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Angela Ahrendts' Makeover of Apple Retail Outlined in New Profile
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It's like Apple is on a campaign to try and justify Angela's 10 million dollar a year salary. God I hate reading about this type of propaganda.
Next up, how amazing dongles are and the benefits of buying 5 at a time.
Next up, how amazing dongles are and the benefits of buying 5 at a time.
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Was that the celebratory thing they handed out when they built the NYC Apple store years ago?
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The iPhone isn’t a computer? Interesting. So what defines a computer?
Stock prices never react to anything he says.
As opposed to seasonal effects, expected growth, events, product launches but Tim is perceived as a puppet that doesn't pull strings. People don't see what his contribution is (other than being "sooo excited" if something has to be blown up)
He could easily be substituted without any effect on financial markets.
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You know, I knew That the tables are the same that the lawns and Johnny are used in his design studio but I’ve never thought of it in the way that he described it before. There actually is something rather cool about the fact that Johnny and his team are messing about with prototypes of these products on these tables and then we get to mess about with the finished version of these products on the exact same tables. I feel like they should have a little design story attached to these tables just to let people know. I think most would appreciate that little nugget of information.
Her mission is to make everything more fancy and fashioned than it is, glorifying side issues (like shirts and wooden tables) that would hardly get attention in a store with compelling products.
She embodies that boutique world of luxury & wealth that she wants to enroll customers in. In every pose, at any moment, she is justifying/selling the excessive Appletax required to sustain her overcapitalist world that she herself needs more than anybody else. So at the end of the day, when people return home, they realize that everything is the same and start asking themselves why they should contribute to those immense Town Squares.
Angela's world then suddenly comes out as the customers' false dream.
She is the sublimation of the Milking Strategy that has evaporated the entrepreneurial/innovative spirit. Now that will make for a CEO of a tech company that should redress and reinvent itself
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Fundamentally it’s also good business. I don’t think anyone is silly enough to think Apple are doing this for philanthropy reasons. If their stores are places you go to try things out at your leisure, maybe take a couple of classes, then you’re more likely to buy their stuff. Simple as.
Which parts of Steve Jobs do you see in her based on that interview? Drake, Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine seem like the more appropriate comparison to me, again based on that interview.
She's got the visionary aspect to her. Once she gets up to speed she's probably a better choice for CEO than even TC or SJ.
I can see why she was so successful at BB.
After my last experience in trying to get a warranty repair / appointment I wrote to the manager and described it like visiting a Dixons / PC World.
She has ruined the experience and staff now essentially try to get you out of the store, the online staff tell you there are no appointments and you have to go to the store and then maybe if you are lucky you get a txt about coming back in an hour to be seen.
The whole think is nonsense and it was turned functional shops into nothing more then display stores.
She has ruined the experience and staff now essentially try to get you out of the store, the online staff tell you there are no appointments and you have to go to the store and then maybe if you are lucky you get a txt about coming back in an hour to be seen.
The whole think is nonsense and it was turned functional shops into nothing more then display stores.
Angela wants people hanging out at the "Town Halls". getting you out of a queue is a good thing. It was extremely useful for me when I had to go to the Apple store by my Equinox Sport gym because my watch face came off. I hate when Apple keeps me waiting in a queue that isn't related to a new product launch.
From what I hear in interviews, I have to agree with you.
I like that she's directly drawing on Steve Jobs's intentions for the stores, and the concept of a store being another Apple "hardware and software" component.
I believe people are being uncharacteristically hard on her, and I think that what she'll bring to the table at Apple is only now starting to show, and I like what I see and hear so far.
I'm not happy with Apple's tech-based decisions, especially price/value changes, but in this space (community-focused retail?) I like her ideas.
Let's wait and see if she can execute on these.
PS. Neo-feminism is cool, even if it's not really new. Women are a natural complement to men; it's a shame that was/is lost on many members of both genders...um, I mean, sexes...well...hopefully you know what I mean.
Men are a natural complement to women; it's a shame that was/is lost on many members of both genders.
#fify
Oh, dear.
Her smile offends you?
Mr Trump's grotesque rictus bothers me at times, but his policies and character worry me a great deal more, to be honest.
Excellent post, and deals with the nonsense about "smiles" in images very well.
You think a CEO of an exceptionally successful company rooted in the values of ruthless American capitalism has a soul?
Their task is to satisfy shareholders and make a profit.
Seething resembling a thought bubble occurs: Would all of these remarks - based on the fact that her expression is displeasing to some of you, and her mien less than soulful - and her appearance sadly lacking in perfection - be made about someone from the male gender who happened to be a ruthless and horribly successful CEO?
Now: Mr Jobs was a genius, a visionary and a man of exceptionally good taste. (At times). He was also a horrible human being, and a little too prone to cultivating the idea that Apple customers were members of an esoteric elite, a cult, with himself playing the role of Enigmatic Founder, worthy of worship.
Frankly, I found this creepy, and deeply disturbing, as was the Cult of the Personality that he allowed and encouraged to grow around him. He was a human being, a brilliant, gifted but flawed one, not a damned demigod.
As for Angela Ahrendts, if you must find fault, find fault fairly, not in the usual belittling sexist manner - by way of criticising her appearance.
Apple had long sold their soul by the time they recruited her; she is doing exactly what the company - and it is a company, not a belief system, or cult - wants her to do and exactly what she is qualified to do, namely, running a multi-billion dollar enterprise ruthlessly.
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If you’re in San Francisco I can see why you’d feel that way. My local Apple Store was recently remodeled but there is only so much that can be done with a hole in the wall mall store. They just made it a bigger hole in the wall. It can still be challenging to determine which model iPad I’m looking at as I approach the table.
The employees are extremely polite and professional in demeanor but it seems to take about 20 minutes for them to bring product out from the hidden back hole in the wall out to the customer for purchase. It takes about 5 minutes for Watch bands that aren’t out on the floor. Our last iPad Pro purchase in July kept us waiting about 20 minutes on the floor for it to be fetched from the back room. I remember because I was worried we would be late for our dinner reservations.
So I’m not overly impressed in aesthetic improvements when the customer service process itself still is not terribly streamlined. I’m waiting to see what she does about that.
I’m a woman, so I welcome the opportunity to see more women CEOs if they demonstrate they can bring the right things to the table. So far Angela has demonstrated she can effectively sell astronomically priced but fundamentally mundane items like toddler rompers and plaid scarves. So that could be useful as Apple starts selling smartphones for over a thousand dollars despite the fact there is a growing counter trend for the category to become commoditized.
What I’m concerned with is whether or not she has her finger on the pulse of the customers who were part of the synergy with Steve’s original vision for technology. That special relationship is what made Apple such a force to be reckoned with. If she has the vision to make really quality technology that solves actual problems rather than presents fancy design to solve problems created by a desire for fancy design, I’m all for her becoming CEO. And if she understands optimal customer service is as an important part of what sells the product as the fancy specs, I’m all for her becoming CEO.
Steve spelled out his vision so clearly. It’s as valid now as it was when he was alive. I’m amazed how easily his successors in Apple and among competitors lose their grasp of such an uncomplicated fully articulated vision in tiny ways that add up.
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Bachelors of Science in Industrial Engineering from Auburn.
Masters in Business Administration from Duke.
Has worked 35 years at computer companies. First IBM, then Intelligent Electronics, then Compaq, then recruited by SJ to Apple.
You would be much better off if you bought bitcoin when it was 3 cents a coin. $1000 would have bought you 30,000 coins. Currently worth $6000, so that $1000 investment would be worth $180 million.