Page 223 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. In every leadership position, Ullman strove
to leave each company better than he found it.
His greatest challenge came in 2004 when he was selected to head one
of the most enduring American retailers, J.C. Penney. The struggling com-
pany nearly had gone bankrupt, and it was up to Ullman to bring about the
changes necessary for it to recover and prosper. “Penney’s had a great legacy,
but it had gotten to a point where the legacy wasn’t strong enough to over-
come reality. The company had been close to bankruptcy, and they had that
turned around by the time I got there. But the legacy issue seemed more
important than what had to happen for the next phase,” Ullman explained.
“The people who were already there were shocked that I didn’t come in with
a plan, but I knew they were better equipped to talk about the growth
opportunities and stumbling blocks than I was. I also knew that we needed
to focus on where we wanted to be in five years rather than five months. So
we met and discussed those things and got them up on the board.”
Ullman guided JCPenney through a process of creating a short, snappy
vision statement with the goal of making sure that each of the company’s
60,000 employees could understand it. “The vision we came up with is to
be the preferred shopping choice for Middle America,” he said. “It was very
simple, but it said two things pretty clearly: ‘Choice’ meant we wanted to
be number one in that category; and ‘Middle America’ meant very specif-
ically the price points, the sensibility, and who we’re dealing with in terms
of diversity.” He then helped the organization design a long-range plan
with a four-pronged strategy for dealing with customers, merchandise,
employees, and performance.

While he was helping establish a clear vision and a long-range plan, Ull-
man spent time exploring his surroundings and talking to the department
heads to get a feel for the company culture. He recalled one conversation
in particular that confirmed the need for change at his new company.
“There were 1,600 people in the information systems department, and they
all got exactly the same percentage raise and exactly the same percentage
bonus,” Ullman said. “So I asked the person running that department how
he could possibly tell me that all 1,600 of those people performed at the
same level, and he said they didn’t, but he wanted them to think he was
fair. I think many middle managers are like that: They think the fairest
thing to do is treat everybody the same, and it turns out to be the least fair

208