J.C. Penney Leadership and Business Success
James Cash (J.C.) Penney (1875-1971)
American co-founder (pictured right) of J. C. Penney department stores in 1902.
Famous for his Christian business principles.
What did he say about leadership and business success?
1. Great people
He motivated employees (called associates) through:
a) profit sharing (see point 3).
b) training.
c) caring leadership
He was a fair but strict disciplinarian, for many years firing people for consuming tobacco or alcohol at
work.
He was helped by William McManus (pictured right), with whom he set up, J. C. Penney.
d) recruitment and selection
He chose the right person for the right job and particularly liked people with purpose and
goals .
“Give me a store clerk with a goal, and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals,
and I’ll give you a stock clerk”, he said.
2. Customer service
His Christian love for others meant that he devoted his business life to serving his
customers with:
- empathy (seeing their point of view).
His aim was to make money and build success through serving the community with “fair dealing and honest
value”.
3. Be determined
He overcame many problems, particularly the:
- death of two wives (he is pictured right with his third wife, Caroline) .
- loss of his huge fortune in the stock market crash in 1929.
He was helped by his Christian faith which stopped him turning to drink after the
death of his first wife in 1910.
4. Christian principles
Penney lived by these principles:
a) the Golden Rule
(i.e. he never took advantage of others in life or business)
So he called his stores the Golden Rule Stores (one is pictured right around 1906).
b) customer service
Giving value and quality at a fair price.
c) employee share ownership
(so they could share in profits).
d) ethical policy
He tested any business policy or action with the question:
“Does it square with what is right and just?”
So his company motto was:
Honour, Confidence, Service and Co-operation.
5. Enterprise and innovation
When he was eight, his father, a Baptist preacher, said he would have to start buying his own clothes.
(his family is pictured right when Penney, in the middle, was 13 - courtesy of the JC Penney Archive)
So Penney earned some money running errands and selling junk and bought a pig.
His father told him to stop when his business had expanded to 12 pigs, and the neighbours were complaining about
the smell!
Successful innovations in retailing were his:
- Christian business principles (see point 4).
- new products (including furniture and electrical appliances in the 1950’s
and a mail order catalogue in 1962).
6. Quality
He was always committed to providing customers with quality products.
“Never will we sacrifice quality for an unreasonably low price”, he said in 1902.
7. Social responsibility
Penney:
- constantly supported charities.
- set up his own charitable foundation (which assisted with scientific, educational and
community projects).
Key quote on interviewing and
selection
Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and
I’ll give you a stock clerk.
Key quote on
quality
Never will we sacrifice quality for an unreasonably low price.
Key quotes on
customers
Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.
Profits must come through public confidence, and public confidence is given to any merchant in proportion to the
service which he gives to the public.
Key quotes on business
success
In retailing the formula happens to be a basic liking for human beings, plus integrity, plus industry, plus the
ability to see the other fellow’s point of view.
Every business is built on friendship.
Key quote on
success
Geniuses themselves don’t talk about the gift of genius, they just talk about hard work and long hours.
Key quote on
careers
No man can climb the ladder of success without first placing his foot on the bottom rung.
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