“John Browett, the Dixons exec tapped to oversee Apple’s retail operations last January, was Tim Cook’s first big hire after taking up the CEO reins at the company,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD. “Nine months later, he would be among Cook’s first big fires, ousted from Apple after a series of missteps that drew some rare negative publicity to the company’s wildly successful retail empire.”
“Now Apple is once again on the hunt for an executive to oversee its retail stores, a keystone of the company’s success,” Paczkowski reports. “And it can ill afford to make another such hiring mistake.”
Paczkowski reports, “We’ve been asking around for weeks about possible external candidates for Apple’s senior VP of retail job, and have heard largely the same thing, and a few names to boot. They are, in no particular order: Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts; Victor Luis, president, International Group, Coach; Jeanne Jackson, president, Direct to Consumer, Nike; John Culver, president, Starbucks Coffee China and Asia Pacific; [and] Paul Gainer, executive vice president, Global Disney Store… And there are at least three candidates: Steve Cano, Apple’s manager of retail stores; Bob Bridger, Apple VP for retail real estate and development; and Jerry McDougal, VP of retail.”
Much more about the possible candidates mentioned in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That which you seek, inside you will find.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jax44” for the heads up.]
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Promoting somebody from within the company makes most sense to me, seeing as there’s no great desire to change the existing successful model.
I agree.
Absolutely agree.
External hire tends to indicate new-broom changes, internal hire usually means organic development.
The Stores make such a big plus-point when talking about Apple to newbies, so I doubt any need for big changes.
I reckon tweaks, adds, and improves are all that are needed to boost the already pretty good customer experience.
If you are looking for someone with experience with the best retail organization in the world…why in the hell would you go outside Apple? With Apple trying to retain good talent what a great example to the other employees to show that there is a place for good Apple employees at the top. So many people get this part wrong. If your org is broken bring in outside help, if you are doing great promote from within to keep the momentum.
I can not see how hiring an external executive that only used to have costs-focused management practice would ever bring any good to Apple’s exclusive, high-class retail chain.
Once they would come at Apple, their brains are still formatted by those old, cheap, petty-mind policies that their former employers instilled in them during decades, so they can only think of stupid things.
With the amount of recent mistakes by Apple, another one would indeed be most sad!
As JC Penny requires someone on the Messiah level to survive, entice Ron Johnson back into the fold. Give him an incentive to jump from his rapidly sinking ship. Then put some Apple spin on the return and voila…sanity restored.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11805541/1/jc-penney-co-inc-stock-sell-recommendation-reiterated-jcp.html?puc=TSMKTWATCH&cm_ven=TSMKTWATCH
Better yet, just buy JCP. Create a series of capsule wardrobes appropriate for different age and gender groups, capsule-like living environments, kitchen, bedroom and living rooms, all very tasteful and good value and free from BS ornamentation. “Apple, back to the Garden of Eden” That would be JCPs Messiah experience.
Search and employ from within. They will have the right mindset and that is a prime necessity for Apple. Outsiders will tend to be misfits,and will take a long time to ‘adjust’; if they ever do.
J.Browett, the prime example.
Jerry McDougal would be great. Met him when I was in Cupertino for training as a business manager. Great guy!
If he didn’t hire from inside apple in the first place then Mr cook is a bigger clown if he does this time.
That kind of DNA doesn’t exist outside of Apple. It must be cultivated from its existing DNA strands.