When I heard Toys R Us was closing, I assumed, immediately, that they were closing due to online shopping at Amazon.com or at Walmart.  I was mistaken.

The shame of it all is that my grandson and I will no longer be able to take trips to Toys R Us to choose a toy just for the fun of it.  Part of the fun was the hunt.  He would enter the store with big wide eyes and go down each and every aisle looking for the perfect toy.  He would examine every car, crayon, book, game, or Lego set with the unbridled attention of a child who receives his favorite toy for Christmas.

So, why am I so sad?  I am sad because this might have been prevented.  From what I have read so far, it seems that upper management mismanaged their assets and are in debt way above their eyeballs.  No one just enters into junk bond status in the bond market for no reason.  The investors no longer trusted the executive leadership of the company and downgraded their status.

Trust is a big word and Toys R Us and trust always went hand in hand for me as a consumer.  I always trusted that the experience they provided for our children and grandchildren was carefully thought out and strategically planned.  Shame on them!  The shareholders and the employees are out of luck and so are the debtors as if there is any money left after the liquidation, they will get paid first.

So, what do these executives have to say to the 31,000 employees who will now be out of work?

From what I have read, they tried to do too little, too late.  If these corporate leaders were good leaders and good at fiscal management, they would have put together  a strategic plan that makes sense and tied it into a 5-year financial plan.  They had a moral and an ethical obligation to their employees and their stockholders to run the company in a conservative fashion, ensuring a positive bottom line at all costs.  I am sure if given the chance 5 years ago, the employees would have considered keeping their jobs in place of a raise, or a benefit or some other factor.  It just upsets me when I see people mismanage their assets.

If you ask me, these executives need to be held accountable in some way.  The future leaders of our world need to witness that so they can make better decisions and learn from these mistakes and perhaps add some of the basic moral principles and theories, whether utilitarian, rights, justice, common good or virtue approaches, to their strategic plan, mission and values statement.  Perhaps they could have also asked themselves the thoughtful questions in determining an ethical decision when contemplating some of their decision making.

References

Ethical Framework

Toys R Us