Is Ron Johnson leaving Apple a sign of things to come?

[wxman2003]

Ron Johnson goes from answering to Steve Jobs, to everyone answering to Ron Johnson.

 

[*LTD*]

It was reported today that the retail genius behind the Apple stores, Ron Johnson, is leaving the company in November. This will be the second senior vice president to leave Apple recently, with Bertrand Serlet who is credited as being the father of Mac OSX leaving recently.

Could it be that these top level execs are leaving due to Steve Jobs diminishing role at the company? These people were handpicked by him, and have flourished under his mentorship.

What would happen if Jony Ive was next to leave?

It's a worrying sign, and hopefully not a trend.. but could Ron Johnson have seen the writing on the wall?

What do you think?

Look forward to hearing some more responses!

It means nothing.

He went to be CEO of JC Penney. Meaning he's moving up to . . . CEO. Apple already has a CEO.

What happens to Apple the day Steve Jobs steps down? That's more interesting to discuss, I think.

They have a few moments of silence and then they go back to work. It's a business.

 

[bruinsrme]

What happens to Apple the day Steve Jobs steps down? That's more interesting to discuss, I think.

the sun will inevitably will rise from the east and set in west.
purely speculation on my behalf

 

[bluez3]

mmmm, glass and aluminum JCPenney stores with blue t-shirt wearing employees... Macys ought to be quivering in their boots. they better step up their parade and fireworks shows.

 

[vvswarup]

A few months ago, I had coffee with a retired professor from the UT Austin McCombs School of Business. He described a typical career path for someone in business. In college, they'll intern with some company. They may join that same company after they graduate. After a couple of years there, they'll go back and get their MBA. After an MBA, they'll get a mid-level manager's position and stay for about five years and move somewhere else. He basically told me that the days of joining one company and sticking with that company for the next twenty years or so were over.

The OP is reading way too much into the story. Ron Johnson accomplished a lot. The Apple Store concept is highly regarded. He got it to that point. He found a better opportunity as CEO. That's all there is to it.

 

[Mak47]

Someone like Ron Johnson is a "retail guy" not a "tech guy". I say that in reference to what his professional passion is. He's also a highly successful executive. The ultimate goal for someone with his abilities is to be the CEO of a major corporation. An opportunity presented itself and he seized it, simple as that. It's a logical move.

If we want to read into it we could, though it's probably just baseless speculation. Johnson was considered by many to be a legitimate candidate to succeed Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO. It is safe to assume that it was clear to him that he wouldn't ever assume that role at Apple, so it was time to move on.

If that's the case we could ask ourselves why did it become clear that it wasn't going to be him? Either a formal successor was announced internally, or Steve is recovering from his illness and is set to return.

At the end of the day, I don't think we'll see any major changes with Johnson gone. He's brilliant I'm sure, but a good executive builds a team that can operate seamlessly without him in place specifically because of scenarios like this one--and Johnson is better than "good". Everything will be fine.