Emulating Apple--poorly
The verdict seems to be in on Ron Johnson's worst sin at J.C. Penney: He didn't test his ideas before trying them out on the public. If so, blame his wildly successful tenure at Apple, where Steve Jobs taught that there was no need to ask consumers who didn't know what was possible what they wanted. At Apple, however, Johnson absolutely tested. He built an entire prototype store near Apple's headquarters. Apple also opened only two stores initially. So perhaps Johnson's sin isn't following Apple, but rather not following Apple well. (My colleague Jennifer Reingold covered Johnson's audacious start almost exactly a year ago in Fortune. She also interviewed him onstage in Aspen last July as the cracks were getting bigger.)
Then there is the much-commented-on work-at-home ban by Marissa Mayer at Yahoo. Consciously or not, Mayer also is emulating Apple, which has a purposely face-to-face, headquarters-centric culture. (I wrote about this in my book, Inside Apple.) Apple, for what it's worth, has no policy that prevents its employees from working at home. Some do, especially in customer support or regional sales jobs such as education markets. But most don't, at least not if they want to get ahead. So perhaps Mayer erred too in making a policy of something that merely is a good practice: Encourage innovation by getting people in the same room.
This all begs the question of whether Apple is emulating Apple well. That's a toughie, as I note in the current issue of Fortune. It's also too soon to say.
Photo: 1000 Woods/Shutterstock
Computer Hardware Professional
11 年Is Ron Johnson the JC Penny mascot?
Challenging Conventional Commerce
12 年Rolling out a new store model - from the ground up - is much easier than renovating stores, retraining people, and swapping out assortments. At Home Depot in the early 90's, we achieved 2x-3x sales per square foot gains with a complete new store model in new markets but we barely reaching double digit comps in existing stores. We also looked to expand penetration of customer segments, not fire existing customers who were less profitable.
Senior Graphic Designer / Marketing Manager / Social Media Manager / Freelance Artist
12 年Here is the biggest problem for JCP... they are the same as Kohls, same as Sears, same as Macys... every department store is the same as the next. Consumers rush to who has the biggest SALES, we want to get the most for our money. How can anyone compare JCP to Apple? You can compare JCP to any PC brand. Same as Acer, same as HP, same as Dell. When you are in the market for a cheap computer you buy a PC. Which is no comparison to Apple. But I do totally agree with testing the products with the public point of view. Gee... This must be a very common mistake, I see it all too often... people have "brilliant ideas"... so much so, it runs the company into the ground. :(
Sales Leadership | TEDx
12 年Biggest difference in Apple and what JCP is doing is marketing. Lot's of very good marketing...
Business Development at Clark Community College
12 年If you fire the employees with tenure (particularily your managers) because you want to reinvent you make a major mistake. That is part of the problem at JCPenneys. The other problem is when you stop appealling to your core base. JCPenneys lived on their sales and coupons and the suburban family feeling like they were getting a "good" deal. Hence, Kohl's success in the burbs over H &M. Listing a price on an item and never having sales did not appeal to their loyal shoppers and I have spoken with many friends and family who were loyal JCPenney shoppers who don't even bother to go into the store anymore. In short, Mr. Johnson thought he could run a low cost brand the same way as a high cost brand. I do not understand his lack of understanding that the customer base for these two brands was completely different and make decisions with that information.