YouSaid · the spoken record

Ron Johnson

lines on the record: 164
first: 2017-03-06
most recent: 2017-03-06
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I didn't. No customers did. When you did that? Well, we were looking for something. Could be a signature with really great design And in the 1980s he had done a tea cuddle with an Italian design company called Lesi? that became thee item every hip kitchen in New York had a micrograve's singing whistle tea kettle on its counter did a million of these at one hundred fifty dollars one year So, the idea was if we're in the home area, what if you could take design and put in great design in a target store at a real value”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fashion, but fashion's hard because sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't. Sure. I hit on the idea of design. That you could have design as a core segment that got the markup of fashion without markdowns. Sure. So we went to Michael Graves, got him to do kettles and different things. He was an architect. And that was kind of when Target became Tarsh.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. So then the big idea I had, which was the breakthrough, people used to think of two categories of merchandise, basic. We had to be priced right every day. Piper.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everyday low price. So Target made a strategic shift led by the CEO at the time, a really smart guy named Bob Ulrich, said, we're going to go upscale Going to be the upscale alternative. And the idea was in every segment you have a premium store and a low price store and both can win. But if you're in the middle, you're kind of fuzzy.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They're original. Retail used to grow regionally. Right. And now it's different with online. But there were 10 discount stores. In 1987, Walmart hit the hammer and pricing went to low price. They started to win. No one could compete with them.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Learning about merchandise and then from Minneapolis. I was turning about 30, and I decided to go back to Minneapolis, where I joined Target. And Target was just becoming big. Right. And so I joined there as a toy buyer. Then I became a division in clothing. And then I took over the home areas. And that's where I probably had the biggest impact.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Unloading trucks. Unloading trucks. It's back a house. Unloaded trucks. Got a chance to get to the sales floor. Got to check people out in the men's department. Right. And then I moved into headquarters after about a year. Right. And I was a distribution person, then I was a buyer in boys, and then a buyer in women's and then a divisional merchandise manager.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I just wanted to be at the high growth company I could learn. The idea was very simple. Most of the people going in retail were college grads. With an MBA from Harvard, I thought as a pretty smart guy, if I put my head down, and retail head leaders that were pretty young, and so I thought it was a great path to a great career.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I went to Mervin's first job. Well, remember, Mervyn's was the darling at the industry. They were. Target had acquired them to get a West Coast present to get in this new idea of promotional department stores.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Great barrel. Really great story. Re Yeah, but we forget Walmart was just a little discount store in Bentonville at the time. They hadn't gone to everyday low price yet. They hadn't implemented their POS technology.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure And I'm trying to rate barrel. There were all kinds of stories. Really great stories reimagining themselves. And they weren't particular specialty stories, I think that's what they were called. And people were getting out of the department store era.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mickey had just reinvented the gap, so especially retail was just being invented. Sure. So retail was just exploding. And I thought that's where the opportunities were.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I kind of wanted to be a retailer. I just loved being in stores. I just had energy. I like the creativity of it. It was kind of like playing sports. I had played soccer in college. Mm hmm. It's fast moving, it's team oriented, it's very creative”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so my journey, I grew up in Midwest, went to Stanford, Harvard Business School pretty typical, worked on Wall Street in the summer. Everyone wanted the big jobs like in Goldman. I offered her to join Goldman's MA Group, which was pretty popular.”
2017-03-06 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Ron Johnson, CEO, Enjoy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT