'Great time to be expanding': Old-school retailer Simons keeps faith in beautiful stores in Age of Amazon. Sears Canada's departure has also boosted Simons. Peter Simons, CEO of the 178-year old family run company, at best sounds cautiously optimistic about the industry's future.Clement Allard for National Post. We are private and we have the luxury and the DNA to work longer term. We are old-school merchants. 

Many strategy execution processes fail because the firm does not have something worth executing.The strategy consultants come in, do their work, and document the new strategy in a PowerPoint presentation and a weighty report. Town hall meetings are organized, employees are told to change their behavior, balanced scorecards are reformulated, and budgets are set aside to support initiatives that fit the new strategy. And then nothing happens.