Angela Ahrendts Shares Lessons She Learned While Working at Apple

[itsmilo]

I still wish Apple Stores had a normal check out process. Chasing down staff is super annoying, especially since half of them end up already busy which you don’t know unless you approach them. I almost feel like one of those annoying people at a Turkish market chasing down the staff to be finally able to pay and leave the store every time.

 

[Tonewheel]

As far as I can tell, all she’s into are self-promoting glamour shots.

 

[cfurlin]

Wow a LOT of hate for an independent and successful woman that left a large corporation. Man you guys must be loved great by the women in your families. Maybe not and hence the reason for this hate without substantiating it.

You have to remember there’s still a pocket of crotchety Apple users with SDS (Steve Death Syndrome). They prefer to wax poetic over their unrequited bromance with a dead guy instead of moving on.

Recognize it for what it is. The responses are always good for a laugh.

 

[dannys1]

Bottom line, her creativity is the same as most MBAs... "cut any costs and take credit for doing so, push your best people harder, replace them with worser ones, make the work boring as a byproduct."

Capitalism at it's peak finest then!

 

[I7guy]

I still wish Apple Stores had a normal check out process. Chasing down staff is super annoying, especially since half of them end up already busy which you don’t know unless you approach them. I almost feel like one of those annoying people at a Turkish market chasing down the staff to be finally able to pay and leave the store every time.

You dont need a genius to check you out. Pay for an item in the store with the Apple app and then walk out of the store. If anyone stops you you have a receipt.

 

[itsmilo]

You dont need a genius to check you out. Pay for an item in the store with the Apple app and then walk out of the store. If anyone stops you you have a receipt.

I think that is only available in the US

 

[DeepIn2U]

True, but her job was to make them better. At that, she failed.
[doublepost=1557166754][/doublepost]

Because she was on this page: https://www.apple.com/leadership/
which has very specific people on it (21 people out of 132,000 direct employees, that is 0.016% of the total #)

How did the retail store that have been converted in her vision fail? Care to share, or are you referring to stores that haven’t been converted?

She was paid a 65 million sign up bonus...

Hey guys, not very many CEOs who are very successful at turning a brand around leave one company to another and not be a CEO. Can you name a few?

 

[Defthand]

I have only been in an Apple Store maybe a dozen times over the last decade (if that) and the majority of those visits were for servicing purposes, either for my devices or the devices of someone I was accompanying. Each visit soured me on the experience and made me like owning Apple products less.

Amen. I avoid the store. The last time I visited was during the battery fiasco. Prior to that, it was only for Genius appointments or to accompany my better half. I haven't bought something at the store since the iPhone took over. I bought every device either online or from my tel service.

If Cook wants Apple stores to be "experience centers" instead, he should prove it. Remove the phones and their accessories. Let Best Buy and the tel services sell those. I imagine the bulk of phone owners aren't interested in productivity and creative arts.

Alternatively, I would be satisfied if Apple removed its Pro-labeled MacOS and iPad products from their stores and let BestBuy showcase those. I rather go to BestBuy for those items since related peripherals are also there.

 

[I7guy]

Amen. I avoid the store. The last time I visited was during the battery fiasco. Prior to that, it was only for Genius appointments or to accompany my better half. I haven't bought something at the store since the iPhone took over. I bought every device either online or from my tel service.

If Cook wants Apple stores to be "experience centers" instead, he should prove it. Remove the phones and their accessories. Let Best Buy and the tel services sell those. I imagine the bulk of phone owners aren't interested in productivity and creative arts.

Alternatively, I would be satisfied if Apple removed its Pro-labeled MacOS and iPad products from their stores and let BestBuy showcase those. I rather go to BestBuy for those items since related peripherals are also there.

I like going to the Apple store. But then I like going to the car dealer and Best Buy. I was at the Apple store many times evaluating the phones before I got my max. In fact I buy every phone and the cases at the Apple store.

But that’s me. YMMV.

 

[Jimmy James]

Tim Cook reiterated last week that Apple Stores are not places to BUY products. That’s why they - try to - no longer use the word “store” in the naming.
Apple Stores are places to experience your Apple products and learn how to be CREATIVE , and get help and support.
Now, I think that the strategy is wrong for the most part because:
- people want to talk to someone knowledgeable about the product they want to BUY, and the reason is that it used to be easy to choose a phone, iPad, Mac but now there are so many variations of them - some very similar like the new MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro no Touch Bar - they want to know more
- there are still many customers who want to be PRODUCTIVE with their Apple devices and as much as Apple is letting them down, they need help at an Apple Store figuring out how to manage their photos or create documents or spreadsheets

I agree. I want a positive, efficient buying experience more than I want a learning center or lounge. Not that the chaos lends itself to the latter, anyway.

I think Apple should come up with a simplified quadrant approach and slot all of their computer line into it. A genius idea.

 

[PastaPrimav]

The biggest problem with Apple Stores is that they are still both a sales and support store.

Apple needs the sales to justify the existence of the store in the increasingly expensive retail estate. But customers need the support, as Apple continues to take away support options and push people toward their sales rooms to seek support.

The Apple Store experience is completely miserable for both sales and support alike, and Apple has done nothing to address that. They've continued to operate the store the same way they did before Apple's revenue and customer base doubled and tripled in size.

Apple needs to separate sales and support. They need department store sized locations for sales. And they need many, many more smaller locations that are only for support. When Apple tells me I need to bring in my brand new 30 lb 27" iMac because of their poor quality control and unwillingness to service customers remotely anymore...they need somewhere for me to actually go. I'm not driving an hour to nearest mall, and dragging a huge iMac box through a mall....to arrive at the store that is filled with 200 people shoulder to shoulder fondling Apple products on display.

 

[ralpa]

Let’s celebrate!

 

[FFR]

Doesn’t sound like she learned anything at all.
Just like what she was doing at apple.

 

[iwill424]

"I could have thrown all that out, but [I thought] no let's codify that. Let's protect that."

Yeah and she did, she changed the Credo to something ridiculous and makes absolute zero sense XD.

I gave her full credit for combining online and retail purchasing process, that was amazing.
Other than that, she did more damage to the brand than good so, bye.

 

[Onelifenofear]

The biggest problem with Apple Stores is that they are still both a sales and support store.

Apple needs the sales to justify the existence of the store in the increasingly expensive retail estate. But customers need the support, as Apple continues to take away support options and push people toward their sales rooms to seek support.

The Apple Store experience is completely miserable for both sales and support alike, and Apple has done nothing to address that. They've continued to operate the store the same way they did before Apple's revenue and customer base doubled and tripled in size.

Apple needs to separate sales and support. They need department store sized locations for sales. And they need many, many more smaller locations that are only for support. When Apple tells me I need to bring in my brand new 30 lb 27" iMac because of their poor quality control and unwillingness to service customers remotely anymore...they need somewhere for me to actually go. I'm not driving an hour to nearest mall, and dragging a huge iMac box through a mall....to arrive at the store that is filled with 200 people shoulder to shoulder fondling Apple products on display.

They own a LOT of their real estate so I am sure they don't care about the lease on the smaller plots.

Disagree completely on separating support / sales. They'll collect and return... If it's brand new just return it and get another one.

Poor quality control. Pffft.

 

[cfurlin]

Capitalism at it's peak finest then!

It has always been my experience that those with the most negative views of capitalism are those without the will or talent to prosper within its economic system.

 

[JetTester]

The stores could be great experiences before she arrived. Now it seems like a muddled mess. I prefer the old format. I do wish her well in her next venture. I hope it is in the fashion world where she can do no real damage.

 

[Mac+1984]

I can only speak for me, I worked as a Genius from 2007-14, so I was leaving as she was coming in. From my buddies that are still there or who left some time later, most of them say she made stuff worse or turned their managers into metric/number bots.

Angela gutted what used to be a highly treasured rite of passage: genius training.

No longer do geniuses train at Apple’s secret genius room classrooms in Cupertino (and later Austin and Atlanta). Nope, now they train Geniuses in the crazy Apple store’s breakroom through pretaped videos and PDFs, very nearly the same material that’s available to independent, 3rd-party authorized technicians through GSX (working in IT, I can still access this as we have a self-servicing account).

An experience I treasured in 2008, going to Cupertino for a month, getting to meet Woz one evening at the Outback Steakhouse (he buys steaks to go for his puppies), and waiting behind Steve Jobs buying his blueberry muffin at Caffe Macs with Jony Ive right by his side... this is all gone for anyone new, and Angela green-lit it.

I know the program doesn't intrinsically scale when you're hiring hundreds of Genii per month instead of dozens... but here's the real problem: Geniuses today learn how to fix your Mac or iPhone by watching videos and PDFs, if they even get to fix it- most of the laptops get shipped to Flextronics for repair. In my era, most Genius hires had a good knowledge of computers, now they tend to promote people from the floor with good sales numbers and strong net promoter feedback, which isn't bad - but there's not nearly as many diehard Mac geeks as there were.

The experience of having a veteran Apple trainer like Jim Bontempo who was there in the 1990s showing you exactly how a blackstick spudger should feel as it removes a connector and the tension of said move- all gone now. The insider knowledge that you need to feel the edge of the display clamshell for precise alignment with your finger, not your eyes as you tighten down the T6 screws, gone. Nifty tricks on how to handle stubborn ZIFs and screws... gone.

By the way, any Genius trained after about mid 2018 is learning on your stuff... not the training Macs we got to destroy/tinker with in Cupertino. If Delta Airlines did the same cost-cutting move, a novice, Day 1 pilot could be flying your plane. Thanks FAA for protecting us from folks like Angela.

Truly sad, but I suppose, inevitable.

And yes, they pay geniuses a lot less than they did in the old days - thanks to Angela. I left and became a corporate IT manager, we make a boring SAAS software package that nobody outside the industry knows about, but my salary almost tripled, and nights/weekends are off.

Bottom line, her creativity is the same as most MBAs... "cut any costs and take credit for doing so, push your best people harder, replace them with worser ones, make the work boring as a byproduct." She lacks the vision of Ron Johnson, and I do think her gender and Burberry fashion pedigree secured her spot because Apple thought it was going into the gold watch selling business.

Well-said! When I worked there (2011-2016), there was definitely a shift. I literally thought that one of my managers was a robot. He only spoke in metrics and numbers. The philosophy shifted from a white-glove customer experience to "do everything possible to make the customer pay." When did the concept of people get lost?

 

[whichweather]

Bye Bye! Huge Fanboy but man, I hate going into the stores now. She screwed them up royally and I am afraid they will be this way for quite sometime. A real shame...IMO....

I have to say, store experiences are really poor. A victim of their success, I suppose, perhaps?

 

[hmmfe]

It has always been my experience that those with the most negative views of capitalism are those without the will or talent to prosper within its economic system.

That statement says more about your relative "experience", than it does about the relative prosperity of people critical of capitalism.

 

[technole]

I still wish Apple Stores had a normal check out process. Chasing down staff is super annoying, especially since half of them end up already busy which you don’t know unless you approach them. I almost feel like one of those annoying people at a Turkish market chasing down the staff to be finally able to pay and leave the store every time.

You can checkout with the app and walkout.

Except when you need a big ticket item they have to give to you.

 

[TonyRS]

Because rarely does a service or product allow people to sit in such positions on a matter of duty and morality. It's really about money. Do you think Tim Cook cares much as long as he pushes profits and unlocks the rewards path he's one as CEO?

I'm sure he loves Apple, products and services, but money is more important than all of that. I don't think Ahrendts is a bad person. I also don't believe her actions to change stores was done with malice. The gender of whomever takes such a position has no bearing on their performance. Plenty of terribly performing men have been in such and similar situations and positions.

Once a company radically changes their philosophy, there's always going to be detractors and that number will grow. Apple's a really good company, don't get me wrong. But they boxed themselves in over time and they have to make changes with incredible vigor to get people on their path and not in their way.

Having worked at Apple, you learn quickly that 14-hour workdays are not balanced out with perks or compensation commensurate to the sacrifices you make in your life to work there. So, the people who stay on and work hard do so because they feel they are part of the "cause." If you work for Apple, it's not just a job, you are expected to feel grateful that you are offered this unique privilege to serve the "brand."

At the lowest ranks, this is easiest to feel. And many who rise up to higher ranks will still feel this loyalty. On the other hand, pull in an executive with a very generous compensation package and who knows if you'll get the same devotion. Without knowing her, and only seeing that the store experience was worsened, I can only glean that her tenure was not an overwhelming success. She could have just being going through the motions to make it to 4.5 years. Yes, the timing is the most suspect thing about her exit.

"Time-based RSUs generally vest over four and one-half years with the first vest date approximately two and one-half years after grant."

 

[TrentS]

She was a "head scratching" worthless hire....

 

[rgbrock1]

Dont give a ****, still no apple store in my country...

Yet you felt the need to comment anyway?
[doublepost=1557249579][/doublepost]

Yes! And I think it’s because some here feel threatened by successful women, and angry success has been elusive for them.

Putting her down gives them a wee bit of power that’s otherwise lacking in their lives.

But if she was a man then he would have been fair game, right? Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Reading gender into the comments is on YOU and no one else. Women want equal rights, fine. With equal rights comes equal criticism. That's just the way it is.

 

[AdonisSMU]

For what it's worth the rancid body odor has been reduced in many Apple stores under her watch. Not sure if that's something she worked on or if it was just coincidental.

LMAO! The macrumors neckbeards stopped going to Apple Store to the relief of everyone else in the world.
[doublepost=1557253022][/doublepost]I agree about the Genius Bar stuff. I feel Apple should have a Genius Bar a line for people to get their in store pickups and every employee on the floor should be able to check out a customer with a Credit Card at least.