“Apple Inc. hired Burberry Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Angela Ahrendts as head of retail operations, ending a yearlong search and adding the first woman to its 10-member executive team,” Adam Satariano and Adam Ewing report for Bloomberg. “Ahrendts, 53, will oversee more than 400 retail outlets and Apple’s online store, the Cupertino, California-based company said today. Apple is tapping an executive who more than doubled Burberry’s sales since 2006, rejuvenating the brand by expanding in China, as well as embracing the Web and social media.”
“Ahrendts’s tenure at Burberry will be useful for Apple, which is facing the challenge of growing outside the U.S. and maintaining its high-end appeal as products become more mainstream,” Satariano and Ewing report. “‘With iPhones being in more and more households, their brand is more of a mass-market brand than it has ever been and they can’t risk losing the aspirational aspect,’ said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner Inc.”
“Ahrendts will join Apple in the spring of 2014, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, has been without a full-time retail chief since last October, when former retail head John Browett was ousted by Cook as part of a broader management shakeup,” Satariano and Ewing report. “Ahrendts has long championed the integration of technology and fashion. Burberry streamed a fashion show globally live last month using Apple’s new iPhone 5s. She helped push Burberry to team up with Twitter Inc. to stay on the cusp of technology by posting backstage photos of a runway show on the social-networking service.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Tim Cook’s email to employees announcing hiring of Angela Ahrendts as retail chief – October 15, 2013
Apple hires Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts as retail chief – October 15, 2013
Burberry CEO discusses iPhone 5s collaboration with Apple – September 17, 2013
Apple grants Burberry early access to iPhone 5s for fashion show photography – September 12, 2013
Apple’s long hunt for retail store chief continues – January 7, 2013
Apple Retail Stores in dire need of competent leadership – November 7, 2012
What’s – and who’s – next for Apple Retail Stores – October 31, 2012
Tim Cook takes full control of Apple: John Browett and Scott Forstall out; Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi get expanded responsibilities – October 29, 2012
Report traces Apple Store ‘mistake’ all the way to Tim Cook; shift in emphasis from service to profits comes from Cook, say insiders – August 29, 2012
Reports persist of Apple Retail Store budget cuts, emphasis on revenue over customer satisfaction – August 28, 2012
After being Browettized, Apple Retail touts numbers – August 20, 2012
Apple newbie John Browett brings Dixons to Apple Retail Stores – August 17, 2012
Dear Tim Cook: Apple’s retail focus should be on delighting customers, not generating cash – August 16, 2012
Apple Retail Store chief Browett: ‘We messed up’ with Dixons-eque staffing gamble; refutes layoffs – August 16, 2012
Apple retail chief Browett to get $56 million golden hello – May 27, 2012
Apple grants 100,000 shares to new retail head John Browett – April 25, 2012
Tim Cook emails UK customer: John Browett’s role isn’t to bring Dixons to Apple Retail – February 1, 2012
Eyebrows raised over Apple’s hiring of Dixons CEO to run Apple Retail Stores – January 31, 2012
Apple hires Dixons CEO John Browett as new retail chief – January 31, 2012
Burberry to outfit retail staff with Apple iPads in China stores – April 13, 2011
This hire will be a home run!
http://www.salesforce.com/customers/stories/burberry.jsp
Watch and learn.
Dear Angela Ahrendts, I do not wearable technology that will transmit the temperature of my crotch or butt crack to my iPhone.
I do not want my wearable tech to transmit how many asteroids are orbiting my gravity shattering girth that is my waist to my iPhone or iMac.
I will want wearable tech that will transmit a RDF that makes me look desirable to the opposite sex thus making me what they realize they needed even though they did not know they wanted until they saw me through the RDF.
And finally, can I have wearable tech that gives the impression that I always know what it is I am talking about so that people are in awe of me?
Thank You!
PS, I know I am asking for less than what you normally deliver, but please indulge me this once!! 🙂
Knock it off, wise guy. She’ll head retail, not fool around with wearable tech. Get your Apple executives straight.
She oversaw Burberry through most of its modern expansion. Seems pretty impressive so far.
Ow shucks hannahjs, just having a bit of fun while she is still at Burberry. Once she is at Apple inc. next year, she will not be doing what she does at Burberry’s right now.
Also, with the current status of the Country, I think we all need a bit of light hearted spiritedness to light the doom & gloom that seems to persist even in the light.
Hey mom, please don’t try too hard to merge technology and fashion. It’s a volatile mix that is very, very difficult to get right. Heard of Carly Fiorina? Yeah, she ran HP like a fashion house until it came crashing down around her ears.
The only person I know who could meld fashion and technology together is now six feet under and not a lot of use to anyone. But I would take his design cues if I were you mom. He was the best of the best and only he knew how to tamper down fashion so technology was always at the forefront.
But mom, listen, it might seem like a good idea at first but really you need to put fashion behind technology. Yes, mom, behind. Not in front of. The last time some dude tried to put fashion in front of technology we got the puke inducing iOS 7.
I’m just saying, mom. Don’t do it.
Do you have a Oedipus complex?
Funny way to call someone a MFer.
Odd, I had no idea there were so many Sophocles fans hereabouts, not to mention Freudian sufferers, locker room wits, and mama’s boys. So much pathos! More like, bathos. I’ll try to tread lightly.
The fleas are out tonight.
I hope your mom listens.
has had enough “fashion.”
Dear Apple, please buy Victoria’s Secrets and put their angels in your retail stores. And yes, I do mean in their undies. Oh mommy!
Little Timmy has no predisposition to women in lingerie, sorry Horny Toad…however, he hopes you enjoy the current “Let’s Play Barbies!” iteration of iOS.
Aw darn, I forgot about that. Holy crap, I hope to hell he isn’t into the Chippendale Dancers!
Cook has design, hardware, software, user interface, manufacturing under control. Presenting the proper face to the world is the next step.
Refreshing Apple stores is a huge challenge and getting bigger by the day. High-end brands require top-notch talent. Cook is assembling that talent.
Apple is in good hands.
OMG! CEO at Burberry, Prez. of Donna Karan AND VP at Liz Claiborne!
They will get more votes than Hillary and Barrack combined!
Does this herald the start of a long overdue “Age of Women?”
I certainly hope so ’cause the white boys can’t cut it anymore.
Yeah I’m trollin’ bitches 😉
The age of women begins now and you’re not cutting the mustard.
does one actually “cut mustard?” Never understood that one.
Well, when I was a ponytail just starting out in the U.S. I was hired to work at a Golden Arches. Back of the kitchen, you had to open these giant jars of mustard and stir them and that was the phrase, “cut the mustard.” I’m aware the phrase has an older provenance something like “up to snuff” and I employ it in that spirit but I retain my personal definition. (What the kids now call Mickey D’s did not at the time use dijonnaise or dijonaise, but some kind of yellow institutional paste. You don’t want to know the origin of the pickles.)
It’s ok to be a troll. We all get it.
What stands out to me is that Tim Cook is fleshing out a management team capable of driving the franchise for the next ten years or so.
That’s a remarkable achievement.
How come nobody mentioned, she’s one hot 53-year old?
Because it has nothing to do with it.