The Man Who Built the Apple Store Never Tried to Sell You Anything

在与莫特利·富尔（Motley Fool）分析师杰森·莫泽尔（Jason Moser）的对话中，苹果商店（Apple store）的创建者、《商店不同》（"Shop Different"）一书的作者罗恩·约翰逊（Ron Johnson）分享了他在塔吉特（Target）、苹果（Apple）和杰西潘尼（JCPenney）等公司度过的丰富零售职业生涯中的见解。 约翰逊首先回顾了他在塔吉特（Target）的早期职业生涯。从哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）毕业后，他选择零售而非投资银行，因为他热爱身处商店之中。他最初在戴顿·哈德逊（Dayton Hudson）的子公司梅尔文百货（Mervyn's）工作，随后于1990年左右转至塔吉特（Target）。这一时期，塔吉特（Target）作为“高价郊区差异化者”与沃尔玛（Walmart）这位“低成本乡村运营商”之间爆发了激烈的“折扣战”。约翰逊在为塔吉特（Target）引入设计方面发挥了关键作用，特别是通过与迈克尔·格雷夫斯（Michael Graves）的合作，这在1990年代显著提升了塔吉特（Target）的业绩。 他于1999年末/2000年初转投苹果（Apple）的举动备受争议。当时，苹果（Apple）是一家拥有25年历史、却“大体上已被击败”的公司，在个人电脑市场中仅占5%的份额，而微软（Microsoft）则占95%——这是一个“19比1”的劣势。尽管当时普遍认为互联网会使实体店过时，但史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）认为零售店面是苹果（Apple）的“缺失的一环”。乔布斯（Jobs）注意到了约翰逊（Johnson）在塔吉特（Target）的创新工作，并亲自招募了他。鉴于苹果（Apple）被认为的高风险、乔布斯（Jobs）的苛刻名声以及与塔吉特（Target）的庞大产品线相比苹果（Apple）有限的产品种类，约翰逊（Johnson）的决定遭到了质疑。然而，在与乔布斯（Jobs）会面后，约翰逊（Johnson）产生了强烈的加入信念。 约翰逊（Johnson）阐述了苹果商店（Apple store）背后的核心理念：“我们要热爱我们的顾客。”他将这种热爱定义为非浪漫的，而是通过满足顾客需求来“确保顾客的利益”。这体现在热情的欢迎、理解顾客到访目的、引导他们体验产品以及温馨的告别等实践中。约翰逊（Johnson）强调，关键在于“不要试图推销任何东西”，主张通过建立关系而非交易式销售来“通过服务实现我们的价值”。这种理念也延伸到了员工身上，旨在创建一个以爱为基础的工作场所。 与史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）的合作从根本上改变了约翰逊（Johnson）的思维模式。在塔吉特（Target）时，“激进创新并未真正受到鼓励”，宏大的想法常常遇到阻力。在苹果（Apple），乔布斯（Jobs）总是“超越一步”，不断突破界限，并亲自投入以确保苹果商店（Apple store）原型是“最好的”。约翰逊（Johnson）意识到，乔布斯（Jobs）曾多次改变世界（苹果、皮克斯（Pixar）、iPod、iPhone、iPad、音乐商店和商店），他“比我们任何人都想得更宏大”。 谈及苹果（Apple）的领导层，约翰逊（Johnson）讨论了从史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）到蒂姆·库克（Tim Cook），再到现在的约翰·特纳斯（John Ternus）的成功过渡。他强调了苹果（Apple）持久的原则：他们“从不真正着急”。史蒂夫·乔布斯（Jobs）专注于创造“出色的产品”，利润是结果，而非主要目标。蒂姆·库克（Cook）擅长优化这些产品并全球扩展苹果（Apple）的影响力，将用户群增长到近20亿。对于约翰·特纳斯（John Ternus），约翰逊（Johnson）认为重点应放在确保现有产品提供卓越的客户体验，以及硬件、软件和应用程序的持续渐进改进上。他强调，没有必要用“神奇的新设备”来取代iPhone，iPhone已经证明了其持久的外形因素。约翰逊（Johnson）赞扬了苹果（Apple）“不在于做第一个，而在于做到最好”的承诺，并引用了他们对待人工智能（AI）的方式，尽管最初有所滞后，但他们对隐私的关注至关重要。特纳斯（Ternus）在苹果（Apple）工作了25年，预计他将保护苹果（Apple）“非同凡想”、热爱顾客和深度集成的核心价值观，确保持续的忠诚度。 回顾他多元化的职业生涯，约翰逊（Johnson）分享了成功与失败的教训。从塔吉特（Target）和苹果（Apple）他学会了如何创新、如何大胆、如何通过优先考虑人际关系来服务顾客，以及如何建立积极的、以爱为基础的文化。然而，他在杰西潘尼（JCPenney）担任首席执行官（CEO）期间，则提供了关于“如何不改造一家公司”的教训。他承认自己犯了错误，指出尽管他认为杰西潘尼（JCPenney）需要彻底的改变，但该组织“并没有真正”想要它。他过快地推行了一项创新愿景，却没有建立一个支持性团队，也没有真正理解现有顾客和员工的需求。他总结道，虽然他可以设计出色的客户体验和促进创新，但“你可能不会雇用我来改造一家公司，因为在这方面我没有良好的记录。”这种谦逊突显了他相信拥抱错误是学习和成长的“最强大的超能力之一”。

In a conversation with Motley Fool analyst Jason Moser, Ron Johnson, creator of the Apple store and author of "Shop Different," shared insights from his extensive career in retail, spanning Target, Apple, and JCPenney. Johnson began by recounting his early career at Target. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he chose retail over investment banking, drawn by his love for being in stores. He started at Mervyn's, a subsidiary of Dayton Hudson, and later moved to Target around 1990. This period was marked by intense "discount wars" between Target, positioned as the "higher-price suburban differentiator," and Walmart, the "low-cost rural operator." Johnson played a pivotal role in bringing design to Target, notably through a partnership with Michael Graves, which significantly boosted Target's performance in the 1990s. His transition to Apple in late 1999/early 2000 was controversial. At the time, Apple was a 25-year-old company that had been "largely defeated," with a mere 5% market share compared to Microsoft's 95% in personal computers – a "19 to 1" deficit. Despite the prevalent belief that the internet would render physical stores obsolete, Steve Jobs believed a retail presence was the "missing link" for Apple. Jobs, who had taken notice of Johnson's innovative work at Target, personally recruited him. Johnson's decision was met with skepticism, given Apple's perceived high risk, Jobs's demanding reputation, and Apple's limited product line compared to Target's vast offerings. Yet, after meeting Jobs, Johnson felt a strong conviction to join. Johnson articulated the core philosophy behind the Apple store: "We're gonna love our customer." He defined this love not romantically, but as "securing the good of a customer" by addressing their needs. This translated into practices like a warm welcome, understanding customer's purpose for visiting, guiding them to experience products, and a fond farewell. Crucially, Johnson emphasized, "don't try to sell anything," advocating for "serving our way to significance" through relationship-building rather than transactional sales. This philosophy extended to employees, aiming to create a workplace built on love. Working with Steve Jobs fundamentally shifted Johnson's mindset. While at Target, "radical innovation wasn't really encouraged," and big ideas often met resistance. At Apple, Jobs constantly thought "one step beyond," pushing boundaries and investing personally to ensure the Apple store prototype was "the best." Johnson realized Jobs, who had changed the world multiple times (Apple, Pixar, iPod, iPhone, iPad, music store, and stores), thought "bigger than any of us." Addressing Apple's leadership, Johnson discussed the successful transitions from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook, and now to John Ternus. He highlighted Apple's enduring principle: they are "never really in a hurry." Steve Jobs focused on creating "amazing products," with profit as an outcome, not the primary goal. Tim Cook excelled at optimizing these products and expanding Apple's reach globally, growing the user base to nearly 2 billion. For John Ternus, Johnson believes the focus should remain on ensuring a great customer experience with existing products and continuous, incremental improvements across hardware, software, and apps. He emphasized that there's no need for a "magic new device" to replace the iPhone, which has proven its enduring form factor. Johnson praised Apple's commitment to "not about being first, it's about being best," citing their approach to AI, where despite initial lags, their focus on privacy has been paramount. Ternus, having been at Apple for 25 years, is expected to protect Apple's core values of "think different," customer love, and deep integration, ensuring continued loyalty. Reflecting on his diverse career, Johnson shared lessons from both successes and failures. From Target and Apple, he learned how to innovate, be bold, serve customers by prioritizing relationships, and build a positive, love-based culture. His tenure as CEO of JCPenney, however, offered lessons on "how not to transform a company." He admitted to making mistakes, noting that while he believed JCPenney needed radical change, the organization "didn't really" want it. He pushed an innovative vision too quickly without building a supportive team or truly understanding the existing customer and employee needs. He concluded that while he can design great customer experiences and foster innovation, "you're probably not going to hire me to do a transformation of a company because I don't have a good track record of that." This humility underscores his belief that embracing mistakes is "one of the greatest superpowers" for learning and growth.