J.C. Penney’s CEO Jill Soltau has exited a month after the retailer emerged from bankruptcy proceedings through a sale to Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management. What do you view as the positives and negatives that Jill Soltau brought to J.C. Penney?

J.C. Penney’s survival will not come from an improvement in margin rates, but an improvement in margin dollars — and that will require a big reversal of sales trends. Do you think the business needs a radical reinvention, or can it build on and tweak existing initiatives?

On J.C. Penney’s second quarter conference call with analysts, CEO Jill Soltau made clear that her job and that of her team was not simply running the department store chain’s business. It was rebuilding it. Do you think Jill Soltau and her team can rebuild J.C. Penney, or was the chain too late in bringing new management on board?

J.C. Penney, by CEO Jill Soltau’s own admission, has to move faster if the department store chain is going to get ahead of its competitors and turn its ailing business around. Do you think that Penney still has the time and resources to turn its business around?

What a difference a year makes. Around this time last year, then J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison was touting the department store’s success in turning its business around. Penney’s story is not nearly as cheery this year. Do you have a sense that J.C. Penney needs to do something big — and quickly — to avoid the fate of other failed retailers?

J.C. Penney announced earlier this week that it has successfully concluded its search for a new CEO with the appointment Jill Soltau, former president and CEO of Joann Stores, to the position. How do you expect Ms. Soltau to address Penney’s challenges?