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.