“Apple has ousted its head of retail just in time for the holidays,” Laura Heller reports for Forbes. “John Browett is out as head of retail and Apple is once again on the hunt for someone lead this division.”
“Apple hired Browett to take over when Ron Johnson left to head JCPenney. The choice of Browett, who hailed from the UK’s Dixon’s, was odd to say the least,” Heller reports. “That’s like hiring someone from present day Best Buy to lead the the very company it’s been losing too. Apple is indisputably the most innovative retailer today with a model emulated the world over. Browett was ill suited to the job and Apple should be slapped for thinking otherwise.”
Heller reports, “It should also be cheered for cutting its losses and moving on, fast.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Maybe Stevie B @ M$ will hire Browett 🙂
Maybe that was Cook’s plan all along ; )
Well at some point they probably *will* need someone to fire all the retail staff, so it’s a good fit.
Tim Cook should employ Steve Ballmer as the head of retail seeing how Ballmer has done such a good job with the Microsoft store being exact replicas of the Apple store, down to the wood varnish.
They are poor replicas where wires are showing rather than neatly tucked away and surfaces and finishes are decidedly cheaper looking.
A bad cheap copy of Apple stores to go along with a bad cheap copy of Apple the company.
You neglected to mention the Windows OS being a bad cheap copy of the Mac OS.
But BLN is not entirely off the mark with his suggestion! Should Windows 8 prove a failure, Ballmer would be looking for a job.
I never thought I’d say this, but Ballmer would do better than that sod Browett. And he would enliven Apple’s wooden product introductions with his dancing.
Ballmer spelled backwards = Samsung
I think the Chinese’s counterfeit Apple Stores did better job than MSFT’s counterfeit Apple Stores.
especially since no ones seems to be able to replace original Apple Retail genius Ron Johnson – except maybe someone with only 1 nut and hopefully one on the right – just to Think Diff™ & on thru right brain activity ; )
Hire me.
Bring back Ron Johnson. Nuff said.
Ron Johnson’s not doing so great for Penney’s. I think he’s out of his league or has lost his mojo. Not his calling…
I lost my mojo once. Just once.
Use Find My Mojo.
I don’t think JCP is anyone’s calling. Johnson left for the moolah, maybe he’ll come back for the change in mgt.
Think about why Ron Johnson left Apple. They’d all said it couldn’t be done, but he made Apple retail a resounding (some said astounding) success, he had it made in the shade, and the sky was the limit. So why leave for a few more bucks?
Johnson can conquer a new dragon, or transform another Pygmalion, and that’s worth far more in future earnings than playing second fiddle to Apple’s CEO.
He’d get bonus points for redefining and saving an industry by energy and imagination alone, and he’d join the ranks of industrial giants, not just dwell in the shadow of one (Steve Jobs).
He’d pen NYT best sellers, appear on highly-rated TED talks, and earn the respect of curmudgeons like Bill O’Reilly. Rush Limbaugh appreciated Steve Jobs; he’d want to play golf with Ron Johnson.
So iCal this: despite Montgomery Ward and hundreds of others plunging into the mass grave of traditional department stores, Ron Johnson’s Penney’s will rise like the Phoenix.
If you’ve done the impossible once, you know you can do it again, and others begin to believe and rally to you.
Wow! Really? You think he’ll be able to stay there long enough to make any sort of a change? Positive that is. I don’t think so. He did wonders with the Apple stores but JCPenney is a completely different animal. The Apple stores did not exist. JCPenney has been around more than 100 years. And they have been failing miserably for decades. But I wish him the best. I agree with you, I don’t think he took this job for the money I think it was simply for the challenge. Nothing wrong with that.
Neither. It’s not coincidence that Apple retail has had problems since Johnson left.
Penney’s and Apple are two different types of retail establishments.
In addition, Apple built their retail model from scratch, while Penny’s has been attempting to renovate theirs.
Changing JCP is a monumental task.
Anyone who thought it was going to be fixed in a year or two doesn’t know just how big and complex retail is.
Competition is everywhere. Margins are slim. Promotions are killing departments stores, but people expect sales. The cheap customers have fled to big-box and the best customers have fled to mass market “boutique”chains.
Just changing out retail display fixtures in hundreds of stores is a big, big investment.
If you watched Ron Johnson’s investor presentation you know this is a 5-10 year turnaround.
It doesn’t matter what he knows about JC Penny. He apparently knows what Apple Stores need and that what counts.
It is also important that Apple employees didn’t trash talk Johnson when he left like they did Forstall.
That says a lot.
my vote too.
JC Penney is only a little over $5B. They could get him back and turn all those Penneys into giant Apple stores 🙂
Imagine the tour at the grand reopening. “Up the escalator we have the black turtleneck section, and jeans are over there next to the New Balance department.”
Purchases can be made only using IOS devices, of course.
I don’t care what happens to the store, I just want my apple iPhone and iPad docks ba ha ha haaaaaackkkkk!!!!
I am sure there are other qualified candidates within Apple Retail rank to head Apple Retail.
It doesn’t say a lot when you hire from outside the company.
Sure it does. It says “I have everyone right where I need them”
Just one problem with Browett’s expulsion …
He may come back to the UK!
(We did warn you, Apple)
Maybe Browett can come back and help Comet…