Let's give these "outsiders" a chance
The story about Sealy’s hiring of former Whirlpool executive Jodi Allen had only been available on our Web site for about an hour Thursday when a reader slammed the company for hiring her.
Describing Allen as “someone from outside the industry to screw things up,” the reader concluded that the poor track record of previous executives with no furniture or bedding industry experience should have precluded Sealy from hiring her.
I’ve never met Allen, who is Sealy’s new senior vice president and chief marketing officer, and I doubt that our Web site commentator has either. But come on folks, let’s give her a chance.
Granted, the track record of some furniture and bedding industry “outsiders” hasn’t been impressive — John Beggs’ disastrous two-year tenure as Sealy’s CEO in the mid-1990s immediately comes to mind — but that is not a good reason to refuse to consider anyone without furniture industry experience.
Consider that the well-liked David Evans, Sealy’s vice president of marketing from 2000 to 2007, had worked for Sara Lee, Gillette and Procter & Gamble before joining Sealy. And Tim Oakhill, now executive vice president of marketing at Simmons, joined that company in 1997 from Eastman Kodak.
Plus, Kurt Ling, who joined Simmons about the same time as Oakhill, previously worked for Maytag, which was then a Whirlpool competitor. Ling recently cemented his status as a bedding industry “insider” by announcing that he and former Ashley executive Joe Hunt are launching a specialty bedding producer called Pure LatexBliss.
Given these and other similar success stories, let’s not arbitrarily dismiss someone without furniture or bedding industry experience.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the reaction to Allen’s hiring, though. Just two weeks earlier, there was a similar comment about Dan Sheehan, the new senior vice president of sales and marketing at Lane.
Interestingly, Sheehan is also a former Whirlpool executive. Maybe this stuff is being written by someone who doesn’t like his or her Whirlpool refrigerator.
Patrick Tillman commented:
In response to the reader that slammed the decision to hire an "outsider" is interesting and one that deserves deeper analysis. In full disclosire, I've worked closely with two of the leading brands under the Whirlpool umbrella. Home furnishings could certainly take some lessons from the consumer appliance playbook, particularly in the arena of marketing communication.
The reader took many liberties without providing any data to support their claim. I understand that the home furnishings industry is a very unique animal. This is well documented in professor Mike Dugan's recent book The Furniture Wars; however, isolated leadership failures in the furniture and bedding industries should not be a blanket indictment for those executives from outside industries coming in to provide leadership.
In fact, Whirlpool brands (Maytag and Jenn-Air)are in the top 5 categories in freezers, side-by-side refrigerators and #1 in built-in refrigerators, according to Consumer reports August 2009 issue.
I suppose ultimately executive leadership is synanamous with a quarterback or coach in the NFL. Those highly scrutinized positions get too much credit for wins and too much blame for the losses. Let us remember an executive is only as good as that person to their right and left. If the right people are on the bus, then real success is achievable.
"ticked off" commented:
Didn't we just hear recently that a Whirlpool plant in Indiana is going to close by the end of the year and 1100 jobs are going away, to be replaced by a facility in Mexico? Let's hope that is not what the WHirlpool mindset brings to Sealy. A couple of years ago I was shopping for a new refrigerator, and purposely tried to find one that WAS made in the US. I was even willing to pay extra for it. Am I the only person who feels this way?
Phil Ellis commented:
Considering that running a mattress retailer or manufacturer generally requires one to have had suffered a recent head injury, you would think we would welcome "outsiders" to our silly little industry. Sealy does little or nothing to advertise it's brand and create demand...ANYTHING new is welcomed.
