Aylwin B. Lewis will step down as CEO of Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), paying for the sins of his boss, hedge-fund billionaire Eddie Lampert. Lampert put together the Sears chain with K-Mart and found that one plus one equals zero when the brands are so poor that people would rather shop at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT).

Shares in Sears are down from a 52-week high of $195 to under $100. They will probably fall much further. Lampert has said he will make operating units more free to handle decisions at the brand level. He brought in new management to run the company's e-commerce unit.

In a statement quoted at MarketWatch, Lampert said ,"We are entering a new phase in Sears' evolution as a multi-channel retailer, as reflected by the new operational structure we recently announced, and the board has determined that now is the right time to put in place new leadership to take the company forward."

In other words, "we have no idea what we are doing, so we will try a new horse."

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.