JcPenney Co Inc is hoping for a massive retail makeover. The architect of this makeover will be Ron Johnson, senior vice president of retail of Apple. In November he will be J.C. Penney’s new CEO, replacing Myron Ullman. According to “Penney Snags Apple Retail Executive as Next CEO” by Phil Wahba and Poornima Gupta of Reuters.com, the news was great for the stock – “Penney’s market value rose more than $1 billion on the announcement, with its shares adding $5.26, or 17.5 percent, to close at $35.37.”
J.C. Penney has been trying to get Johnson for some time. The largest shareholders of the company wanted to bring Johnson on as an executive years ago. The allure is that Johnson is really dedicated to retail and its consumer and previously worked at Target before working at Apple. Under Johnson, “Apple opened its first retail outlet in May 2001” and, as most of you know, the Apple store is incredible. It has a great décor and is recognizable and significant to its overall brand. A former Apple executive had this to say about Johnson:
“From day one, and ever since, I have never heard Ron refer to somebody coming into the store as anything other than a guest… When you hear him talk, you feel like you are talking to somebody who was running a Four Seasons hotel as opposed to somebody who was running retail.”
The article reports J.C. Penney’s goals are to integrate technology into the retail space, reach out to different demographics, and become known as a trendy “budget conscious” store. Johnson’s appointment will hopefully remake and rebrand J.C. Penney and in the meantime Apple is looking for his replacement.
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