Ron Johnson, the former retail boss at Apple, became CEO of department store chain JCPenney in November 2011.
Since then the company, which had a very good 2010, has implemented a series of gigantic overhauls to nearly every aspect of its business.
It's resulted in the shedding of customers, sales, employees, and profits. It's so bad, one employee warned, "I fear we are turning into Sears, the laughing stock of retail."
This past week, analysts put out more grim evaluations regarding the success of Johnson's attempts to make JCP more like AAPL. Given its current direction, it's hard to imagine Johnson keeping his job much longer. How did someone who oversaw one of the world's most admired retailers create this big of a mess in a year?
Johnson inherits a company that didn't notice a looming cotton crisis.
The company did well in 2010 (increasing profit 36% over the year prior). But cotton wreaked havoc on the clothing industry in 2011. Flooding and other shortages caused cotton prices to hit an all-time high. Rather than staying conservative with expectations, J.C. Penny raised its earnings expectations at the beginning of the year, as if cotton prices weren't an issue.
JCP shares dropped nearly 5% as a result.
November 2011: Ron Johnson arrives and is warmly welcomed.
One year ago, JCPenney announced Ron Johnson, the man at the helm of Apple retail through the company's epic rise, would be taking over as CEO in November. Stock surged on the announcement and speculation was rampant about what the former Apple guru would bring to JCP. Johnson was formerly a vice president at Target and was lauded for his retail genius.
There was talk of a JCP Genius Bar, the new pricing structure, and more. Things were looking up, even if it wasn't clear how Johnson was going to make all these changes.
At the end of 2011, JCP fired its longtime ad agency.
Saatchi & Saatchi and JCPenney "mutually decided" to part ways after five years in December of last year. It came only a few weeks after PMK-BNC was brought into replace M Booth & Associates, the company's PR agency for the last six years.
Now things were changing — really quickly.
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