I listened to the first earnings call when Lampert took the helm at Sears, and he said to think of Sears as a real estate company. In other words, I don't think he thought a lot about Sears potential as a retailer.

That's a really weird inspiration to take from Ayn Rand. Any source with more details about this?

I don't remember my personal source. Wikipedia citation [15] seems pretty comprehensive.

[15] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-11/at-sears-...

> Plagued by the realities threatening many retail stores, Sears also faces a unique problem: Lampert. Many of its troubles can be traced to an organizational model the chairman implemented five years ago, an idea he has said will save the company. Lampert runs Sears like a hedge fund portfolio, with dozens of autonomous businesses competing for his attention and money. An outspoken advocate of free-market economics and fan of the novelist Ayn Rand, he created the model because he expected the invisible hand of the market to drive better results. If the company’s leaders were told to act selfishly, he argued, they would run their divisions in a rational manner, boosting overall performance.

Which is odd since he only became CEO in 2013, "In January 2013, it was announced that Lampert would take over as chief executive officer at Sears after Louis D'Ambrosio stepped down due to family health matters, which took effect in May 2013."

I think it was on metafilter