, Columnist
J.C. Penney's New Role Model: Home Depot
Its execs helped devise tools that have just started paying off.
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J.C. Penney's been collecting a lot of accolades lately. It expects to notch $1 billion in profits this year for the first time since 2012, while continuing to pay down billions in debt. And its stock has surged 50 percent so far this year, making it one of retail's top performers.
Not bad for a department store once left for dead, where phase one of a four-part turnaround plan was simply, "save the company," CEO Marvin Ellison noted when he outlined J.C. Penney's strategy during its analyst day earlier this month.