JC Penney Ousts CEO Ron Johnson
J.C. Penney’s board of directors has ousted CEO Ron Johnson after only 16 months on the job as a risky turnaround strategy backfired and led to massive losses and steep sales drops.
In a statement issued late Monday, the department store chain said that it has rehired Johnson’s predecessor Mike Ullman, 66, who was CEO of the department store chain for seven years until November 2011.
The announcement comes as a growing chorus of critics including a former Penney CEO Allen Questrom called for his resignation as they lost faith in turnaround strategy.
Penney reported dismal fourth-quarter results in late February that capped the first full year of a transformation plan where Penney amassed nearly a billion dollars in losses and its revenue tumbled almost 25 percent to $12.98 billion.
Under Johnson, 54, Penney embarked upon a strategy that included ditching coupons and most of its sales events in favor of everyday low prices
This is where he went wrong. The Apple strategy is no coupons or sales with everyday high prices. How could he have forgotten that?