You can love or hate Ron's methods, but to say that JC Penney needed an "evolution, not a revolution" is just plain wrong. JC Penney was falling into exactly the same trap that Sears did back in the 90s, but, unlike Sears, they don't have a successful hard lines division to keep the company afloat while the soft lines lost out to huge increases in competition from Big Box retailers and online retailers. Their customers have become so used to constant sales that they can never get anything approaching a sustainable margin on the merchandise they sell. Selling at a loss and making it up in volume is a fast road to bankruptcy.
Ron is betting the company on his way -- for better or worse. In the end, they'll either attract a new, somewhat more upscale, somewhat more trendy, client base, that wants to support the new company, or they won't. They were going to fail anyway, but they could fail much faster now.
But, while some things have changed quickly (cleanliness, professionalism of associates, pricing), many of the most important changes (vendors and actual merchandise) take far longer to change in fashion than they do in say electronics. Buyers had already purchased spring lines before he took the position. His influence can't easily be measured until this fall, when his new direction comes through in terms of fashion and quality.
