Former Apple CEO John Sculley: Samsung Should Hire Ex-Apple Retail Chief Ron Johnson

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Now that former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson has been fired from his CEO gig at JC Penney, there’s a lot of talk about whether or not the man who created the juggernaut of Apple’s retail experience will return to Cupertino, to fill the very role he vacated back in 2010.

In an interview with Bloomberg, former Apple CEO John Sculley was asked about what Ron Johnson should do now. Sculley notes that one of the best things about our business culture is that we allow people to fail, and that hiring Johnson would be a coup by any company.

First headhunter on the list? It should be Samsung, says Sculley.

Here’s the video interview, which is short:

The money quote is this:

“If I were Samsung, I’d be tapping him to go into those new fifty store-in-stores. Ron Johnson would be a superb executive to go in and build an experience for Samsung in the store-in-store at Best Buy similar to what he did at Apple.”

The store-in-stores Sculley is referring to is Samsung’s recent initiative to install up to 500 (not fifty, as Sculley claims) Samsung Experience Shops insides Best Buy, mimicking Apple’s own store-in-store success in the nation’s big box retailers.

Makes sense to us. Whether Apple, Samsung or another company entirely snatches Johnson up next, one thing’s for sure: a guy with a track record like Johnson isn’t going to come cheap.