14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s former retail chief, Ron Johnson, is now the CEO of JC Penney. He has his way cut out for himself to get the business back on its feet, and he’s going to trust his gut on what he’s doing to improve things, just like Steve Jobs taught him.
In a televised interview with CBS, Johnson said “I learned so much from Steve,” adding that “It was a blessing to get to work for 12 years with […] one of the greatest people our country has ever had.”
“But the most important thing he told me was to trust your intuition and do the right thing,” he said, answering a question about his plans to get JC Penney back on track.
“Steve just said if you do the right thing and focus on just one thing at a time you’re best, you’ll end up in a really good place,” Johnson added.
He stressed that “retailing is hard” but noted that Steve Jobs himself said that when the duo started the now-famous Apple retail stores.
“But you look, you know, dozen years later and the stores are really popular with people. And they’re really popular because people know that the store cares more what the product does for them than just selling the products. At Apple, in many ways, the relationship with the customer begins when they buy,” said Johnson.
And, just like he did at Apple, Johnson plans to make JC Penney a true competitor in the retail industry by simplifying things.
“The most important thing is, we have extraordinary respect for customers,” he told CBS News. “We think people live busy lives and the world’s pretty complicated. So we wanna simplify things.”
More in the full interview below (Adobe Flash required).