30 RETAILER HALL OF FAME 2018 J.C. Penney, where she’s worked since 2009. She is responsible for guiding the overall direction of the business—what product is bought, how it’s marketed and how employees are be- ing trained to sell it—and, of course, for the fine jewelry division’s financial perfor- mance within J.C. Penney. Ed Yakubovich is the president of Sunsource Jewelry, a company he started in 1994 that supplies jewelry to J.C. Penney as well as a number of other large jewelry store chains. He says he met Mortensen right after she started at the retailer’s annual two-day supplier summit in 2009, where she presented his company with the award for supplier of the year for jewelry. Since then, Yakubovich says they’ve developed an excellent work- ing relationship as well as a friendship. He says one of the most difficult adjustments that a merchandis- ing executive like Mortensen has to make is to keep her hands “off the merchandise,” so to speak. “There’s a lot of executives in the business who might be brilliant people, but they are trying to have their hand in every little detail of the business from a merchandising perspective,” Yakubovich observes. “That’s a very hard thing to do and still manage. She does a very good job of that. She has a vision for the business. She drives the business from that visionary standpoint and allows everyone on her team to do what they were hired to do.” Richline’s Meleski also lauds Mortensen’s vision and her ability to think and plan in broad brush strokes, not just in terms of an item in, an item out, which is the folly of many merchandisers. “She definitely gets into the details but her view is not narrow—you don’t build [a successful department] by find- ing an item at a time. You let items build to create a category.” It is because of Mortensen’s leader- ship that J.C. Penney’s jewelry de- partment continually is highlighted in earnings reports as a bright spot. In the fourth quarter ended Feb. 3, 2018, same-stores sales rose nearly 3 percent for the department store chain while total sales were up 2 percent. Jewelry was listed as one of the top-performing divisions. “It’s because of her strategic approach,” Meleski says. “She picks categories they can dominate and goes after them.” Besides being a manager, Mortensen also has to serve as an advocate for fine jewelry within J.C. Penney—fighting for resources in what is ultimately an apparel-driven business. She has to “sell them” on her strategy, says Roig, Mortensen’s senior buyer, and she does it well. Case in point: Late last year, J.C. Penney invested in rebranding and renovating its jewelry departments, with a new logo and tagline rendered in a vintage-looking brush stroke intended to reflect its long history. “JCPenney Co. Fine Jewelry, Est. 1902,” it reads. The retailer also added smartwatches from Samsung, LG and Garmin, which are displayed so customers can interact with them, and updated its store brand, Modern Bride, with new graphics, fix- tures and in-case presentations. All these updates were done in response to the one constant Mortensen learned how to deal with early on in her career—change. In her opinion, customers today still value the in-store experience and she doesn’t see that fading away, particularly for an item as per- sonal as fine jewelry. What has changed, though, is the way retailers communicate with potential customers and the increased pressure to differentiate themselves from their competitors, whether they are online only or in the same shopping mall. Mortensen says retailers have to be sharp with their assortments, constantly bringing in new product, and testing it with customers. They also have to listen to their cus- tomers and understand how they shop. Consumers might want to buy online and pick up in store, or just browse on the internet and not buy until they see it in person.They might get engagement inspiration from Instagram, Pinterest, the ring their best friend just shared on Face- book, or some combination of all three. Gone are the days when retailers can, or even should, carry every single cate- gory of fine jewelry, put it all in the case every morning and wait for the custom- ers to come flooding in. “Change is inevitable, and if you can’t learn to adjust, you’re not going to survive,” Mortensen says. “I think that’s where retailers are today.” Q:What is the No. 1 piece of advice you would give to a young woman starting out in the jewelry industry today? A:“Integrity is everything. It’s the one thing you can control. Your reputation is going to follow you throughout your career.” — Pam Mortensen QUICK & Q A A look inside J.C. Penney's recently revamped fine jewelry department, which now includes smartwatches (top) and a new look for the Modern Bride brand.