“Firing JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson amid poor sales results would be an irresponsible move by its board, Brian McGough of Hedgeye Management said Thursday on CNBC,” Bruno J. Navarro reports for CNBC. “‘Who am I to go against Allen Questrom, right? He’s the godfather of retail,’ he said. ‘But I think the fact of the matter is if this board wants to declare Chapter 11, I think probably the fastest route to get there is to fire Ron Johnson.'”
“McGough’s comments came a day after former JCPenney CEO Allen Questrom criticized the company’s board of directors and chief executive,” Navarro reports. “‘The board has to take action. They can’t be delusional like Ron Johnson is,’ he said on CNBC. ‘This has been going on long enough. You can’t say you’re going to make your numbers for the year and then drop a billion dollars.'”
Navarro reports, “McGough said that he believed the board must have expected ‘a sales disruption’ along with changes, as well as lower revenues, at least temporarily. ‘I think if the board were going to come out and if they were going get rid of him now based on what he did in Year One, then it would be a pretty irresponsible move by the board, and they should probably put their own resignation in as well,’ he added.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pain.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
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America won’t support JCP going forward.
You know the Apparel industry is tanking when twenty-something’s prefer to wear their Star Wars™ pajama bottoms instead of pants. These will be the leaders of the free world in twenty-years.
Under their leadership, America will become a third-world country.
Take your antiquated hardware and GET OFF MY LAWN!
(the caps part is how you come across)
I had no idea personal appearance could be correlated with talent and ability. Every person you see in a suit is competent and without reproach? Clearly the existing ‘old’ leaders are doing a bang up job right?
MDM, what the hell has this got to do with Apple?
Who is MDM ?
You do know where Ron was before JCP right? There is your tie-in..
It does… Trust in MDM.
Ron Johnson is the former head of Apple Retail.
Johnson’s former head of Apple Retail…goes to show that selling pants isn’t like selling computers, just like selling computers isn’t like selling sugar water (Scully).
This isn’t a diss on JCP or Johnson; I like the store and hope it hangs in there.
They sell iPods, jagoff.
JCP is in a dying sector- a company that resells overpriced clothes imported from sweatshops in third world countries primarily in enclosed shopping malls. There is nothing distinctive about them, what they sell, or where they sell.
Ron Johnson has tried to distinguish them by selling them at one regular low price instead of endless ‘sales’- a truly noble effort. Despite that, there is nothing special about the wares JCP sells.
The problem is not so much Ron Johnson as it is JCP. It is a dying brand with a dying business model.
It’s not a brand. They’re a store that sells various brands. I don’t see where “the dying business model” is in that, aside from its CEO’s proactive disruption of it.
1-JCP is a brand- the store’s brand, just like Wal-Mart is a brand of store. Or K-Mart or Kohl’s or Sears or Macy’s.
Shoppers do not go to “unmarked department store”- they go to Target or wherever. What they buy may be another brand, but the store is a brand unto itself.
2-The retail trend has been away from enclosed shopping malls- exactly where JCP is commonly located.
3-The business of selling hugely marked up knockoffs of fashion made in sweatshops in huge department stores is also under great pressure.
MDN Take,
As Spock said it: 😖 Pain!!!
Someone get him an aspirin.
Retail business is a tough beast. There is rarely any retail business doing as well as Apple, Tiffany…etc.
JC Penney , K-Mark (still in business??), Sears, even Walmart are all struggling and fighting for radar thin margin. Sad…
I think JCP needs to perform a complete metamorphosis, change its name and go upscale. But keep its lower prices. Maybe offer bartering and name your price, negotiations. 😎
The biggest problem JCP and Ron Johnson face is that for years now the department store had been a dying dinosaur. It’s not just JCP either: Sears, Macys, Dillards, they’re all being hit hard.
Johnson took on the task of turning the Titanic after it was half sunk and trying to get it to port. He may or may not succeed, but at least he is trying to be innovative and give JCP a fighting chance to stay alive. Firing him after his changes and policies are only just taking effect would be more disastrous than anything JCP could do.
Mmmmmmmmmmm no. Macy’s. Macy’s is doing just fine thank you. And Ron Johnson is helping them do even better. JC Penny on the other hand has been doing poorly for years and years. Hiring Ron Johnson was a bad idea. Ron Johnson taking on such a task was a bad idea. It’s not that Ron Johnson’s ideas are bad it’s that there isn’t enough money to implement such a plan. Not unless you are the US mint. A lot of people have great ideas but you have to be practical in your approach to implementing such ideas in a business plan. This opinion was expressed by many people when Ron Johnson was hired. It has proven of course to be true. I’m sure he’s a swell fella and he certainly made the Apple retail stores a winner. But he was after all, selling iMacs and iPods originally. They were on fire so that made his job a little bit easier than if he had been pushing PCs and run of the mill MP3 players. That said, he still did a great job. But he bit off more than he can chew with JC Penny. It will be an ugly ending. And I don’t think it will be too long either. I give it three months at the most. Too bad. He should have stayed with Apple.
How quick they forget. Bad career move for Johnson. And JCP like Sears and KMart is an inferior brand- I liked it when they had coupons, but the quality and selection pale next to Macy’s. I would be sad if it went away, and Johnson has just damaged his own brand, too. “The guy who killed JCP”- back at Apple?…..
As Obama’s slashing of wages and spiraling deficits continue to devastate consumer spending nobody will be able to afford Macys or much of anything else except perhaps kmart and walmart.
When I walk by Jcp I’m more impressd than ever. When I went to school, their clothes seemed brandless, generic, boring.
Now with the commercials they are crossing over into exciting, interesting, valuable.
Just my observations. I can see them doing very well, and replacing the Old Navy types of stores when they are perceived as a step up in quality.
Too many forget Penneys had record profits in 2010 hurt only by the increasing price of cotton in 2011. Then Ron cracpot johnson came along his reinvent retail is killing JCP
I used to be a platinum card holder (still have it but expecting a black one since I no longer shop there). The no-more-coupons thing, and all the gay stuff did them in. At least for me…