The Procter & Gamble Company (PG), Apple Inc. (AAPL): “Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss”

Fueled by iconic products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple’s market cap exploded by 12,000% in less than 15 years. Since Tim Cook took over as CEO in August 2011, the company hasn’t enjoyed as much success, although it might not be entirely his fault.

Driven by market and economic factors and increased competition, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has returned to mere mortal status. It is probably in that transition phase out of high- growth mode, but it still it has a lot going for it. People still love Apple products and are buying them in droves.

Another company that recently reverted to a former CEO is J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP). Former Apple executive Ron Johnson seemed to run the retailer into the ground over his brief tenure of November 2011 to April of this year. The stock price lost half of its value, even after a 30% gain within the first two months of Johnson’s reign.

In an interesting coincidence, Ackman, as a major shareholder of J.C. Penney, had called for the company to replace Mike Ullman, Johnson’s predecessor.

Ullman’s job will be to right the J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) ship by reversing some of Johnson’s policies. Some of his first moves have been to offer more items at sale prices, expand the use of coupons and revamp the product line-up. Things have seemed to stabilize a bit after the change was made. The stock price regained 20% of its losses.

Conclusion

So if Lafley is successful in his two prime tasks, he can position The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) for future growth and satisfy consumers and investors alike. Whether he can duplicate the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) turnaround under Steve Jobs remains to be seen. Ullman seems to have more of a challenge ahead of him to get J.C. Penney back on track.

The article “Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss” originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Mark Morelli.

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