centers, occupational health professionals, schools, correctional facilities. Moore had identified the Professional Division as their primary growth opportunity. In many respects it was a turnaround situation. It required a repositioning of the company: upgrading the quality image, redoing the packaging, bringing in new direct marketing disciplines, changing the whole advertising and production process, and developing a plan. It was a real chance to build a business and see the results. It was pretty exciting.