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Ron Johnson Launching Gadget Delivery Service, Poaching Apple Employees

Hmmm.... delicious poached apples:

exps35446_C1112534D51C.jpg
 
KPOM said:
I don't understand all the Ron Johnson hate here. He was successful at Target, and is a big reason for the success of the Apple Stores. He may not be as good as Angela Ahrendts in selling a $5,000 Apple Watch Edition, but should be recognized for what he did accomplish. As for JC Penney they were a dying company. The status quo wasn't working. He made a risky move that didn't pan out. That's why it was called a risky move. Heck, Steve Jobs took some risks that didn't pan out. Sometimes the biggest successes in business are also the biggest failures. If you don't try you won't adapt, either.
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Regarding Ron Johnson, I thought he had a lot of good ideas, basically wanting to turn JCP into an Apple Store like experience to attract new clientele with more money while also harkening back to an earlier day in department stores. His idea to get rid of the gimmick of department store coupons and just give the prices without the coupons was a good one in theory.

What Johnson now admits (in a recent interview) is that he should have test marketed on a small scale with just a few stores at first. Instead, he made all the changes, all at once with his foot on the gas. He said that he offered to step down months before he did. If it's any consolation to his detractors, he did lose a helluva lot of his OWN money -- his Apple stock was cashed out and converted to JCP stock. And unlike many high stakes CEOs who screw up, he didn't get a golden parachute.

I say live and let live with a second chance of his own making--good luck, although I doubt that I will be using his service.
 
iJandro said:
Ron Johnson can go to hell. Seriously, when I was working at the Apple Store, his reward for everyone's hard work and record-sales at retail were two tacos for christmas! DOUCHE! :mad:
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lol. so funny. i thought that was just a rumor.
 
Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson basically destroyed JC Penney. The retailer is still trying to recover from his reign of terror. Too many people lost their jobs under his
poor leadership.
 
chicagohoops said:
Regarding Ron Johnson, I thought he had a lot of good ideas, basically wanting to turn JCP into an Apple Store like experience to attract new clientele with more money while also harkening back to an earlier day in department stores. His idea to get rid of the gimmick of department store coupons and just give the prices without the coupons was a good one in theory.

What Johnson now admits (in a recent interview) is that he should have test marketed on a small scale with just a few stores at first. Instead, he made all the changes, all at once with his foot on the gas. He said that he offered to step down months before he did. If it's any consolation to his detractors, he did lose a helluva lot of his OWN money -- his Apple stock was cashed out and converted to JCP stock. And unlike many high stakes CEOs who screw up, he didn't get a golden parachute.

I say live and let live with a second chance of his own making--good luck, although I doubt that I will be using his service.
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Good! That's the way it should work!
 
How is this different from Amazon? They have the stuff and they deliver in two days for free if you have prime. And these guys target audience all have prime.
 
pally said:
This gentleman fell flat on his face in the retail business when he was handed the keys to a large business with stores across the country. My gut is that much of the concept work for the apple retail experience was conceptualized by someone else and executed in development by this man much the pay that a project manner oversees the development of the plans of an architect. It took an incredibly obtuse and arrogant person to fiddle with J.C. Penny and make an enemy of everyone from bottom tier retail worker to top board member. He was run out on a rail. It is ironic that he did not want to stay at apple, but he still wants to make a living off apple. It is somewhat vampirish.
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You're obviously forgetting his success at Target, making it into the store it is today, bringing in designer chic on the cheap. You're also forgetting JCP had one foot in bankruptcy and the other on a banana peel when he was hired. He was hired for his track record at Target and the Apple Store, essentially to do what Cadillac did, rebrand themselves and attract a younger more affluent customer base. Another victim of social media, the board listened to the whiners complaining about not having coupons. Yeah, those are the customers you want. Never mind he lowered prices across the board, they wanted their coupons, damn it. So they replaced him before giving him the time necessary to even remodel the stores, much less bring in his vendors and vision, and brought back the guy that had JCP circling the bowl in the first place.
 
scat999999 said:
You're obviously forgetting his success at Target, making it into the store it is today, bringing in designer chic on the cheap. You're also forgetting JCP had one foot in bankruptcy and the other on a banana peel when he was hired. He was hired for his track record at Target and the Apple Store, essentially to do what Cadillac did, rebrand themselves and attract a younger more affluent customer base. Another victim of social media, the board listened to the whiners complaining about not having coupons. Yeah, those are the customers you want. Never mind he lowered prices across the board, they wanted their coupons, damn it. So they replaced him before giving him the time necessary to even remodel the stores, much less bring in his vendors and vision, and brought back the guy that had JCP circling the bowl in the first place.
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Oh, those annoying coupons. JCP ran them in the daily paper on sale days. Paper boxes were out of newspapers to the chagrin of the literate. Women ran all around to get a newspapers and cut out the coupons that were single use. No bar code or any type of identifier but the single use policy was enforced. I'll never understand that.

In Johnson's defense the JCP days may have been his introduction to the concept of a left socks and right socks :)

I visited JCP a few times during Johnson's tenure. The store was much more pleasant. Merchandise was neatly displayed. Isles were wide. The junk tables with the sale stuff was gone. Much improved but it apparently was not what JCP clients wanted.
 
"You're obviously forgetting his success at Target, making it into the store it is today, bringing in designer chic on the cheap. You're also forgetting JCP had one foot in bankruptcy and the other on a banana peel when he was hired. He was hired for his track record at Target and the Apple Store, essentially to do what Cadillac did, rebrand themselves and attract a younger more affluent customer base. Another victim of social media, the board listened to the whiners complaining about not having coupons. Yeah, those are the customers you want. Never mind he lowered prices across the board, they wanted their coupons, damn it. So they replaced him before giving him the time necessary to even remodel the stores, much less bring in his vendors and vision, and brought back the guy that had JCP circling the bowl in the first place."

I just don't see the talent in one upping Walmart in quality whilst designers fill your ears with a business model. K-Mart was doing designer jibjab before Target. It is sad, really. He copied K Mart to beat Walmart and now he is an old fart. But seriously, he may have helmed the ship at target, but he was no great innovator. He was hired to be the corporate face of target, with many people pulling the creative weight beneath him. Good luck to him though.

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scat999999 said:
You're obviously forgetting his success at Target, making it into the store it is today, bringing in designer chic on the cheap. You're also forgetting JCP had one foot in bankruptcy and the other on a banana peel when he was hired. He was hired for his track record at Target and the Apple Store, essentially to do what Cadillac did, rebrand themselves and attract a younger more affluent customer base. Another victim of social media, the board listened to the whiners complaining about not having coupons. Yeah, those are the customers you want. Never mind he lowered prices across the board, they wanted their coupons, damn it. So they replaced him before giving him the time necessary to even remodel the stores, much less bring in his vendors and vision, and brought back the guy that had JCP circling the bowl in the first place.
Click to expand...

I just don't see the talent in one upping Walmart in quality whilst designers fill your ears with a business model. K-Mart was doing designer jibjab before Target. It is sad, really. He copied K Mart to beat Walmart and now he is an old fart. But seriously, he may have helmed the ship at target, but he was no great innovator. He was hired to be the corporate face of target, with many people pulling the creative weight beneath him. Good luck to him though.

----------
scat999999 said:
You're obviously forgetting his success at Target, making it into the store it is today, bringing in designer chic on the cheap. You're also forgetting JCP had one foot in bankruptcy and the other on a banana peel when he was hired. He was hired for his track record at Target and the Apple Store, essentially to do what Cadillac did, rebrand themselves and attract a younger more affluent customer base. Another victim of social media, the board listened to the whiners complaining about not having coupons. Yeah, those are the customers you want. Never mind he lowered prices across the board, they wanted their coupons, damn it. So they replaced him before giving him the time necessary to even remodel the stores, much less bring in his vendors and vision, and brought back the guy that had JCP circling the bowl in the first place.
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"It was the customer's fault." Yes, I see. Those are the great, last words on the retailer epitaph.
 
pally said:
This gentleman fell flat on his face in the retail business when he was handed the keys to a large business with stores across the country. My gut is that much of the concept work for the apple retail experience was conceptualized by someone else and executed in development by this man much the pay that a project manner oversees the development of the plans of an architect. It took an incredibly obtuse and arrogant person to fiddle with J.C. Penny and make an enemy of everyone from bottom tier retail worker to top board member. He was run out on a rail. It is ironic that he did not want to stay at apple, but he still wants to make a living off apple. It is somewhat vampirish.
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Do you actually know what went on at both Apple or JC Penny or are you just making completely unwarranted assumptions?
 
verniesgarden said:
well considering his last venture in retail was a disaster (JC Penney). He almost put a 100+ year old retail company out of business by being completely out of touch.

I don't see this going past idea stage.
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LMAO. That 100 year old company was/is on the skids, anyway. He was their last, best hope. The board panicked, because a bunch of coupon clippers whined and said they were going to Wal-Mart instead. JCP had a chance to re-invent themselves, and the blew it.
 
rdlink said:
LMAO. That 100 year old company was/is on the skids, anyway. He was their last, best hope. The board panicked, because a bunch of coupon clippers whined and said they were going to Wal-Mart instead. JCP had a chance to re-invent themselves, and the blew it.
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They wouldn't have lasted long enough to be reinvented. They lost all their old customers, and weren't bringing in any new ones. How does that work for a business?
 
TallManNY said:
How is this different from Amazon? They have the stuff and they deliver in two days for free if you have prime. And these guys target audience all have prime.
Click to expand...

I suppose it could be delivered by a person who really knows how to use the device, sets it all up for you, shows you everything you need to know or want to know, and stays there as long as it takes. Downloads all the apps that you would need, puts your music onto the device, sets up backup, shows you how to use a password that cannot be guessed, and so on. All things that your UPS guy cannot do, but an Apple store employee probably can.
 
rdlink said:
LMAO. That 100 year old company was/is on the skids, anyway. He was their last, best hope. The board panicked, because a bunch of coupon clippers whined and said they were going to Wal-Mart instead. JCP had a chance to re-invent themselves, and the blew it.
Click to expand...

That's a simplistic analysis. Granted the board panicked, but not without reason. JCP's maneuvering room for this "reinvention" was very limited and they were alienating their existing customers before they could cultivate new ones, and were losing money at an unsustainable rate. Johnson's plan was a swan dive into a thimble.
 
gnasher729 said:
I suppose it could be delivered by a person who really knows how to use the device, sets it all up for you, shows you everything you need to know or want to know, and stays there as long as it takes. Downloads all the apps that you would need, puts your music onto the device, sets up backup, shows you how to use a password that cannot be guessed, and so on. All things that your UPS guy cannot do, but an Apple store employee probably can.
Click to expand...
I've been doing this for free for friends and relatives forever. Maybe I should start a company too. :)
 
pally said:
This gentleman fell flat on his face in the retail business when he was handed the keys to a large business with stores across the country. My gut is that much of the concept work for the apple retail experience was conceptualized by someone else and executed in development by this man much the pay that a project manner oversees the development of the plans of an architect. It took an incredibly obtuse and arrogant person to fiddle with J.C. Penny and make an enemy of everyone from bottom tier retail worker to top board member. He was run out on a rail. It is ironic that he did not want to stay at apple, but he still wants to make a living off apple. It is somewhat vampirish.
Click to expand...
More likely that he took over a wildly different kind of retail outfit (JCP v Apple), and the transition didn't work out.

Haven't really heard of any ex-Apple managers doing well outside of the company with the exception of startups.

Not exactly a breeding ground for managerial talent.
 
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