Edward Lampert of Sears was a wizard. He is now in phase with failure.

In 2009, Mr. Lampert said that he realized that nothing less than a radical transformation of Sears' culture would allow him to keep up with the digital revolution that was transforming him. the retail sector. That year, he launched the store's ShopYourWay campaign, which was the cornerstone of a new, data-driven, customer-driven strategy to compete with Amazon.

This is where Mr. Lampert met his opponent. He did not choose the best leaders to fully engage in the digital transformation of society. "I have underestimated how difficult it is to do and how important it is for the right people to lead and encourage people to subscribe," he said.

For example, he cited his attempt to convert an underutilized space into Internet lounges, offering guests free Wi-Fi and a place to relax. It was an attempt to get customers, many of whom did not have access to the Internet at home at the time, to the shops, much like Starbucks had attracted coffee drinkers carrying a laptop.

It was anathema to traditional retailers, who measured success strictly in terms of sales per square foot and for whom any space not dedicated to merchandise was a waste. Nevertheless, Internet lounges equipped with a computer have been installed in 100 Sears branches, but without much conviction. "I was going to a shop and there would be 10 computers," said Lampert. "Half of them would not work." The salons have been abandoned. "We did not have a store manager or C.E.O store at the time who adopted the idea," Lampert said.

In 2013, Mr. Lampert himself became CEO, which he said he had never sucked into. He hoped to stay in the role only a few months. "I wanted to be a generator of ideas," he said. "I was trying to be a catalyst, not the person who operates."

At that moment, it was too late. Caught in a downward spiral of sales, huge losses, closures, forced asset sales and fierce competition from rivals online, Sears struggles to survive on a daily basis, a war of attrition is over with the bankruptcy of this week.

It's not clear that successful Internet shows, or even an agile culture that embraces change, could have saved Sears. Mr. Lampert has been criticized for his underinvestment in Sears physical stores; for attempting to run the company from his office in Florida, far from the company's headquarters, Hoffman Estates, Illinois; and for a revolving door in executive suites. In the end, however, none of this mattered much.