In 1999, unhappy with the way Macs were positioned in traditional computer retail stores, Steve Jobs decided that Apple needed to make its own push into retail. The man he hired to lead the initiative was Ron Johnson, previously vice president of merchandising at Target.
Johnson and writer Zander Nethercutt have teamed up for a new book called Shop differently: How retail revealed Apple’s geniuswhich will be released next Tuesday, September 22, and I recently had the opportunity to read the book and discuss it with Johnson.
Buy differently covers Johnson’s journey, including his time at Mervyn’s department store and Target, but the bulk of the book unsurprisingly focuses on his work at Apple as his greatest achievement and a major topic of interest to legions of Apple fans and others in the business world and beyond.
Johnson started at Apple on February 1, 2000, and worked hand-in-hand with Jobs and other Apple executives to develop a vision and development plan for Apple’s retail stores, leading to the opening of the company’s first two stores in May 2001.
Although Apple stores have become iconic landmarks and sought-after anchors in more than 20 countries around the world, their success has not always been a given and Buy differently goes into detail about the trials and tribulations of developing the first stores and their initial poor performance, difficulties that ultimately gave rise to the massive success the stores achieved.
Some of the high-level context of Apple’s retail development process, including how Apple built a full-scale mock-up of a store in a Cupertino warehouse, has long been known, but Johnson digs into much more detail about how it all came together. Johnson describes early meetings with Jobs as they discussed the philosophy behind going straight into retail, the challenges of securing prime real estate, Jobs’ initial reaction to Johnson’s proposed name “Genius Bar” for store support services, and much more.
In the latter parts of Buy differentlyJohnson shares some touching moments from his interactions with Jobs as pancreatic cancer took its toll on the Apple founder, as well as Johnson’s transition to CEO of department store JCPenney, a difficult time amid Jobs’ decline and death, reluctance to leave Apple to take on the new role, and ultimately his inability to successfully turn around JCPenney’s fortunes.
In speaking with Johnson, I asked him if he thought Apple’s retail evolution since he left fifteen years ago had remained true to the vision he and Jobs had all along, across several different retail leaders with varying backgrounds.
You know, really, honestly, I do. I am very impressed.
And part of that goes back to when we launched the stores, Tim and Deirdre were involved on the operations side. I tell a story in the book where Steve said, you know, “What are ten things you have to do right? And one of them was inventory…stock management. Well, Deirdre sort of led the team that managed the inventory. So she got involved in the stores before the first one opened.
And so when the stores took over from him, I think there was a bit of a difficult period after I left, it took a little bit of time, but now I think the stores are fulfilling the original mission and vision that we had for the stores really, fabulously well. You know, so I’m really impressed.
Among Johnson’s strengths are Apple’s consistent focus on improving the quality, size and location of stores to reflect the caliber of the brand, rather than focusing on the overall number of stores, and the way Apple has maintained high standards for its “exceptional” retail employees, some of whom have been with the company for many years.
As a follow-up, I asked Johnson what he thought about the succession of Apple retail chiefs who have followed him, given their diverse backgrounds, with John Browett coming from British consumer electronics retailer Dixons, Angela Ahrendts coming from the world of luxury fashion at Burberry and, in recent years, longtime Apple executive Deirdre O’Brien.
You know, I was the first retailer at Apple. And I built the initial team and we relied a lot on other Apple departments, but basically I think Tim felt he needed to find a retail leader to run the stores, right?
And so he started with an operations manager, but obviously that led to a pretty rapid change, because stores have never been about, sure, how you operate is important, but it’s really about a culture of love and connection, and you have to have someone who will embrace that, right?
And then you went to Angela, who was a very respected leader in retail. But I think after Angela left, as we approached the 20th anniversary of Stores, he kind of concluded, I think, that maybe an internal person who really understands Apple could be a great leader of Stores.
It’s been there since the beginning, so I think Tim made the decision to really make sure that the stores were highly integrated and connected to Apple as a company. Because it’s quite easy for them to be alone and do what they want. But once you bring in someone like Deirdre, who has led People teams, led at Apple, led many operations teams at Apple, you’ll get a different level of connectivity with Apple itself.
And I think that’s probably one of the great strengths that Deirdre brought to retail stores: her knowledge of Apple headquarters. And she was able, for example, to bring a lot of talented people into retail from other areas of Apple. Whereas before this you were hiring, for example, Angela is probably hiring someone from the outside that she’s worked with in retail.
Johnson also had particularly kind words for Vanessa Trigub, who was named vice president last year to lead retail operations under O’Brien, with Johnson calling her a “fabulous leader” who “has a great vision for how to serve customers.”
My conversation with Johnson took place a few days before the iPhone Duo unveiling last week, but he acknowledged rumors about the device and mentioned the role Apple retail would play in letting customers experience the new product category.
What a great opportunity when this new so-called foldable phone comes out. Now I think the stores will be busier in September and October. There will be more people than in years. Because, remember, one to two billion people who use iPhones use them every day.
And even if you don’t buy the new one, you want to go see it, right? Because this is a major new form factor that would change your using experience. So I think the stores were built for that: to help launch new products and I expect them to be incredibly busy.
Shop differently: How retail revealed Apple’s genius is available for pre-order now on Amazon and other book retailers, and launches on Tuesday, September 22.
