Mr. Pressler Falls Down

For those unaware, Paul Pressler, CEO of Gap Inc. has stepped down. I'm almost sure this has nothing to do with the criticism's I raised about his leadership in my post, "AberGAPpie & Fitch". Nonetheless, I'm willing to take the credit for Mr. Pressler taking a much deserving break from destroying iconic brands. Gap Inc., you can thank me by adding a little something extra in my check next week.

Now what happens? Well, the son of the founder's of Gap Inc. is taking over on an interim basis while they scour the globe looking for someone with retail experience. Hey, wait! I have retail experience! Pick me! On second thought, please don't, although I do have a few thoughts on what I would do if I were to become the CEO of Gap Inc.

The first thing I would do is start closing stores, a lot of stores. I'm talking a third of them across all brands. After which I would focus on upgrading and cleaning up the existing stores. If you walk into an Old Navy right now, they seem rundown, especially ones that have been open for a while.

Next, I would put the brands through a product overhaul. Let me tell you what Old Navy's problem is, it doesn't know who it's customer is or why they should shop there. If someone on the street were to come up to me and ask me why they should shop for their clothes at Old Navy, or any of the Gap brands, I couldn't tell them. It certainly isn't as value priced as it once was, they are generally unstylish and occasionally obscene.

Finally, get rid of the Tri-Brand Credit Card. Yes, it saves the company a lot of money but the truth of the matter is, store cards are bad for your credit regardless of the ridiculous benefits. Instead, I would roll out a co-branded Visa or MasterCard. This would not only ensure that Gap Inc. would maintain a loyal customer base, but every time they used the card to buy gas or groceries, they would be reminded of their favorite stores, and continue to earn points towards coupons they can use at all Gap Inc. brands. Coupons incite spending.

I know, I'm a genius. It's just a shame they haven't started doing this, they could have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment. Maybe with the next CEO, they will finally get it right. Sometimes I get the feeling this company is like Donald Trump, it always tends to focus on the wrong thing.