Had founder Max Kohl still been at the helm of his department store today, the retailer might have handled recent events differently.
As a Polish immigrant who built a business from a single Milwaukee grocery store, Kohl embodied humility and accountability long before those became leadership buzzwords. In terms that author John Foley would use, Kohl would have known how to “own it and fix it.”
The Kohl’s brand grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a premium grocery retailer under its founder. The company left its grocery roots in the 1960s and became a recognizable department store, opening its first location in Brookfield, Wisconsin, in the same year as Walmart and Target.
When I was CEO of Prologis, a global warehousing company, our employees felt a connection with all of our logistical partners who stored goods with us, which is why it was troubling to see a longtime retailer experience its share of wobbly years and, more recently, leadership woes.
Over the decades, Kohl’s survived upheavals by making what Forbes called “survivalist moves,” but those same pivots have blurred its identity. Recent years brought shifting partnerships and constant course corrections—decisions meant to steady the business but that often revealed uncertainty instead.
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The most recent turn of events: the Kohl’s board decided to fire its CEO last summer after an ethics investigation brought those questions surrounding course corrections into sharper focus.
When a situation like this unfolds, it’s easy to assume silence equals avoidance. But in public companies, silence can sometimes be strategy. There are legal limits, shareholder sensitivities, and reputational risks that shape what can and can’t be said.
The board’s choice not to elaborate may have been as much about protecting the company’s future—and the people connected to it—as about damage control.
When transparency isn’t possible in public, it becomes even more important in private. The real work of recovery happens behind closed doors—where leaders ask hard questions, acknowledge what went wrong, and make sure the same mistakes aren’t repeated.
Those conversations don’t always make headlines, but they define a company’s culture. If accountability happens only when a press release demands it, the lesson is lost. But when leaders practice honesty within the circle that can hear it, that truth eventually ripples outward.
As leaders, we all face moments when discretion collides with integrity. There’s no easy playbook. But we can commit to one principle: Silence should serve the greater good, not hide the truth. Because in the long run, a company’s reputation isn’t built on how much it says; it’s built on whether its actions align with its values.
