Look Out For New JC Penny Coupons

JC Penny has fired CEO Ron Johnson, known for his success with Apple Stores.  His tenure at JC Penney will likely go down as one of the biggest business flops of recent years.  I wonder, if given more time, he'd have been able to turn the company around.  Here is a short, prescient New Yorker column on his travails.  The article ends with this passage:

He’s (Johnson) become a living example of one of Warren Buffett’s keenest observations: “When a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.”