The basic problem with Borders these days is that the corporate side
of the company is no longer run by "book people."  Look at the most
recent CEO's- George Jones (came to Borders from Saks); Greg
Josefowicz (came to Borders from Albertson's); Phil Pfeffer (came from
Ingram- could have been good if not for so many internal problems that
caused his tenure to be less than a year long).

The problem that the corporate types don't understand here is that a
"widget is NOT a widget."  Books are a special retail industry, not
clothing stores or grocery stores.  You can't treat them with a "get
the customer in and out fast" philosophy.  Trying to keep costs down
by getting rid of the long term booksellers who know the product and
the customers is the wrong way to go.  Customers walk into a Borders
and understand that in many stores, they, the customer, will know more
about books than the average Borders employee.  Borders favors the
financials over all else- to the detriment of the customer.  Try to
find the person who should be the most knowledgeable about books in
the store- the general manager.  If they are knowledgeable, they will
probably be stuck in the back office somewhere wasting that knowledge
on corporate minutia rather than leading by example anywhere on the
sales floor.

Compare the leadership of Borders to that of Barnes and Noble; the
Riggio's, particularly Len, are book people.  They know and understand
the industry.  They have been in it for a long time- at the head of
B&N for a long time.  They have made savvy moves, have created stores
that feel sophisticated, and have run the business to keep bringing
the customer back- you know, the people who ultimately pay the bills,
which in the end helps the financials.  Have they made mistakes?
Sure.  What company hasn't, but in this business, you'd better do what
is right for the customer, engage them, entice them, know them, bring
them back again and again.

If Borders keeps heading in the same direction (which seems to change
all the time), they won't be around too much longer, at least in their
current state.

I disagree. How is selling books so different than other commodities?
You don't have to be a "food expert" to run a supermarket, so why do
you have to be a book expert to run a book store? What does it even
mean to be a book expert?

Having people from out of the industry being brought in adds a fresh
perspective to selling books, and it's an asset to Borders to have
proven managers from lots of different industries.

In terms of anecdotal evidence that the company is doing well, the
Borders in my area gets way more traffic than the B&N. And the reason
is simple: the staff at Borders is friendlier, and that's the main
thing you want at a book store - the ability to go in, browse, sit for
a cup of coffee, and not feel any pressure to buy. It's obvious that
sales will follow in such an environment.

Very well put.

A certain amount of day-to-day industry knowledge is needed on the
store level, but the key is calm, relaxed, friendliness.  You can
learn everything else.

In the larger-scale, the nuances of the publishing industry are very
easily learned.  Sensing trends in what people want to experience is a
function of a good marketer and a good manager, and they don't have to
have tons of book knowledge to begin with.  Besides the nature of the
product, which is less significant than one might think (just watch TV
or read the paper to see what people want to read) the only real
difference between books and other retail is a fixed pricing
structure, which is pretty easy to figure out.  I think avoiding the
trap of putting too much stock in "book knowledge," at least in terms
of executives, is what will ultimately differentiate Borders from B&N
and bring them out on top.

The idea is to be *more* than a bookstore, not *just* a bookstore.

There must be somebody there who's a "book person," and because you
worked at Saks or Albertsons doesn't necessarily mean your not one.
Anyway here's the only kind of book I care if the CEO is into:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Run-Company-Lessons-Leaders/dp/140004927X