Are JCPenney’s Latest Moves Bold Or Foolish?
Written by Evan SchumanNovember 27th, 2012
When a CEO takes over a troubled chain, bold moves are generally encouraged. But when the chain is a much-beloved 110-year-old, 1,100-store, $17 billion household name, bold can be very bad. Enter Ron Johnson—fresh from Apple and formerly from Target—and his taking over JCPenney. The chain is melting impressively quickly, and Johnson’s boldness is a textbook example of taking the wrong lessons from retail history.
This is explored in StorefrontBacktalk‘s November monthly column in Retail Week, the U.K.’s largest retail publication. The column lives here at Retail Week. For those who don’t have a Retail Week subscription—shame on you!—here’s a copy at StorefrontBacktalk. You can also check out all of our recent Retail Week columns here.