Bookstore CEO interview #1: George Jones of Borders

Motoko Rich at the New York Times gets the first interview with George Jones since he was announced as Borders new CEO, replacing outgoing honcho Greg Josefowicz. Though the former Saks Fifth Avenue chairman gave no real plans for what he wants to do with the bookstore chain (though he stressed that “I do think there might be opportunities here to do things differently”) he wanted to focus on learning more about how the business worked and executing Borders’ already announced strategy to put Seattle’s Best Coffee shops and Paperchase stationery outlets into its stores.

He also has no plans to cut any jobs, which will come as relief to Borders’ 35,000-plus employees. “I don’t think this is a situation that all of a sudden you make this a great company by cutting out a lot of expenses,” he said. But he wouldn’t elaborate on one major point – distinguishing Borders from Barnes & Noble, even if customers get confused between the two chains. “Changing for the sake of change is not a smart thing to do.”

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