Jeanne Jackson
Promoting Brands and Value
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| Jackson Photo by Gilles Mingasson/Getty |
When you look at two of the biggest developments in business in the last 25 years — globalization and the Internet — Jeanne P. Jackson has been right in the thick of it. Before launching her own small investment and consulting firm last year, the veteran retail executive had served as president and CEO of Banana Republic, with concurrent responsibility for all of parent company Gap Inc.’s Internet businesses, and, most recently, as president and CEO of Walmart.com. A skilled and forward-looking manager, she has been listed among Business Week’s “Top 25 Managers of the Year” and Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.”
Based on her experience in retailing and her current service on the boards of global giants Nike and McDonald’s, Jackson says, “Whether you’re in Texas or in China, you must focus business practices and products to satisfy local customers. At the end of the day, most global businesses succeed because their core brand proposition has value across borders: Wal-Mart’s selection and low prices; McDonald’s convenience, cleanliness, and service; Nike’s commitment to performance.”
Jackson believes that retailers’ Internet operations should build on existing core strengths. “During the go-go Internet years, there was pressure at Gap and Wal-Mart to treat the online operation as a separate business,” she recalls. “What we learned is that our e-commerce function needed to be an extension of what we were already doing well.” Retailers who want to succeed in the future, says Jackson, “should be using their Internet capabilities to create stronger relationships with their customers.”
— DEB
