CEOs Who Don't Get Out (And Some Who Do)

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Sears

Eddie Lampert, chairman of Sears, is pretty busy at his hedge fund. Sears and K-Mart have fallen apart over the last year. Lampert did show up at the annual meeting. He spent most of his time talking about cost cuts and stock buy-backs. A check of Sears PR shows that his comments about his stores and quality of merchandise are very, very rare. Maybe that is because billionaires don't spend much time at discount chains.

Next: Wal-Mart

DOES Get Out Enough:
CEO of Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart may be one of the best turnaround stories in the last year. Same-store sales are actually running up, which is rare in the industry. Sam Walton invented the "CEO store tour." Does current CEO Lee Scott get around as much? No. No one could match Walton's travel schedule. However, you can find a video of Lee at a store visit on the Wal-Mart site. Also, the store managers and customers are treated like royalty. They are quoted in company PR more than Scott is quoted.
Next: Starbucks

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Starbucks

Howard Schultz, CEO and founder of Starbucks, is great for analyzing what can go wrong with a business. The most recent letters from headquarters in Seattle were about the company missing earnings. Schultz puts out a series of PR releases called the "Transformation Agenda Communications." 24/7 has visited a lot of Starbucks stores over the last year. No one has seen Howard. Maybe he should stop in more often and find out why his same-store traffic is so bad.

Next: McDonald's

DOES Get Out Enough:
CEO of McDonald's

James Skinner of McDonald's has been beating the competition to within an inch of its life for two years. McDonald's is growing faster than the industry -- which is hard when you are the largest player. The company has been launching products which carefully target the breakfast and coffee crowd and has been spot-on when it comes to competitive pricing. Skinner's picture at the McDonald's site shows him standing in one of his stores, not sitting behind a desk.

Next: Dell

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Dell

Michael Dell has started selling PCs in retail outlets. The old business model of ordering Dell computers by internet and phone was not working well enough. Dell does get around the world and has been to Asia and the Middle East to set up new resale chains, but that is not the same as walking through the local Wal-Mart to find out why customers are buying HP or Lenovo PCs instead of his. He did give a nifty speech on "green IT" recently. That should bring customers in droves, right?

Next: Apple

DOES Get Out Enough:
CEO of Apple

Apple CEO Steve Jobs may not visit retail outlets or Apple stores, but don't tell that to the people who stand in line for hours to get an iPhone or the latest Mac. The Apple faithful believe that Jobs is a deity who lives in every product and outlet. That may seem a bit Zen, but why try to convince people otherwise. He gets out enough "in spirit."

Next: Ford

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Ford

Alan Mulally of Ford spends a lot of time talking about downsizing and his new crossovers. The most recent news out of the car company has to do with its commitment to human and labor rights. Tell that to all the people who have been sacked at Ford. If Mulally spent some time with farmers and construction workers he might find out what he could do to help sales of his flagship F-150 pick-up.

Next: Hewlett-Packard

DOES Get Out Enough:
CEO of Hewlett-Packard

Mark Hurd of Hewlett-Packard has helped build the king of store-sold PCs. That has helped the company become the largest seller of computers in the world and kept them high on customer satisfaction surveys. HP was recently named one of Wal-Mart's "Suppliers of the Year". Why? Over the course of 2007, Wal-Mart's sales of HP printer and ink products grew at three times the rate of the industry, and profit in this segment doubled over the prior year.

Next: RadioShack

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of RadioShack

Julian Day at RadioShack has a stock that trades near its 52-week low. He also has 4,500 stores. Based on how things are going, his potential customers are going into Best Buy. RadioShack's website makes a big deal of the fact that Mr. Day was part of the turnaround at Sears and Kmart. That did not turn out too well.

Next: Schwab

DOES Get Out Enough:
CEO of Schwab

Charles Schwab puts his name on almost every piece of marketing the company does with the slogan "Ask Chuck." Schwab makes sure every customer knows it is his company -- they are investing at a firm where he is responsible because his name is on the door. He even puts a letter online telling people why he is on the side of the investor. Hokey, maybe, but it works.

Next: TDAmeritrade

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of TDAmeritrade

Joe Moglia of TDAmeritrade may want to hit the sidewalks. His firm fell behind companies like Schwab and Scottrade in the JD Power discount broker rankings. The company has over 100 locations. Schwab's stock has also done better in the last year. If he can't get out, perhaps he could take orders from investors in the call center.

Next: CostCo

DOES Get Out Enough:
CEO of Costco

James Sinegal of Costco isn't just in the stores. After a fashion, he is the stores. He started the company in 1983. According to the company, he tries to visit every one of the Costco stores at least once a year.

Next: Sprint

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Sprint Nextel

Sprint had some great news. Its CEO Dan Hesse put together a deal with Clearwire, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable to build a national WiMax network. Unfortunately, many Sprint customers still hate the company. Sprint finished last in the JD Power wireless customer care ratings. It also finished last in the retail sales satisfaction survey.

Next: Palm

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Palm

Palm CEO Ed Colligan desperately needs to visit retail outlets that carry his smartphones if he expects to catch up with his competition. 24/7 visits to AT&T mobile stores indicated that the RIM Blackberry and Apple iPhone are flying out the door, but no one will touch the Palm products. This company is falling apart at the seams. Colligan may want to try going from store to store and pitching the product himself.

Next: Target

Doesn't Get Out Enough:
CEO of Target

A lot is amiss at Target. Its stock is down 10% in the last year. Shares of its rival Wal-Mart are up close to 20%. CEO Gregg Steinhafel may want to do what Sam Walton did and have rallies in a couple of stores a day. Comparable store sales at the retailer fell 4% in March. The company did sell some credit card receivables to JP Morgan and that may have been a good use of management time, but poor sales are not going to be offset by smart financing packages.

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Are we in a recession? Officially, that's up to a nonprofit group of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research to decide. While their declaration is based on facts and figures, we took a more "average joe" approach to determine whether we are already in the midst of the big "R." Our bloggers spied more than 20 new trends in everyday life that seem to say we are. Click through our gallery to see what they're seeing.
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