It was reported on Tuesday that Paul Pressler resigned his position as CEO of the Gap following pressure from Gap’s board of directors. Same-store sales at the Gap have been in steady decline since spring 2004 and recently, the company retained Goldman Sachs to evaluate future strategic options, including divestiture moves. Gap is in a world of hurt right now.
To better understand the Paul Pressler ouster at Gap, let’s revisit a Fortune magazine article from April 14, 2003. The opening paragraphs of this article provide a foreshadowing of things to come.
“It took me weeks to start wearing jeans here,” admits Paul Pressler, settled into his window-lined L-shaped office on the 14th floor of Gap's San Francisco headquarters. An admitted clotheshorse whose taste runs to Armani and Zegna suits, he was known as the best-dressed executive at Disney, where he ran the theme-park business. Now he is six months into his new job as CEO of Gap, and it's obvious that this is not a natural fit.Pressler is the first-ever outsider to run the world's largest specialty-apparel retailer (2002 revenues: $14.5 billion). And he comes from neither the retail nor the apparel world. Pressler has found it tough to shake the Disney-speak, early on referring to Gap's customers as "guests." And he still can't get the name of the company right: He calls it "the Gap," even though the old guard remind him the corporation is called "Gap."
A lot of people wonder whether Pressler, 46, is the right guy to run Gap.
[source article]
Let's see here ... it has become clear Paul Pressler wasn't a cultural fit at Gap, he was exposed as a 'finances first, retailing second' manager, and his inability to overcome his 'outsider status' caused much concern with Gap insiders. That Frobes article, written six-months into Pressler's CEO tenure, was quite prophetic, eh?
I never thought a company that influenced American fashion and retailing so heavily could fall on such hard times.
My friend, a former vice president of global communications for Gap, told me 3 years ago after he resigned that this would happen and that we'd see many more executives leave. I didn't think the newly elected Pressler would be one of them, but slowly and surely many key figures have jumped ship.
Yes, they're in a world of hurt as you say, and I really wonder how / when / and if things are going to turn around.
It kind of makes me sad on so many levels.
Posted by: matt | January 24, 2007 at 07:38 AM