
Apple Hires Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to Head Retail Efforts - antr
http://allthingsd.com/20131014/apple-hires-burberry-ceo-angela-ahrendts-to-head-its-retail-efforts/?mod=atd_homepage_carousel
======
smickie
Let's just compare her to the recent cluster fuck John Browett.

If you'd have ever been into a Dixons in the UK you know it was all about hard
selling microwaves and insurance.

However she is from Burberry, which is total elegance, luxury and class. You
couldn't get a more extreme opposite to John Browett.

This feels like a good decision from the outset.

~~~
glhaynes
If Cook ever provides us with his memoirs, this will be one of the things I'll
be most interested in. I've never been in a Dixons but it seemed like everyone
who had howled in protest when Browett was hired. At the time, I assumed Cook
knew something everybody else didn't… apparently not. Props for moving on
quickly when it didn't work out, I suppose.

Anyway, Ms. Ahrendts seems like a pretty much perfect person for the role. I'm
excited to see what Apple Retail does under her guidance.

And it might go without saying, but it'll be very nice to finally see a bit
more diversity on
[http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/](http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/).

~~~
rsynnott
Their hiring the Dixons guy was sort of astonishing. Dixons/Currys/PC World is
about as close to the opposite of an Apple store as you can get.

------
kitsune_
Coming to an Apple store near you, accessories that complement the "chav" look
of the gold, I'm sorry, "champagne" iPhone.

This is actually half in chest, Ahrendts is credited with saving Burberry [1]

Totally irrelevant, but they're also selling an alligator skin trench coat on
their website for a measly 79,000.00 GBP. [2]

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jun/16/angela-
ahren...](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jun/16/angela-ahrendts-
burberry-chav-image#start-of-comments)

[2] [http://uk.burberry.com/alligator-trench-
coat-p38791451](http://uk.burberry.com/alligator-trench-coat-p38791451)

~~~
TheBiv
Trivializing her position to accessory-driven conclusions is misleading the
$26MM/year salary she was receiving at Burberry. Clearly her role was
something bigger like strategy and making the brand memorable. I would hope
that is the plan, rather than creating iphone cases, as you suggested.

~~~
leoedin
What's your reasoning behind using "MM" to denote million (as opposed the
fewer keyed and more commonly accepted "m" or "M")? I see it a lot on Hacker
News and I just can't figure out why people are doing it.

~~~
rangibaby
Latin for thousand M*M = one million

~~~
leoedin
I appreciate what it represents, but that doesn't really address the reasoning
behind the use. Beyond (as some people have said) "That's what accountants
do", I have been completely unable to find any justification. We _have_ a word
for million, and a commonly accepted abbreviation. Why use something else?

~~~
aroch
'mm' _is_ a commonly accepted abbreviation...What exactly are you complaining
about?

------
mbesto
There's a couple of things worth mentioning here:

\- Burberry is both a wholesaler and a retailer, which can be quite rare for
luxury goods. (most are wholesalers who focus on brand and let others handle
distribution) I believe Apple shares roughly the same mix of wholesale/retail
revenue streams.

\- Head of retail is very specific to well, uh retail, which means she'll
presumably be focusing much more on distribution through Apple's multi-channel
(B&M, e-commerce, mobile stores, etc). One should also presume this means
she'll be focusing on how to get more devices to more people...globally. (and
less about "what an iPad looks like on 28 year old women")

\- Burberry has been massively successful in recent years in the Asian market
(the growth is very slow in US/EU)

My armchair analyst conclusion is that this is a play to get more distribution
to the Asian market. One thing I've noticed about the Asian markets
(especially catering to the middle and upper middle class) is that they want
to know what the trends are in the Western world. If they see rich western
travellers buying luxury goods in their "rip-off" market they see those trends
and mimic them (by buying the real thing). Burberry did one thing very well,
which was set trends. That's something very difficult to do consistently, over
a long period of time, and in your own wholly owned retail chain.

------
josephlord
I would be more optimistic about this than when they hired John Browett from
DSG (Dixons Store Group - Currys, PC World, Pixmania...)

~~~
jdrobins2000
Wow, you are really setting the bar low! That was a disaster, and one foreseen
by many immediately who had any familiarity with Dixons (I personally did
not). At least Cook had the sense to fix his mistake quickly, to his credit.
This choice makes a lot of sense, and I expect she will be a much better fit
at Apple.

------
nicholassmith
It's a very interesting move, Burberry has weathered well over the last
decade.

Also food for thought, Burberry made large inroads into China and tailored a
lot of their retail efforts around that. Maybe Apple thinks it's time to
double down on their China strategy.

~~~
TheBiv
Admittedly, I am not a Burberry-china strategist, but it appears a direct
quote from her in this article seems to say the exact opposite of China being
a growth market for Burberry:

"She added that future growth would likely come from India, Latin America and
Indonesia."

Do you possibly have a source or anecdotal evidence to support that statement
you presented?

[http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/436421/China-helps-
Bur...](http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/436421/China-helps-Burberry-bag-
first-half-sales-of-1billion)

~~~
PakG1
Nowhere does gp say that China will be a future growth market for Burberry.
But even so, how can you conclude that the article says the opposite based on
this one sentence? Most of the article is about Burberry's success in China,
and it even mentions sales growth percentage expected.

I read the article as saying that China is going well for Burberry and is
expected to continue to go well. Additional growth on top of that will also
come from other countries. This is likely because China's been penetrated
pretty well by Burberry, whereas those other countries haven't yet.

Live in China, and my anecdotal experience is that the Burberry advertising
and store presence is on par with a lot of luxury brands here. They've done
well.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I think the CCP's recent cutback on bribes and conspicuous consumption limits
their growth potential for the next few years. Their biggest season in Beijing
used to be when the national congress was in session...

------
rafski
This hire is a more natural fit than most techies would think.

The genius of Jobs was that he understood better than others that personal
tech had more to do with fashion industry than tech industry.

He run Apple as a fashion company: he set trends, introduced seasonal device
colours and collections, presented them in fashion gala shows packed with
industry press. He was a fashion dictator.

Most of their competition still doesn't get it, they still think they sell
technology.

Apple builds great technology, but it sells hip and sexy.

------
TheBiv
"...in this newly created position..."

I always love this corporate ploy bc we never know if they created this
position to fit the candidates ego, or whether the company wanted this
position to happen regardless of the person appointed to the role.

My guess would be it is the former, but it's kind of like commenting on bird
migration patterns bc I don't know anything about bird migration patterns!

~~~
dajohnson89
Yeah, it's also interesting that she is effectively taking a demotion, from
CEO to "senior vp". Burberry is a prestigious brand, and I'm very curious what
factors led to her decision.

~~~
sksksk
Whilst being the CEO of a FTSE 100 company is very impressive, Angela is going
to head up the retail division of the world's largest company.

I'd take a guess that if Apple Retail was a separate company from Apple, it'd
still be worth more than the whole of Burberry.

~~~
seferphier
I agree. But this isn't about how much money the company is worth but the
amount of control she has.

As seen before, most people don't get to sit on the Head of Retail chair for a
long time and can be removed by Tim Cook at any time. Angela could have stayed
as CEO for at least one more decade.

I assume that they are compensating her heavily for his move.

------
iamkoby
Burberry has been showing technology adaptation consistently in the past few
years, and also took part in the music promotion with their Burberry Acoustic
department, which is close to what Apple is doing with iTunes and iTunes
Festival. I think this relates to the Apple culture deeply, not to mention
their deep link to aesthetics and fashion. I see it as a great evolution for
Apple retail and Angela.

------
soolemez
Aside from the comeback of Burberry under the leadership of Angela Ahrendts
does have similarities to the comeback of Apple with Steve Jobs and definitely
the retail efforts of Burberry, I have a feeling this hire may also be to lead
the wearable computing era that Apple is rumored to be starting soon with the
iWatch

------
AnthonBerg
I'm taking this as a weak hint that Apple is moving away from what I wish it
were. Burberry sells useless stuff for lots of money. I was hoping Apple would
try harder to be genuinely useful.

Still, it's a big ship and this hire won't really change anything. And to be
able to be useful, Apple are also going to have to be able to extract money
from fools.

~~~
pisarzp
If many people are willing to pay lots of money, I don't think things they
sell are useless.

~~~
AnthonBerg
Counterexample: Cigarettes aren't useful.

Consumers may perceive things to have value, and pay accordingly, but I see no
need to relinquish my sense and judgement that certain things are actually
useless.

------
YOSPOS
The connection between Apple and luxury will only be strengthened because of
this.

~~~
kmfrk
It's interesting how the luxury brand of Apple used to be a hindrance, but is
now seen as crucial to fighting off lower-end disruption.

