Thanks, this explained it nicely (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)):

Due to his success at Apple and Target, Ron Johnson was hired by J. C. Penney in November 2011, succeeding Mike Ullman who had served as CEO for the past 7 years. Ullman then served as chairman of the board of directors but was relieved of his duties in January 2012. Bill Ackman, a J. C. Penney board member and head of hedge fund Pershing Square, had strongly supported bringing in Johnson to shakeup the store’s stodgy image and attract new customers. Johnson was awarded $52.7 million when he joined J. C. Penney, plus he made a $50 million personal investment in the company. After being hired, Johnson tipped Michael Kramer, an Apple Store veteran, as COO while firing many existing J.C. Penney executives.[7][8] [8]

When Johnson announced his transformation vision in late January 2012, J. C. Penney’s stock rose 24 percent to $43.[9] Johnson's actual execution, however, was described "one of the most aggressively unsuccessful tenures in retail history". While his rebranding effort was ambitious, he was said to have "had no idea about allocating and conserving resources and core customers. He made promises neither his stores nor his cash flows would allow him to keep". Similar to what he had done at Apple, Johnson did not consider a staged roll-out, instead he "immediately rejected everything existing customers believed about the chain and stuffed it in their faces" with the first major TV ad campaign under his watch. Johnson defended his strategy saying that "testing would have been impossible because the company needed quick results and that if he hadn’t taken a strong stance against discounting, he would not have been able to get new, stylish brands on board."[10] [11]

Many initiatives that made the Apple Store successful, for instance the "thought that people would show up in stores because they were fun places to hang out, and that they would buy things listed at full-but-fair price" did not work for the J.C. Penney brand and ending up alienated its aging customers who were used to heavy discounting. Johnson himself was said "to have a disdain for JC Penney’s traditional customer base. When shoppers weren’t reacting positively to the disappearance of coupons and sales, Johnson didn’t blame the new policies. Instead, he offered the arrogant assessment that customers needed to be “educated” as to how the new pricing strategy worked. He also likened the coupons beloved by so many core shoppers as drugs that customers needed to be weaned off."[12][13][9]

While head of J. C. Penney, Johnson continued to live in California and commuted to work in Plano, Texas by private jet several days a week.[14]

On April 8, 2013 he was fired as the CEO of J. C. Penney and replaced by his predecessor, Mike Ullman.[15] Johnson was dismissed after his "bold new pricing strategies clearly failed, but before being able to bring his “shop-in-shop” strategy to fruition", as the board of directors was reportedly Johnson's costly ambitious turnaround plan. The “mini-shops” in Penney stores featuring hot brands, that just opened last year, were doing better than the rest of the store.[16]