To: epicure who wrote (223064 ) 4/30/2013 10:01:12 AM From: Sam Read Replies (2) | Respond to A peek at the record of one of the guys who needs to have his taxes cut. So good to know that the titans of business are so savvy. From wiki's piece on Ron Johnson, formerly of Target, Apple and JC Penney. This piece desperately needs proofreading and editing, but the gist of it comes through.J. C. Penney in November 2011, succeeding Mike Ullman who had served as CEO for the past 7 years. Ullman then served as chairman of the board of directors but was dumped[ clarification needed ] in January 2012. Bill Ackman , a J. C. Penney board member and head of hedge fund Pershing Square , had strongly supported bringing in Johnson to shakeup the store’s stodgy image and attract new customers. Johnson was awarded $52.7 million when he joined J. C. Penney, plus he made a $50 million personal investment in the company. After being hired, Johnson tipped Michael Kramer, an Apple Store veteran, as COO while firing many existing J.C. Penney executives. [7] [8] [8] [9] Johnson's actual execution, however, was described "one most aggressively unsuccessful tenures in retail history". While his rebranding effort was ambitious, he was said to have "had no idea about allocating and conserving resources and core customers. He made promises neither his stores nor his cash flows would allow him to keep". Similar to what he had done at Apple, Johnson did not consider a staged roll-out, instead he "immediately rejected everything existing customers believed about the chain and stuffed it in their faces" with the first major TV ad campaign under his watch. Johnson defended his strategy saying that "testing would have been impossible because the company needed quick results and that if he hadn’t taken a strong stance against discounting, he would not have been able to get new, stylish brands on board." [10] [11] weasel words ] assessment that customers needed to be “educated” as to how the new pricing strategy worked. He also likened the coupons beloved by so many core shoppers as drugs that customers needed to be weaned off." [12] [13] [9] J. C. Penney , Johnson continued to live in California and commuted to work in Plano, Texas by private jet several days a week. [14] Mike Ullman . [15] Johnson was dismissed after his "bold new pricing strategies clearly failed, but before being able to bring his “shop-in-shop” strategy to fruition", as the board of directors was reportedly Johnson's costly ambitious turnaround plan. The “mini-shops” in Penney stores featuring hot brands, that just opened last year, were doing better than the rest of the store. [16] en.wikipedia.org
