The GAP Dumps Paul Pressler as CEO

[wendybeth]

Maybe they'll snap up this prize!


(I guess he has to stay away from running businesses in the ground for two years to collect his parachute, though. )

[Not Afraid]

I'd be happy to see WalMart run into the ground. Have at it Paul!

[Gemini Cricket]

WalMart deserves him.

[Alex]

I'm softer on Paul Pressler than most people but this isn't a surprise. But I also don't know that the Gap's problems are as easily laid at his feet as some people want it to be.

Retail clothing is extremely fad driven and cyclical and the heads of these companies seem to flit around on the peaks and troughs that come along. It doesn't matter how cool the Gap remains, in 10-12 years kids don't want to be wearing what the previous mini-generation was wearing.

That said, Pressler was brought in because analysts said that the Gap was having financial problems and needed a financial mind. Then when that didn't actually fix anything for the Gap they've decided that it is because what the company needs is a fashion genius with financial minions.

Pressler came in and pretty much did what he promised and everybody expected. It isn't entirely his fault that this wasn't actually what the company needed (and the people who were certain that the company needed to move in that direction four years ago are now equally certain that it needs to move in a specific new direction).

[Isaac]

Gap bounced back during Pressler's first 18 months on the job, and he won high marks for closing poorly performing stores and instilling more financial discipline. But he never demonstrated a great deal of fashion sense or the ability to hire people who did — a shortcoming that damaged Gap's brand as more shoppers defected to merchants that offered more hip choices or lower prices.
"The back end of the house was something that Paul did a phenomenal job," said Bobbie Lenga, managing director of the retail practice at executive recruiter Russell Reynolds Associates. "But he is not a strong product person. Product is what drives the business."
Lenga expects Gap to have a tough time finding a dynamic new leader because turning around the company will be an extraordinarily difficult assignment.
Coming off a lackluster 2005, Pressler vowed to turn things around in 2006 and projected earnings in the same range as the previous year.
Instead, Gap's deterioration worsened as the year progressed, prompting Pressler to lower his earnings guidance three times.
The final straw apparently came earlier this month when Pressler warned that Gap's profit for fiscal 2006 will end up about $300 million, or 40 cents per share, below the target he set at the year's outset.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070122/..._ceo_resigns_7



I'm surprised he lasted this long.

[JWBear]

Heeheeheehee... ROFL!!!!!!!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Yay! I was hoping he'd be forever cursed for the sins he committed in Anaheim.

[wendybeth]

Ahem.

[CoasterMatt]

Maybe Circuit City will hire him next?

[RStar]

This thread looks strangly familar....

Wow, has it been almost 5 years already since he left Disney? Wow, where has the time gone??