“A Silicon Valley heavyweight has thrown his support behind speculation on the next Apple CEO, Angela Ahrendts,” Keris Alison Lahiff reports for TheStreet.
“Marc Benioff, co-founder of leading cloud computing company Salesforce, wrote on Twitter that Ahrendts may well be the next Apple CEO,” Lahiff reports. “Current Apple chief executive Cook announced in mid-October the tech giant had hired Ahrendts to head its retail stores and online stores, in a newly created role. In her current position as chief executive of Burberry, Ahrendts has helped create one of the world’s most successful luxury brands. Since 2006, shares of the London-based fashion house have tripled.”
I just saw Future Apple CEO @AngelaAhrendts on her farewell @Burberry tour! The most important hire Tim Cook has ever made!
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 29, 2013
Read more in the full article here.
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That may come to pass, but not for a LONG time I hope. Cook’s got this gig nailed for years to come.
Less than 24 hours and the Korean sponsored anti-Tim Cook blogging has started.
Someone’s scared that wall st has no chance of taking over with Tim Cook soldly in place with overwhelmng support from Apple fans, employees and investors .
Tim Cook an’t going nowhere.
Agreed. This idiot must not know Tim Cook has Apple performance based stock that doesn’t vest until 2016 and then 2021. With this move Apple’s senior management is solidly supporting Tim Cook for many years. Unless the company takes a serious nose dive I don’t see why they would need to shake up the company with a new CEO. It will be years before Ahrendts truly understands Apple as a company and what Apple has learned to become the company they are today.
“Yeah, the sales guy.”
Yeah, remember Steve’s comment about who was in charge of M$.
Benioff’s crotch must have caught on fire. The Saleslady has already seduced him
At least we know she didn’t seduce, Tim at least not in that way ha..ha.. I think she is a better hire that any discount sales store guy, he was utterly wrong from the start.
Great idea, hopefully she likes software with some functionality and not only a nice interface. #Pages5.0
I’m curious about the methods and thought process that goes on in an expert’s (sic) head when they are making up stuff for the daily hit bait.
“I feel bad about myself…I know! I’ll write a hit piece!”
“I need more ad revenue…I know! I’ll write a hit piece!”
“I need attention…I know! I’ll write a hit piece!”
Apple should sue them once and for all, they can only go so far. Those negative articles after articles are doing so much harm for Apple, time to put your feet down Apple.
Doubtful, but that won’t stop people who think they have some unique insight from telling us what their baseless opinions are.
What’s with the ‘Charlie’s Angels” stance? I don’t see it…
Splash screen for OS X Cougar.
Yet another annoying dig at Cook.
Hell no! I love women, but no way this politically correct speculation will fade. Women as CEOs are scarce. Successful ones even scarcer. As if she is the most qualified person for the job? My ASS!
She is easy on the eyes and commands attention …..
Just what it takes to be a successful CEO, right?
Just because you’re standing up doesn’t mean you’re at attention.
Look, I want to apologize before I write the next sentence. I am sorry, but I wonder how she would look on a big red bouncy ball?
So far Women as CEO of Tech Companies don’t have a very good track record.
BLM, Thanks for the text quote. I appreciate it.
And just WIH did you say that the sales guy is running Apple??? Tim was in charge of how Apple built product and got it to market. He has the smarts for making the supply chain work and to keep quality high. He gets heavy input from Ivy for design issues. Seems to work for me. Maybe you are still waiting for the flying jet packs. ???????
Just saying.
Please god NO!
Did she really say, “‘….the next generation speaks SOCIAL?
We need a technical sort of guy that has a passion for technology and is able to understand it. I mean understand it to the point where he/she can say what technologies will die and thrive. Like the Flash letter Steve wrote. That’s just one example.
We need a Scott + ive. But the two don’t get on….which is a shame.
Absolutely right; I always think about that Flash letter Steve Jobs wrote. Could anyone in power at Apple write such a letter now?
Doubt it
The Next CEO of apple should be Elon Musk.
Elon Musk won’t become the CEO of Apple, he’s doing exactly what he wants to do with his talents now. Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, all these visionaries ended up creating their companies to run the only way they saw fit, so as to complete their visions.
Elon Musk would probably be worse as CEO of Apple than a sales guy. The guy spends all day dreaming about going into space. How is that going to help a company build the best computer solutions for people on THIS planet.
Apple has plenty of capable and truly caring professionals working on the future of computing tech. But any person with the vision to create the next Apple would by definition have to create it outside of Apple.
Give Ahrendts a break, her bio at Burberry sounds similar to Steve’s return in 1997. And whether SOCIAL is a language or not, she seems to have a vision of the future of tech and fashion that it a little more forward-looking than Steve’s lifelong mission to create the iPad. He got us here. Where do we go next?
That quote made me cringe as well. That was 2012 when she said that? A little too recent for my blood.
no No NO! If/When Timmy retires then it’s finally Wozzies turn to lead the ship..if not as CEO, then at least as a board member, capisci?
Apple isn’t Burberry. .Its like putting Ron Johnson into JCP. its not going to work out. I give her a year – maybe
Apple is not Burberry, but make no mistake, that’s where Apple is heading. It’s well on its way to turning itself into a luxury brand.
I hope she proves competent for the CEO spot. But I do recall Steve Jobs saying what happens to a company when the sales guy is running the show. Oh, wurra, wurra, wurra.
Since when did Apple ever have a monopoly?
Look at this woman then look at Élon Musk. Who would you rather see as Appple CEO? That tells you right there she is a god awful choice, unless you really think the red bouncy ball factor is important. If they are looking for CEO material I hope they remember Apple is a design and engineering leader, not a marketing company. Apple needs a forward thinker. This chick already thinks 3 years ago. The next generation speaks social?
The next generation speaks survival, competition in a flat global employment space, more from less, speed of decision making, crisis aversion, crisis management, government avoidance, and they need the best tools to help them accomplish this.
If they’re sitting around in Instagram and Facebook and tweeting about it, they’ve already failed.
People seem to be obsessed with the fact that she is joining from Burberry and then making comparisons between the brands of Apple and Burberry.
The important thing isn’t that she came from Burberry, but that she joined Burberry and made a massive improvement to the company’s fortunes. She also explored the possibilities for hi tech in retail. Apple retails stores will surely offer even more opportunities in that respect.
It remains to be seen how well she performs at Apple, but the signs are certainly very promising, however talk of her as a future CEO of Apple is ridiculously premature.
The big thing being overlooked is that Burberry’s is a luxury brand, but there are lots of out coats that will get the job done of keeping you warm and dry. There is no substitute for Apple. It’s not a luxury brand, it’s a necessity.
Agreed…Apple is a necessity, not merely a luxury. I shudder to think of our world without Apple, which was a possibility in 1996, until the Steve returned, and made history.
no knock on angela, but didn’t SJ say something about sales people taking over?
Basically the Salesforce guy wanted publicity for his company, so he tweeted about Apple.
I never heard of Burbery until now.
It’s looks like a good hire, but let’s see what actually transpires before we give her carte blanche over Apple – shall we?!