14 DAY TRIAL // Former Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Operations, Ron Johnson, was invited for an Interview at "The View from the Top" show. The recording published by Stanford's Graduate School of Business follows along Johnson's career from his childhood years until today.
Ron Johnson is currently the CEO of J.C. Penney. He was in charge of Apple's Retail Operations from January 2000 till November of 2011, right after Steve Jobs' death. Ron Johnson is the one who got the idea for an Apple Retail Store (the brick and mortar ones) and the Genius Bar.
According to the New York Times he was responsible for "the boring computer sales floor into a sleek playroom filled with gadgets."
Johnson now says that working with Steve Jobs was a pleasure and he remembers how it all started. He was the only retail guy in Apple in 2000 so he thought of ways to bring the Apple computers closer to the customers. That's when he came up with the idea for a Retail Store in a Shopping Mall.
Johnson believed back then that technology is hard and having tech support over the phone or Internet was not good enough for their customers.
"We made a list of about eight or ten things that we said that would be a great experience and the good news, Steve trusts imagination and instinct more than I do so he says - Let's go build that! Even today, you go to the Apple Store just to go; you don't go to buy. There's so many reasons to come: you can bring kids, you can learn, you can play at the kids' table, you can try, you can surf the internet, check your email," Johnson remembers.
Former Retail chief was challenged by the interviewer to remember a moment that stuck with him about the interaction with Steve Jobs. He believes Steve Jobs was a private person so he was really looking to have best friends in just ten or 20 people.
"The first time we met, we talked for three hours about different subjects and I found myself very comfortable with him. Over the years we would talk most days on the phone. Every time I called 'Can you come to the house?' He'd love to be face to face. He is the best delegator I have ever met," Johnson says.
The new CEO of J.C. Penney says the one thing he remembers Steve said and got stuck with him was "You have to be willing to start again."
