John Browett Officially Joins Apple as Retail Chief, Receives Stock Rights Worth $60 Million

[dasmb]

I wonder if they could've given a paid week off to all the employees in China - any maybe cut his compensation by- what- 25%?

Oh, to be the Foxcomm employee picked to build Apple and not dell, Motorola, HTC, Lenovo, Samsung or HP goods THAT week.

Actually, to be an Apple builder over any of the others ANY week, because wtf does Dell care if an underage Chinese builds their ****** laptops in a toxic, unventilated hell for 80 mandatory hours a week? Giving a crap about public image is SO having-a-margin-capable-of-human-emotion territory, and no tech company other than AAPL is in it. What, you can save a nickel by torturing a Falun Gong with a cigarette? Dell's in, you guys, profitable quarter.

 

[mgauss7]

Apple's retail stores will soon service businesses

Typical scene: the brightest employees are at the Apple store with their MBPs and iMacs and iPads. At work, a 60 year old obese IBM slave hangs onto 500 PCs that crash daily and give all employees boredom and no creativity. More and more the President and VPs ask themselves why the company does not use Macs at work, like they use at home.

At Universities the majority of laptops are Macs, but at work they are PCs still.

Soon the Apple Store will be receiving the visits from the VPs and the geniuses will be setting up networks at businesses.

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A pair of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published early today reveal that former Dixons Retail CEO John Browett, who was announced in January as the next Senior Vice President of Retail at Apple, has officially started work with the company. The development is in line with previous announcements about an April start.

Browett's start date was revealed in an SEC Form 3 filing noting that Browett owned no stock in Apple at the time he began work. The document lists April 20 as the "date of event requiring statement", indicating that he began work at Apple last Friday.

As of that start date, Browett also received a total of 100,000 restricted stock units (RSUs) on Friday, with staggered vesting dates designed to reward Browett for staying on the job. At Apple's current stock price, those RSUs are worth roughly $61 million. The first batch of 5,000 units will vest on October 20, and an additional 15,000 units will vest at Browett's one-year anniversary with the company, which is April 20, 2013. The remainder of the units will vest in batches of 20,000 units on each anniversary of his start date through the fifth year.

Unlike options, restricted stock units do not require the recipient to purchase stock at an exercise price in order to receive the shares. The RSUs simply convert to actual shares on the vesting dates, although there are tax implications to the conversion that generally result in recipients immediately selling off at least some portion of their grants as they vest.

Browett has not yet been added to Apple's leadership page on its website, but his photo and a brief biography should be appearing there in the near future. Browett replaces Ron Johnson, who left Apple last November to become CEO of department store chain J.C. Penney.

Article Link: John Browett Officially Joins Apple as Retail Chief, Receives Stock Rights Worth $60 Million

 

[the read]

Wow, really? Comparing Apple's hiring of this guy to your teenage daughter getting pregnant...yeah, that makes perfect sense Because he's going to get Apple pregnant? Huh?

Seriously though, it's not like this one person is responsible for all that is Apple. It's not like he won't have people watching over him to make sure things go the way they're supposed to. So the stores he ran in the UK were crap according to all of you, that's fine. But I believe that the folks over at Apple saw something useful in him, or they wouldn't have hired him. Apple is far from perfect, but there's some pretty damn smart people making decisions over there. So I say give the guy a chance.

More just trying to reference the damage could be done.

The flip side of the coin is, if he pulled proffit selling crap in badly maintained shops, with under educated staff, providing even less educated guesses on what you will need to solve your tech problems, then maybe he has something to teach apple. Or did he achieve this by just keeping prices low?

 

[SteveJobsUK]

I still think that any kind of VP/executive/CxO at a PUBLIC company does not deserve more than mill or 2 a year. All those tens or even HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars should be saved for the company and/or its stock price (after all, there is a ratio between money spent at a company and money brought in...why spend millions more if you don't have to?).

My reasoning is because it's a company those folks did not start up (99% of the time) and actually have any true, real-world stake. Why are they earning gobloads of cash for something they simply manage? Private company? Sure...it's very likely the owner(s) who run the company and take all the risk. Public company execs simply parachute out of the company with golden packages (that they negotiated before hiring). Stock dipped 20% while they were in charge? They don't care...they get fired and keep their $10million+ and move on. And the company can't publicly state why they fired the exec out of fear of a massive lawsuit.

I'm not saying there should be legal caps...and I'm sure I will get a billion replies here stating something to the effect: "well, the companies need to pay top dollar for top performers". Bulls***. We can all sit here and list 50 companies in 10 minutes that have had numerous executives who have earned tons of cash and ruined the company or severely negatively impacted its value.

John does NOT deserve $50 mill. He doesn't deserve $10 mill. Especially as Chief Retail Officer. CIOs and CTOs and CFOs don't even earn $5mill a year at other public companies!

Apple has the bankroll now...but that shouldn't be an excuse for excessive compensation. Especially for a position/department that seems to be doing pretty darn well (what does Apple see so wrong with Apple Retail that it justifies this cash for a new guy?). I'm not a "we hate the 1%ers!!!!" either.

Gosh you are a bit of a moron aren't you. You think Apple Retail would be as successful as it is without a great management team. Its a multi BILLION dollar company. $60m is over quite a number of years too.

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I seriously wonder how he is going to enhance a retail store that sells 3-5 products. What more is he going to do? Seriously. Add more tables? Change the paint color? Software is no longer boxed (thanks now to Apple Mac OS) and none of the iOS devices even can use boxed software so that takes up 0 retail space. Maybe he will add more cases for the iPods? More employees? Bring back cash registers? Educate the employees on grooming techniques

Apple needs more unique products and possibly more retail outlets. Other than that, I honestly have no idea what the CRO is going to add in terms of value for a company that sells 3-5 products.

There is plenty of room for improvement within Apple Retail. As a simpleton I wouldn't expect you to know that. Don't comment on things that you have no knowledge on, in other words don't talk at all.

 

[Macist]

By shopping in PC World and Dixons. The man is responsible for two of the poorest tech stores for customer service in the UNIVERSE. He's an arse.

Corrected.

Seriously, this really does call into question Tim Cook's judgement. Currys/PC World is arguably worse than ever. At least once PC World could be used to pick up consumables, kinda like Staples, if you'd left it too late to buy cheaper online. Now there's nothing in them aside from some clunky overpriced PCs. Shops completely without a purpose.

And his renumeration is sick. It just reinforces the idea that at a certain level in corporate life, execs award themselves lottery wins even after abject failure.

 

[WeegieMac]

Corrected.

Seriously, this really does call into question Tim Cook's judgement. Currys/PC World is arguably worse than ever. At least once PC World could be used to pick up consumables, kinda like Staples, if you'd left it too late to buy cheaper online. Now there's nothing in them aside from some clunky overpriced PCs. Shops completely without a purpose.

And his renumeration is sick. It just reinforces the idea that at a certain level in corporate life, execs award themselves lottery wins even after abject failure.

As I said before, I know our American friends here think we're being over the top with our comments about Dixons and PC World, but if these people had shopped in these stores they'd know why we're so utterly puzzled by his appointment.

America itself is notorious for having consumers who demand the best, accept nothing less than the best, and would quite honestly have 'gone to town' on the customer service at both Dixons and PC World.

Tim Cook said, "Our stores are all about customer service and John shares that commitment like no one else we've met". Commitment to customer service!?! If that means ramming finance options in your face and pushing extended warranties based on gaining extra commission then fine, not to mention the arrogant and often ignorant staff who lack knowledge of the products they sell.

Dixons and PC World were never, ever about the customer. They were about commission, getting the utmost of out of customers who need the least. They wouldn't sell you what you want, more what they told you that you need when it often wasn't.

Shockingly bad stores, in fact they're so bad that if they had been American they'd have had law suits against them from the public!

 

[4D4M]

Dunno what people are so worried about. He's only been at Dixons/Currys for a few years and during that time the turnover and customer experience have improved.

My last few trips to my local Currys Superstore to buy electrical appliances have been thoroughly pleasant. Helpful, knowledgeable staff and a nice shopping environment. Far more enthusiasm than you'd expect from minimum wage employees in a rubbish town.

Before Currys he was a high flier at Tesco, who were (at that time) the UK's biggest and most successful retail chain.

Anyway, if he's crap Apple will fire him, simple as that. Stop worrying.

 

[WeegieMac]

Dunno what people are so worried about. He's only been at Dixons/Currys for a few years and during that time the turnover and customer experience have improved.

My last few trips to my local Currys Superstore to buy electrical appliances have been thoroughly pleasant. Helpful, knowledgeable staff and a nice shopping environment. Far more enthusiasm than you'd expect from minimum wage employees in a rubbish town.

Before Currys he was a high flier at Tesco, who were (at that time) the UK's biggest and most successful retail chain.

Anyway, if he's crap Apple will fire him, simple as that. Stop worrying.

No. It really hasn't. He's been there since 2007, and they're as **** as ever.

Your store must be one of the very, very rare examples, because PC World and Currys in Glasgow is still as awful as it's ever been.

 

[Konrad]

A salary + $60M is not really out of line for a long contract. A good house will run about $15M-$25M, the jet another $20M + DOC, he will not be able to afford a yacht with this compensation. Here he would need an additional $80M-$250M.

 

[dstankus]

There are 3 types of people in America:

1) People at the top of the pyramid, who think the system is great and tell you: Work hard and you can achieve the same thing I achieved.

2) People who believe they are on their way to the top of the pyramid. Their only fear is that things change before they get there. They want things to stay the way they are until they make it to category "1)". They call complainers lazy and anti-American and they vehemently defend the status of people in category "1)".

3) The folks who have seen through the smoke and mirrors, and understand the pyramid stands up straight due to its very broad base. These guys are wisely resigned, sleep at night and learn to be happy with what they have.

You left out the biggest group:

4) The majority of folks, who spend their time complaining that they can't just get on an express elevator to the top of the pyramid.

 

[Azurael]

Customer experience (the absolute lack of) and dreadful merchandising is only half the issue. A year or so ago I made the mistake of working for Currys for a few months. That was all I could take. I feel seriously sorry for anybody working in an Apple store now...

 

[chown33]

So... about that picture... <cough> Separated at birth?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Flenderson

I can't be the only one who sees the resemblance.