teen of 26 factories were closed, as were 43 out of 61 warehouses. A decentralized regional five-headquarters system was consolidated into one headquarters location, in Delray Beach, Florida (Marchetti, 1998).
4. Out of 12,000 employees, 6,000 were laid off, including most of Sunbeam's senior managers, who were replaced by "a team of indefatigable Dunlap disciples" motivated by stock options, not bonuses or raises (Sellers, 1998).
5. Some new products were introduced, and other products were discontinued. In September 1997, Sunbeam reported $150 million in sales. That was also when Dunlap's book, Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great was published by Simon & Schuster and was being promoted by Dunlap.
By March 1998, Dunlap's performance at Sunbeam was being lauded. Against expectations that he might be recruited for the next turnaround, he signed a new three-year contract as CEO and announced that he would build Sunbeam into a consumer-durables giant grossing $2 billion a year. In due course:
6. March 1998. After announcing it would spend $1.8 billion in the project, Sunbeam spent more than $2.5 billion and created some $700 million in debt to acquire three publicly traded manufacturers of consumer goods: Wichita-based Coleman (camping equipment), First Alert (smoke detectors), and Signature Brands (Mr. Coffee appliances).
7. May 1998. Asked whether he and his team had made mistakes at Sunbeam, Dunlap replied: "I think we've had unbelievable success. . . . By and large we've really done things right" (Marchetti, 1998, p. 50).
8. June 1998. Barron's reported that Sunbeam had manufactured its dazzling 1997 earnings and performed accounting tricks in order to report profits. Dunlap strongly denied the allegations.
9. June 1998. A week after the Barron's article, a member of Sunbeam's board of directors introduced a motion to discharge Dunlap. Dunlap was fired. The Securities and Exchange ...