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Sorry Everyone, It's Another Jcpenney Story

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Sorry Everyone, It's Another Jcpenney Story
Sorry everyone, it's another JCPenney story…

I worked for giant U.S. retailer JCPenney for 12 years 1987-1999, then again October 2011-August 2013. JCPenney hired CEO Ron Johnson November of 2011 and let him go April 2013("Ron Johnson (businessman) - Wikipedia," n.d.) . I was with JCPenney Johnson’s entire stint as CEO and I must say I “drank the Kool-Aid”, I was ready to follow whatever changes he wanted to make.

Ron Johnson’s claim to fame is that he implemented major changes at established retail giant, JCPenney, that lead to JCPenney’s stock dropping 51%. It was ugly.

When considering the stages of change in our reading assignment Johnson skipped several crucial focuses in the phases of change. Johnson changed everything overnight, …show more content…
Johnson never had a chance to maintain the changes, the customers bailed on JCPenney. It is said that Ron Johnson had the worst Christmas 4th quarter in retail history, down 32% in same-store-sale (Blodget. "TO BE CLEAR: JC Penney May Have Just Had The Worst Quarter In Retail History". 2015). As I said it was ugly.

Ron Johnson was set to disrupt retail as he had done at Apple with Steve Jobs and the Apple stores. He did not succeed with JCPenney. Johnson's problems came down to market research and stakeholder buy-in. Johnson did not plan, he just did, and it alienated customers and employees. Johnson had great ideas but the customers hated the changes and the employees were stuck on the front line with limited support.

As I said I “drank the Kool-Aid”. I loved Ron Johnson's ideas. But working in retail you are a different kind of shopper and his changes didn't fly with the actual customers JCPenney had cultivated for over 100 years. While I loved the changes myself if the customers don't like the changes there is no one to pay the bills. I learned that no matter how great your last gig was, PREPARE! Ask questions, listen, make calculated adjustments.
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