Executive Communication RoundupSears CEO drones on in 15-page letter

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Put on your reading glasses: Maybe the CEO of Sears Holdings should hunker down somewhere and write a novel. With the company’s quarterly profit down 55 percent, publicity-shy CEO Edward Lampert wrote a 15-page letter (ahem…rambling essay) to his stakeholders.

Sears has been facing financial challenges for years, and investors hoped the 8,500-word report would discuss the company’s strategy. Not quite. One commentator said, “As for enlightening investors with specifics about his merchandising strategy and fiscal 2009 outlook, we guess he ran out of room.” We agree. Our eyes started to glaze over after Page 2.