Ron Johnson unable to repeat Apple-success at JCPenney

Mastermind behind Apple Stores

Johnson was vice-president of retail at Apple
and together with his former boss Steve Jobs he designed the successful concept
of the Apple Stores. It came as a big surprise when he announced his transfer
to JCPenney in 2011, to become CEO.

Johnson had the mission to make JCPenney
attractive again, in contrast to its image of a grey and boring chain.
As new CEO Johnson however did not achieve any real successes. On the contrary: the decision to
have more luxury brands on the shelves for example, lead to declining sales and
rising loses.

The decision to stop doing big promotions and
to replace them with permanent small price drops also was not well received. At
the stock exchange the share of the chain of department stores lost half its value
during the reign of Johnson.

Out with the new, in with the old

Johnson will be replaced by Myron Ullman, Johnson’s predecessor as CEO of the company – the board of directors could not have
made a more obvious statement. The decision is not met with universal approval:
“It was the wrong thing for the board to do to get rid of Johnson. With
the board firing Johnson now, at this stage in the game, they should tender
their own resignation as well”, said Brian McGough of Hedgeye Risk Management.

Something that was starting to look like a
success was the test to implement clothing chain Joe Fresh and interior
decoration group Jonathan Adler in the JCPenney stores. Some observers
thought this small success would help Johnson to make it to the fall, so he
could present some more results on the project.

Investors do not seem to like the switch at
the top of JCPenney: when the exit of Johnson was announced, the share rose,
but when it became clear Ullman would return, the rise melted away and the share dropped below the last closing price of Johnson’s reign. The Apple-man was brought to
the company to fix the mistakes of Ullman and his return is really not a solution,
say investors.