JCPenney Company
Bonita Johnson
MGT/330
December 19, 2011
Susan Mills

J.C. Penney Company J.C. Penney Company Inc., is one of America’s leading retailers, and operates over 1,100 department stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico as well as one of the largest apparel and home furnishing sites on the Internet, jcp.com (“Executive Board – Welcome to JCPenney.net,” 2011). J.C. Penney offers a wide array of private, exclusive, and national brands to more than half of America’s families each year. J.C. Penney’s vision is to be America’s shopping destination for ascertaining the latest styles at compelling prices. J.C. Penney’s 2010 revenue was $17.8 billion transforming this organization with supporting their long range plan strategies to build a sustainable, profitable enterprise that serves its customers, engages it employees, and rewards its shareholders (“Executive Board – Welcome to JCPenney.net,” 2011). J.C. Penney uses their business knowledge to focus on their growth and on how to persuade their customers to spend more with them. To do this, J.C. Penney’s organizational structure planners engaged a Long-Range Plan made up of four integrated business strategies intended to drive profitable sales growth, enhance financial performance, and achieve industry leadership. The four business strategies are: 1. Customers – (become America’s darling retail destination for apparel, accessories, and home fashion) - a) build J.C. Penney’s lead in customer satisfaction and loyalty; b) Attract a higher market share among younger customers; c) Refine marketing and messaging to improve J.C. Penney’s image positioning, and d) Capture customer’s attention using media platforms. 2. Merchandise – (consistently gratify customers with J.C. Penney’s merchandise and services) – a) Offer stylish, high-quality merchandise for customers lifestyles; b) Leverage J.C. Penney’s superior trend, design, product development, and servicing capabilities across J.C. Penney’s merchandise categories; c) Maximize the benefits from J.C. Penney’s industry-leading merchandise flow tools and talent. 3. Employees – (build a company culture that fosters innovation and teamwork) – a) Retain, attract, develop, and reward the best talent in retail. 4. Performance/Shareholders: Establish J.C. Penney as the growth leader in the retail industry – a) Deliver industry leading financial performance; b) Invest resources to support growth and innovation; c) Pursue longer-term growth opportunities to maximize earning potential and shareholder value. J.C. Penney’s knowledge behind their business strategies has proven to be formidable ones. J.C. Penney has come a long way because James Cash Penney opened the first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. During this time James Penney named his store the “Golden Rule” because his personal belief and business philosophy was “to treat others the way he himself would want to be treated.” Because Mr. Penney ran his company ethically and morally in the 1960s one of J.C. Penney’s early logos proclaimed them to be “A Nationwide Institution.” Not only has J.C. Penney opened many stores on Main Streets and downtown shopping districts across America, but J.C. Penney also took it a step farther when the J.C. Penney catalog debuted in 1963 and in 1994, jcp.com began offering merchandise via the Internet. According to “Executive Board – Welcome to J.C. Penney.net” (2011), “J.C. Penney’s duty to serving its customers with style, quality and smart prices has led the company through many transformations over the years as society and shopping habits change. Moreover, J.C. Penney has remained dedicated to their “Golden Rule” beginnings with a continued commitment to care for the communities where it does business in and operate in an ethical and responsible manner. J.C. Penney goes above and beyond to ensure that they establish loyal customers. In 2008, J.C. Penney launched jcp rewards, a customer loyalty program that rewards customers for regularly shopping at J.C. Penney. Many avid J.C. Penney shoppers appreciate this reward program because it affords them to be able to stretch their hard earned dollars further. J.C. Penney is a store that offers wonderful sales with reduced prices and if a customer is in the rewards program, he or she can most definitely count on greater savings. With incentives such as these, I believe that J.C. Penney has optimized the knowledge organizational resource effectively and efficiently. Another area in which J.C. Penney epitomizes effective and efficient organizational structure is through their human resources tactics. J.C. Penney believes in creating a corporate culture of fully engaged employees, thereby investing their strength and competitive advantage through their 150,000 staff members. J.C. Penney further believes that engaged staff are the driving force of their organization. J.C. Penney’s employees take pride in showing customers that what matters to them, matters to J.C. Penney, and it is this superior customer service attitude that differentiates J.C. Penney for their competitors (“Executive Board – Welcome to J.C. Penney.net” 2011). Moreover, J.C. Penney has a work philosophy called “Winning Together” that serves as the foundation of J.C. Penney’s principals and defines the staff work and win together to achieve superior performance. Because many of J.C. Penney’s employees were actually customers at one time, who better would be to inspire J.C. Penney customers and expand the business? Furthermore, J.C. Penney believes that the right employee attitude makes a significant impact on how customers feel about shopping at J.C. Penney. J.C. Penney’s human resources function is assembled and fine tuned to suit the needs of their customers. As a consumer, I believe it is important to be greeted by a pleasant, cheerful, upbeat, and knowledgeable staff member of a store in which I am shopping. As a consumer, when ones shopping excursion is a pleasant one and he or she has been provided with quality service, customers tend to want to frequent that establishment more. J.C. Penney is a store that does that for many. J.C. Penney is adamant about providing optimum services to their customers that they have initiated a CustomerFIRST incentive that is about providing valuable customer service beyond what is expected and focuses on empowering every J.C. Penney employee to make customers their No. 1 priority. J.C. Penney stands firm on the position that their customers are more than just a transaction. J.C. Penney’s three key CustomerFIRST initiatives are: 1) Great (Greet, Respect, Engage, Assist, Thank and have fun!) is an easy-to-remember formula for improving customer satisfaction and exhibits how employees interact with customers. 2) Yes We Can! – empowers employees to take care of customers without always having to ask for permission from a manager or supervisor. 3) I Can Help – trains all store employees, not just selling floor employees, to assist in servicing customers. J.C. Penney employees know that they play a vital role in improving the customer service experience. In essence, J.C. Penney is fully attuned that it is the CustomerFIRST, tasks second.

References
Executive Board – Welcome to JCPenney.net. (2011). Retrieved December 17, 2011, from http://www.jcpenney.net/about/executives.aspx