The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Jan. 20, edition that about a year ago Canadian Tire chief executive officer Greg Hicks was seeing blue skies ahead when he launched "Better Connected," a $3.4-billion, four-year plan aimed to increase sales across company banners. The Globe's Susan Krashinsky Robertson writes that last fall, however, Mr. Hicks conceded "Better Connected" was not working out exactly as planned. In the first nine months of this fiscal year, total revenue fell by 2.1 per cent to $12.2-billion, and normalized EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) declined to $1.5-billion, compared with $1.6-billion in the same period the previous year. Mr. Hicks is still looking to the future, but it has become murkier. Mr. Hicks told The Globe recently: "What has changed is the assumptions that we had, with respect to the demand environment. ... We still find ourselves in a position where forward-looking visibility is really tough." Nearly at the halfway mark of the plan, the company has pumped the brakes, signalling it will not meet the $3.4-billion target by the end of 2025, as it delays spending on low-priority investments and copes with severe economic headwinds.