Almost two years ago, L.L. Bean began to move investments from infrastructure and staffing to prospecting and advertising. The results are just now coming in

By Reported Donna Loyle

So we split up the company into seven little companies, and each looks a little different. For example, the Travel and Home division may deserve some extra attention now and then. We had to shake things up a little.

Unfortunately, in that reorganizational process, we had to let some employees go and close some buildings. But the housefile was becoming flat, and we were not seeing the sales returns we should have.