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Showing posts from April, 2013

Getting Pushed Backed, While "Leaning In"

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Applicable to all under-represented groups? So the topic that has made a torrent splash in the early weeks of 2013 is a new catch-phrase:  "Lean In," taken, of course, from Facebook COO's Sheryl Sandberg's new book of the same name. The book raced to the top of best-seller lists. The subject--how women can push (or propel?) themselves into the top echelons of business--is relevant. The advice and guidance are useful, although Sandberg acknowledges there are no quick fixes, no one special way to progress along the path, and certainly no assurances that every woman who "leans in" will one day find herself chair of the board. Nonetheless, Sandberg determined it was time to put the issue back on the table and force companies and business leaders to assess where we are.  She advises women to seize control of their destinies, bang on the door and avoid waiting for it to open. So next question. Are her advice and guidance relevant to other under-represented segment

What Happened at JCPenney?

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Waiting for the invitable b-school case Eventually this will become an intriguing business-school case, particularly for those concentrating in marketing and general management.  Activist investors push hard to re-engineer, restructure and revitalize JCPenney, the old retailing outfit--languishing in modern times, struggling to expand, and suffering with losses and a tanking stock price in the post-recession recovery. The old CEO resigns, and the company figures it has found the solution in a dynamic new CEO, who would swoop in and radically change JCP by casting upon it magical dust from Steve Jobs and Apple.  JCP, amidst fanfare, hires Ronald Johnson after he helped spawn and lead Apple's broadly successful and wildly popular store expansion.  Apple, Jobs and Johnson had transformed the branch-store and electronic-purchasing experience into in-store theater. JCP succumbs to the nudges from shareholder activist and prominent investor William Ackman. They reason that Johnson would