Ron Johnson confidence, venture capital fueled unsafe speed. Mindful Agility was too slow, cautious for their taste
In this third and final episode on fabled merchandiser, Ron Johnson, we discuss the startup Enjoy.com, which turned $500M of invested capital and goodwill into nothing. This was Johnson’s second attempt as a CEO. What did he learn from that failure? How did it shape his new company?
Your co-hosts, Dan Dickson and Dan Greening, bring perspectives of traditional and agile management, finance and technology, retail and service. We think our analysis demonstrates how you can make better choices in your own projects, big and small, for much greater levels of success.
We examine this company from the lens of Mindful Agility:
- How well did Enjoy understand its ecosystem, did it examine conditions without bias?
- As Enjoy matured, did it lean into potential risks, to explore and learn more?
- Did Enjoy mitigate risk and preserve options?
- Did Enjoy direct its evolution with low-cost, high-return experiments?
And finally, we armchair quarterback what we might have done as execs at Enjoy.com.
References
- (Nakrosis 2022) Stephen Nakrosis, Enjoy Technology to be delisted from Nasdaq, shares tumble, Market Watch, July 7, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/enjoy-technology-to-be-delisted-from-nasdaq-shares-fall-15-271657234123
- (Huddleston 2015) Tom Huddleston Jr., Two years later, ex-J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson resurfaces with e-commerce website Enjoy, Fortune, May 6, 2015, https://fortune.com/2015/05/06/ron-johnson-enjoy-jcpenny/
- (Stegeman 2022) Levi Stegeman**,** “this company is horrible my phone was…,” Trustpilot reviews, Enjoy.com, https://www.trustpilot.com/review/enjoy.com?page=2, Jun 17, 2022
- (seeabove 2021) seeabove, Enjoy Delivery Service is a SCAM, ATT Community Forums, Aug 12, 2021, https://forums.att.com/conversations/wireless-account/enjoy-delivery-service-is-a-scam/6115bcdbebe45663333f880e
- (Unglesbee 2022) Ben Unglesbee, Ron Johnson’s Enjoy Technology wants to create a new form of retail. But first it must survive, Retail Dive, June 17, 2022, https://www.retaildive.com/news/ron-johnsons-enjoy-technology-potential-bankruptcy/625705/
- (Chafkin 2015) Max Chafkin, How Failed JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson Is Redeeming Himself With Enjoy, Fast Company, Oct 26, 2015, https://www.fastcompany.com/3051611/he-made-target-and-apple-stores-cool-after-his-jcp-flop-the-redemption-of-r
- (Hill 2022) Jeremy Hill and Bailey Lipschultz, SPAC Led by Former Apple Executive Goes Bankrupt Less Than a Year After Going Public, Bloomberg, June 30, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-30/ex-spac-led-by-former-apple-executive-goes-bankrupt-plans-sale?leadSource=uverify wall
