RON JOHNSON: 'I Thought I Could Be Under The Radar' When I Left Apple For JCPenney

In his talk, he addressed all the negative press and criticism of his turnaround project at the retailer.

"I thought I could be under the radar," said Johnson.

After all, when he left Apple to take the helm of JCPenney in 2011, the retailer wasn't getting much media attention.

He had to see some of it coming though. Johnson is the mastermind behind the Apple Store — a big-name exec coming from a company that's more intensely covered than most.

And, once he arrived, started to change things and the stock faltered, he was bound to take some flak.

Johnson doesn't pay attention to all those pundits though.

“I don’t spend too much time on it," he said. "I try to not read too much about what we are doing. I focus on doing the work that’s important.”

What about Wall Street?

Well, there's some pressure on that end, said Johnson, noting that a company's stock price was bound to shift during a time of such large change.

“You have to spend a lot of time managing stakeholders, as well as with employees, to reinforce the vision and keep people focused," he said.