By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n

Several months ago, JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson and his newly formed executive team \u00a0made some significant changes to the pricing and promotional structure for the chain.\u00a0 These changes almost immediately met with speculation from investors, anger from customers and second guessing by the market.\u00a0 Ultimately, Penney\u2019s President Michael Francis became the sacrificial lamb, resigning his post this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

So with that, here’s my entirely unsolicited advice to Penney’s CEO Ron Johnson…<\/p>\n

If he wants to keep existing customers, shareholders and Wall Street happy, here\u2019s how he might go about it.\u00a0 First, he can’t aim too high. \u00a0He wouldn\u2019t try to revolutionize anything<\/em>.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t even think<\/em> in terms of transformation.\u00a0 No more of that crazy talk!\u00a0 He would ensure that JC Penney clung vigilantly to the status quo and introduced only incremental, comfortable, almost invisible levels of change –\u00a0 the kind of change that\u2019s so tepid and benign, it doesn\u2019t really change<\/em> anything.\u00a0 He might commission a useless brand identity study or two. This would at least make it appear as though he\u2019s taking action.\u00a0 He might survey his customers to ask them what they want and then put those findings under advisement\u2026indefinitely.\u00a0 And he wouldn\u2019t forget about layoffs.\u00a0 Wall Street loves<\/em> layoffs! Once he was through ratcheting down\u00a0head-counts\u00a0and operating costs to boost the share price he might want to leave the CEO position before sales take the inevitable plunge.\u00a0 Then let the new CEO pick up the pieces.<\/p>\n

But Ron Johnson blew it.\u00a0 First, his goals were way<\/em> too lofty!\u00a0 He had the gall to actually try to inspire people, and get them to believe that JCPenney could be different. That JC Penney could lead \u2013strategically and morally.\u00a0 He tried to open imaginations up to what the department store experience could be.\u00a0 He challenged the archaic, he ruffled old feathers and perhaps most audaciously, risked losing<\/em> a customer or two on the way to creating something unique, exciting and sustainable.\u00a0 He tried to chip off decades of brand decay and assumed he might get more than one fiscal quarter in which to do it.\u00a0 In short, he tried to inspire a revolution – a revolution that would take time, courage and faith.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Wall Street has no interest in revolutionaries.\u00a0 Customers, shareholders and the Market essentially want companies to do the same things that they\u2019ve always done only better, faster and cheaper.\u00a0 They want only that which will eek out a quick lift in share price.\u00a0 Whatever gets them through the day, the week, the quarter.\u00a0 They\u2019re not interested in transformation, game-changing strategy or making history.\u00a0 Given the choice between a quick nickel and a slow dime, they\u2019ll choose the nickel every time.<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re planning to hold a revolution, don\u2019t hold it on Wall Street. \u00a0There\u2019s no room there for revolutionaries and that\u2019s a really sad thing for JC Penney and for all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens Several months ago, JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson and his newly formed executive team \u00a0made some significant changes to the pricing and promotional [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[223,224,24,148,45],"class_list":["post-1735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-jcpenney","tag-michael-francis","tag-retail","tag-ron-johnson","tag-strategy-3"],"yoast_head":"\n