JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson came to the brand from Apple and shook things up from day one, but shoppers rejected change and the leader has been ousted. JCPenney CEO, Ron Johnson joined the company a year and a half ago, bringing with him an esteemed Apple pedigree that promised to shake up the stale brand and bring it into modernity.
Before Ron Johnson was hired in 2011, J.C. Penney had been effectively stagnant for more than two decades. In inflation-adjusted terms, the company had actually lost billions of dollars worth of ground—ground that its competitors have now claimed. We could also do that math in terms of market share, but you get the point already.
Johnson then bought roughly that same amount of J.C. Penney stock for himself, in the form of warrants that he can cash in only if the stock gets back to nearly $30 a share. That’s about twice its current value.
In late February, the Wall Street Journal quoted JC Penney COO Michael Kramer voicing his distaste for the company as it was before Johnson took over. “I hated the J.C. Penney culture. It was pathetic,” Kramer said. Like Johnson, Kramer is also a veteran of the Apple Store.
Ron Johnson and the Destruction of J.C. Penney. The Johnson era at J.C. Penney will go down in history as one of the most destructive reigns by any CEO at any company—ever.
About two years ago, the company hired Soltau to spearhead its turnaround effort after its former CEO Marvin Ellison left to lead Lowe's.
Ron JohnsonRon Johnson (businessman)Ron JohnsonBornSeptember 25, 1958NationalityAmericanEducationStanford University (B.A.) Harvard University (M.B.A.)OccupationCEO of Enjoy2 more rows
In Johnson's first full year as CEO in 2012, J.C. Penney's same-store sales crashed 25.2%. The company lost $766 million on an adjusted operating income basis. Cash flow plunged to $930 million from $1.5 billion the year before.
Jill A. Soltau has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, Director of the Company., effective October 15, 2018. Ms. Soltau is Chief Executive Officer since October 2018 of JCPenney.
O'Neal is the second-largest individual shareholder of Authentic Brands Group, the company behind dozens of brand and retailer acquisitions, including Forever 21, Barneys New York, JCPenney and most recently, Reebok.
He was ousted because he failed in spectacular fashion.” Upon the change of control announcement Penney shares dropped another 12 percent with the stock closing $13.93. The retailer's same store sales, which slid throughout last year are down more than 10 percent.
Since the failed 2012 transformation, JCPenney has struggled to gain its footing. Shopping malls were teetering and the retailer's debts were rising. JCPenney was slow to win back shoppers who became hurt and confused by the past changes. Customers know when they are not wanted and that trust and loyalty had eroded.
Covid-19 was the straw that broke the company's back after 118 years in business. After more than a century in business, J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy protection. It paid out millions of dollars to top executives right before it happened. Thousands of workers lost their jobs.
with an estimated net worth of $39,233,507 in 2018.
He Didn't Test Ideas in Advance Well, one reason is that he didn't really ask them. When Johnson floated plans for the chain's radical makeover, he was asked about the possibility of trying the new pricing strategies on a limited test basis. Johnson reportedly shot down the idea, responding, “We didn't test at Apple.”
He thought that people would show up in stores because they were fun places to hang out, and that they would buy things listed at full-but-fair price. But early and often during the Johnson era, critics pointed out that JC Penney was not the Apple Store.
Correspondingly, he was removed as CEO not because he came up a little short of the goals set for the company. He was ousted because he failed in spectacular fashion. The superlatives used to describe Johnson’s failures surfaced long before he lost his job.
Ullman doesn’t envision a complete return to pre-Johnson policies , however. “I wouldn’t recommend that we go back to the way J.C. Penney was when I left. Things change.”. He Totally Misread the JC Penney Brand. Johnson pictured coffee bars and rows of boutiques inside JC Penney stores.
Let’s just point this out upfront: By most accounts, Johnson was trying to accomplish the seemingly impossible with a radical reinvention of the JC Penney brand. Many thought that if anyone could do it, it was Johnson , the retail superstar credited for making Target hip and turning the Apple Store into a monster success story.
Like Johnson, Kramer is also a veteran of the Apple Store. And while Johnson was never quoted saying anything like that about the company’s culture, his actions demonstrate that he didn’t have much respect for the way things used to be done.
It didn’t take long for people to note that Johnson’s no-coupons, no-sales experiment was failing to attract shoppers. Sales collapsed through early 2012, and by the summer, even Johnson acknowledged the stores had made a big mistake.
This is not fiction. Bill Ackman was the primary engineer and architect of recruiting Ron Johnson to the company. He and Ron Johnson co-authored a strategy that has fractured the company and ruined the lives of thousands of J.C. Penney employees. ….
Penney’s financial free fall. And among those who had criticized Ackman for it was Howard Schultz, the billionaire CEO and founder of Starbucks. (Ullman, not at all coincidentally, has long served on Starbucks’ board.)
Ackman urged his fellow board members to oust longtime CEO Mike Ullman and to replace him with Ron Johnson, the savant behind both Apple’s Genius Bar and the computer company’s sleek retail stores. But Johnson’s tenure at the top of J.C. Penney was anything but tidy.
Johnson grew up in Edina, Minnesota, and is the son of an executive at General Mills and a homemaker. He was captain of the Edina High School soccer and baseball teams. Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School .
At Target, Johnson was vice president of merchandising, where he was responsible for launching the Michael Graves line of consumer products.