Business: At the Top Of the Tower

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Sears picks a middle-line boss

When Sears, Roebuck's profits tumbled 28% in 1974, it was all too obvious why. Seeking a fashion image, the company had been stocking and advertising higher-priced goods; when the recession suddenly made shoppers price conscious, Sears was stuck with unsold inventories, and discount merchandisers like K mart successfully invaded its old middlebrow market. Since then, Sears has shifted back into its traditional niche between the low-priced stores and the fashion shops, largely at the urging of Senior Executive Vice President Edward R. Telling. Last week Telling, 58, got his reward: a committee of directors chose him to take over from Arthur M. Wood as chairman and chief executive after Wood retires in January at 65.

Telling beat out four other Sears executives, including President Dean Swift, who some thought had the inside track. But Swift had been neutral in the fashion v. tradition battle; Telling strongly supported the move back to the middle market and, since he was boss of all field operations, his voice was decisive. Says he: "We are not Bloomingdale's or K mart. We are once again back to where people feel comfortable with us." The move has been a huge success: Sears' sales of $15 billion and profits of $695 million in 1976 both set records. In the first half of this year, sales jumped 14.6% and profits 63% from a year earlier.

Telling, who joined Sears in 1946 as a trainee and worked his way up through the store-manager ranks, has earlier triumphs to his credit. As head of Sears' then small eastern division in the 1960s, he talked his superiors into a major expansion. Sears had traditionally resisted building stores in the East—largely, according to company legend, because the longtime chairman, General Robert E. Wood, once failed to get loans for Sears from several New York banks and angrily vowed to stay out of that market. The eastern expansion paid off handsomely: the area today ranks in the top two of Sears' five territories for sales.

Personally, Telling is noted for a phenomenal memory; associates insist that he can recall the stock numbers of items Sears stopped carrying 20 years ago. As a manager, his style is demanding but not abrasive. One colleague says that in 25 years he has never heard Telling raise his voice. That style is well known to store managers. For the past two years Telling has been the link between headquarters in the 110-story Sears Tower, the world's tallest building, and 55 field executives and has been noted for tightening management control. Says Telling: "With five different territories, we were accused of being five different companies. Strong people were running the territories and strong people ran headquarters. Getting corporate directives carried out in the field was difficult." Nonetheless, he did it, and when he moves into the chairman's office, there will be less doubt than ever about who is minding the store.