Wednesday, March 6, 2013
JC Penny sees bad time continuing
Ron Johnson, the former retail boss at Apple became CEO of JC Penny store chain in November 2011 and he was expected to bring JC Penny out of the bad time. Using his Apple's magic, he turned in what were probably the worst quarterly results ever in the history of major retail: same-store sales were down 32 percent in Q4 2012, to $3.8 billion. The clock is ticking for J.C Penny and CEO Ron Johnson is running out of time. The board member of J.C Penny's patience is wearing thin and they are considering selling the company or replacing the chief executive. What is your opinion? Why does Apple's magic and retail operations not work in J.C Penny? What should they do now? What is the strategy for J.C Penny to bring back their consumers?
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I would like to read more about what this "transformation" entails in order to talk about whether I think it will work eventually. I do think that business strategies work very differently when it comes to the retail clothing industry and the technology industry. He is also dealing with a very different clientele and business plan in general. Maybe his Apple magic will help in terms of finding a creative solution since what they've been doing isn't working but that hasn't happened yet.
ReplyDeleteI think that expecting the CEO of an electronics company to enjoy the same amount of success he did when he was at Apple at a clothing retailer is a little much to ask. We know Mr. Johnson is talented due to the fact that Apple retail is debatable the most successful in the electronics market, but I don't think JCPenny is a good fit for him. I think JCPenny needs to find a new CEO who has a little more experience in the clothing retail market.
ReplyDeleteClay I completely agree with you. I do not think that Mr. Johnson should have been hired in the first place because of his lack of experience with retail clothing. His strategic plan to end their discount program failed miserably, and JCPenny's strategy should be to find an experienced executive within the industry immediately.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mark, Clay, and Abby. Apple works out of an innovative industry, and the skill sets that make a leader successful in such industries do not necessarily apply to other markets. However, Ron Johnson does have experience at Target (VP of merchandising), so I disagree with Mark in that I don't think it was necessarily a bad hire at the time, as Mr. Johnson was not completely unfamiliar with the industry.
ReplyDeleteHe might be able to bring the same principles to the table to try and save the company. But these are two different industries with different target markets and demographics. With all well known brands and stores across America, JC Penny is just an afterthought to most people. Its going to be hard or nearly impossible to JC Penny to get back to normal times unless they or Mr. Johnson thinks of something big.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the previous comments saying that Ron Johnson never should have been hired by JCPenny. Ron Johnson is a very innovative mind but that does not mean he will succeed as the CEO of any company. JCP and apple are completley different trades.
ReplyDeleteCustomers do not care who is the CEO of the company. They are only looking for the price and brand when they go to a clothing store. As long as the CEO does not have an extraordinary sales idea the sales are not going to change for JC Penny's. The new CEO needs some time to adjust to the industry and the company needs to give him some time to see how his policies affect their sales because he was a successful CEO in a successful company.
ReplyDeleteI think that were talking about two different beasts here - There is Apple which is the leader in electronics, and then JC Penny, which isn't a designer brand but just a clothing retail store. It would be ridiculous to expect Apple and JC Penny to have the same amount of success just because the CEO switched.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Veronica because it is hard to compare these companies based on the customers they are trying to attract. I have noticed lately that JC Penny is trying to change things throughout their stores, specifically the one in the Crossroads Mall. They are in the process of getting rid of their cash registers and switching to these handheld devices that would be a lot quicker to use while checking customers out. They are also switching their store around kind of like Macy's has done with little boutiques of each company. For example, differnt brands like Arizona, Lei, etc, each have their own separate sections throughout the store which makes it easier to shop for a certain brand that you are looking for and makes the store a lot more organized.
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