If Your CEO Ever Says This, Find a New Boss

03/30/09 05:31AM EDT

I’m sitting here having my morning coffee going through last week’s bankruptcy filings. This quote from the CEO of Active Wallace almost made me choke on my bagel.

“The swift and dramatic downturn in the local economy had a major impact on our business in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2008. The preemptive cost cutting initiatives that we took throughout 2008 were not enough to protect our investments...”

Ok…I’m not a retail CEO, so I don’t purport to be able to do this guy’s job better than him. But the statement referring to “cutting costs to protect investments” is flat-out ridiculous. Maybe if you cut costs and reinvest in your brand then this works. But when you cannot cut a leg off a bar stool and expect it to stand on its own.

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