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The information technology industry certainly holds a fascination for more than just the IT managers, IT recruiting firms and IT consultants in its borders.  It’s undeniable that IT professionals and their companies, like Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, regularly make the news.  However, the hard lesson that JC Penney had to learn last week is that what works for IT jobs, doesn’t always work in other industries.

It recruiting companies and IT contractors are well aware of the test first, tweak later ethos of the IT world.  This strategy crashed and burned, however, as former Apple executive Ron Johnson attempted it in J.C. Penney’s attempt to restore itself to glory in the retail world.  Though IT staffing companies might have easily recognized Johnson’s intentions to beta test various marketing strategies, the pace of retail simply did not support them.  Technical recruiters might also have found Johnson’s radical changes to Penney’s inventory very familiar.  But, what works in a business that changes at the pace of the internet doesn’t always work in stores full of huge shipments of retail that move at a much, much slower pace.  Radical changes are fine when they can be retracted or will become relevant in a shorter period of time.  They are not fine when applied to an industry like retail that must operate at a much slower pace. While Johnson attempts to re-orient himself as he recovers from a JC Penney ousting, IT staffing agencies are taking note: what happens in the IT world should stay in the IT world.