Pursuits
J.C. Penney Marks Two Years Since Johnson Nearly Ruined It
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It’s been exactly two years since Ron Johnson’s tenure at J.C. Penney Co. came to a screeching halt, and the company is still recovering.
On April 8, 2013, with its sales in free fall and the company burning cash, the board ousted Johnson as chief executive officer. The department-store chain replaced him with his predecessor Mike Ullman, who returned to the CEO job after just 18 months, and set about undoing almost all of Johnson’s changes. The company didn’t restore sales growth again until last year, and its stock remains down more than 71 percent from when Johnson took the helm in 2011.