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“He said, ‘Ron, you might have the right idea, but here’s the big gap: I’ve never met someone who knows technology who knows how to connect with people. “I remember the day I came in and told Steve about the Genius Bar idea and he says, ‘That’s so idiotic! It’ll never work!’” Johnson said. Customers can take private lessons in how to use their new Apple products, or take existing products in for tech support and repairs. He offered me the job that day.”Īrguably the centerpiece of what became the Apple Store is the Genius Bar, one of Johnson’s ideas. “I walk in, he goes, ‘Hey, thanks for coming back.’ I said, ‘So what’d you think of my thesis?’ And he goes, ‘Well, I didn’t like it very much, but that’s okay.
“I get the call, ‘Hey, can you come back?’” he added. “So I went back and I wrote this 10-page thesis of why Apple should do stores, what they should be like, blah blah blah.” Why don’t you write down what you would do? How would you approach retail? Tell me about it,’” Johnson said. “He said to me, ‘It’s Thanksgiving weekend coming up. The two men “clicked from Day One,” Johnson recalled on the latest Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, and when he was interviewing for the position, Jobs gave him some homework. In 2000, when Apple hired Ron Johnson to create and run its first retail stores, Johnson got a crash course in working with Steve Jobs.