“Apple’s senior VP of Retail and Online Stores, Angela Ahrendts, will be a centerpiece speaker at next week’s Year Ahead Summit hosted by Bloomberg,” Roger Fingas reports for AppleInsider.
“The executive will sit down for an interview with Bloomberg’s Stephanie Mehta on the second day of the conference, Nov. 10,” Fingas reports. “The event is being host at the Park Hyatt hotel in New York City, with attendance restricted to an invited gathering of CEOs, presidents, and board members from various global corporations.”
Fingas reports, “Ahrendts will talk about ‘progressive leadership and how executives can better lead in 2016,’ Bloomberg said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, we’ll see Ahrendts representing Apple publicly with greater frequency going forward. She is too much of a asset to keep hidden away.
SEE ALSO:
Disappearing act: What happened to Apple’s Angela Ahrendts? – October 26, 2015
What the heck is Angela Ahrendts doing at Apple? – September 10, 2015
Apple’s Angela Ahrendts emerges as highest-paid U.S. woman with $83 million – May 5, 2015
When Angela Ahrendts met Tim Cook – March 26, 2015
Jony Ive and Angela Ahrendts working on Apple Retail Store redesign for Apple Watch – February 16, 2015
I think it has been prudent to keep her out of the public limelight until she had considerable time to absorb both the details of her job and the Apple culture. It looks like now the top brass think her indoctrination is complete.
I still think they’re quietly grooming her to be the next CEO.
Bad mistake.
“I have my own theory about why the decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The product starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.”
Just like Steve Jobs said!
“I have my own theory about why the decline happens at companies like IBM or Microsoft. The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The product starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company.”
Same as it ever was.
People have been beating up on Ahrendts like not appearing for Apple Watch P.R stuff with fashion magazines etc (which Ive is doing) .
I was just wondering whether she has a Non Compete agreement with Burberry which stops her from doing this ( fashion stuff) for some years? Most senior execs have contracts like that.
If so it would explain much about Ahrendts lack of exposure.
I put a question mark (?) on my comment.
I have to indicate though there is a BURBERRY WATCH COLLECTION:
https://ca.burberry.com/womens-watches/?gclid=CMKBxb6088gCFROSfgodPMIA2Q&gclsrc=aw.ds
so you think Burberry which sells watches will have a non compete agreement that will allow an ex-exec to sell watches? why would they put a clause that will allow that?
and you think a non compete will specify exactly the PERCENTAGE of a segment of the new execs company? How would they determine that? ( Apple does not release Apple watch numbers, neither units or profits ) That’s a lawyer’s goldmine can of worms. Imagine lawyers fighting over what the ‘goal line’ is.
Wouldn’t it be easier to say you can’t directly work with fashion like Clothes or accessories like shoes and watches?
(also note that the entire Swiss Watch industry is about 30 million watches a year. Apple will sell maybe 10 million A.Ws this year which is one third of the whole industry. Analysts say in few years apple watches will sell 30 -60 m a year. So is that small? note apple only sells about 20-30 m Macs a year. )
anyhow it’s not a big deal with me (I have no fact one way or another whether Ahrendts actually has non compete, just speculating ) , you have your mind set and you might be right.
I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know how non compete’s work worldwide. Burberry is a British firm, so does California Law apply to Apple Europe? (Apple seems to refight patent disputes in many jurisdictions so I don’t know if law is universal ). Also Apple has a special deal with Burberry to take Ahrendts early before her contract expired, so who knows what was discussed. (like I said you could be right).
” personally don’t like the choice… So the salespeople end up running the company.”
Your dislike of salesmen due to your personal experience seems to be a bit of a chip on your shoulder because NOTE I never anywhere on my thread discussed whether Ahrendts should or should not run apple.
I would point out though that Jobs was one of the greatest salesman in business history. Although he didn’t believe in traditional branding etc. he spent huge amounts of time on marketing and had Apple marketing teams working side by side with engineers etc. All the great Apple ad campaigns like 1984, Think Different etc had his fingerprints as well as things like the glass staircases in Apple stores (costing hundreds of thousands each) which were marketing tools.
Adweek called Jobs “The Greatest Marketer of the Age”.
I believe that a tech person should run Apple but Jobs was a tech person as well as marketeer.
“In California restraints on trade, aka non-compete agreements, are illegal and void for employees and independent contractors.
The three main types of restrictions are (1) a true noncompete where an employee cannot work somewhere, (2) a non-solicitation of customers restriction, and (3) and non-solicitation of employees restriction.
HOWEVER, there are related laws which are enforceable which can made a contract analysis complex.
Do not assume a ‘noncompete being illegal’ means you are free to do what you want or a former employer cannot make your life miserable. That can be a costly mistake.
Certain restrictions are valid for business owners.”
http://californianoncompete.com/
My first job in the computer business was as a salesperson with the Byte Shop and I don’t have a chip on my shoulder about salespeople although I have met quite a few idiots. I also made much the same point in 1985 when I quit that job precisely because ‘salespeople’ were taking over the company. Those ‘salespeople’ were Pacific Telephone who purchased the company from the Terrell Brothers. This is a company that was 142 on the INC 500 Fastest growing companies in 1984 with 462 Million dollars in sales from our 6 stores in Washington and Oregon. In 3 years, the newly formed PacTel Infosystems managed to blow through 111 Million dollars and went out of business.
We were successful because the ‘tech’ people built the company. The company died because the ‘salespeople’ took over.
I don’t believe she is a good choice to run Apple. I also think that Apple is probably too big to ‘fail’ completely so in the long run, she couldn’t ruin Apple.
OK.
Into the lying-lion den. Bloomberg is extremely anti-Apple. Good luck Angela!
She had previously been lionised by fashion market watchers for reviving Burberry as an aspirational brand, for putting down deep stakes in emerging luxe markets like China, and for reaching out to consumers via social media and event staging. She made customers like me recklessly unafraid to don the trench coat, no longer a moth-eaten anachronism but a contemporary statement. She is no cowardly lion or dithering Dorothy, but more Glinda the good witch of marketing Things That People Come To Desire And Eventually To Buy.
Has Ron Johnson ever done ANY public appearances during his tenure at Apple? While MDN audience loves to talk about Ahrends, I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning Johnson until he left for J C Penney.