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Apple Only Considering Outside Candidates for Senior VP of Retail Position
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Not too surpised.. it was a running joke between me and ex-colleagues at Apple that the only way to get a good job at Apple was to quit.
Obviously we were a LOT more junior than Senior VP, but still - it's good to see it's consistent all the way to the top.
Obviously we were a LOT more junior than Senior VP, but still - it's good to see it's consistent all the way to the top.
Interesting. I bought my powerbook g4 in 2004, originally I had a lot of trouble with the machine. When it was 2 months old, I complained about an intermittent audio plug connection, they replaced the logic board for me no questions asked even though I couldn't even replicate it for me. There were a few other more minor problems they always took care of. The last one was the hard drive failed 2 months outside the warranty, and the replaced it for free anyway. If the customer service had sucked I'd have figured apple makes crap and never bought another one. Instead I was very impressed the way they stand behind their products.
I've owned several macbooks since, partly because of that experience.
Last year my iPhone 4S had problems with the digitizer, I took it in and they were total asses, acted like I was trying to pull some sort of scam for a free phone. Even though I pointed out there wasn't a scratch on the old one and no reason I'd want to swap for the heck of it. Eventually I got my phone replaced but it was a huge headache. The kicker was I'd brought with a friend who I'd been telling for years how great apple customer service was, after that experience he thinks I'm crazy to like apple.
I won't let the bad experience stop me from buying from Apple again, but hopefully these changes will mean apple supports their products again.
I've owned several macbooks since, partly because of that experience.
Last year my iPhone 4S had problems with the digitizer, I took it in and they were total asses, acted like I was trying to pull some sort of scam for a free phone. Even though I pointed out there wasn't a scratch on the old one and no reason I'd want to swap for the heck of it. Eventually I got my phone replaced but it was a huge headache. The kicker was I'd brought with a friend who I'd been telling for years how great apple customer service was, after that experience he thinks I'm crazy to like apple.
I won't let the bad experience stop me from buying from Apple again, but hopefully these changes will mean apple supports their products again.
Absolutely. I know plenty of people who left some place, then returned later. One recommendation for HR people: If employees leave because the grass is greener elsewhere, ask their peers or managers if they would be happy to have them back. If the answer is yes, put their names in a folder, and if it's two or three years later, and you're hiring, give them a call.
I wish there was some way to leave corporate feedback with Apple.
(like the feature request / bug reporter forms)
I would flood that feedback with Ron Johnson's name!
(like the feature request / bug reporter forms)
I would flood that feedback with Ron Johnson's name!
Possibly. Johnson built Apple Retail from the ground up but was dealt a different hand at JCP, a company with over 100 years of history and hundreds of stores. Change comes slowly to big, old companies -- but that doesn't necessarily mean they are dying, or that nobody can reposition JCP for the future. It only means that Johnston wasn't that person. JCP has been counted out before, the last time was in the late '90s. They seem to be survivors.
Incidentally, you could say the same about Browett. He tried to make changes to Apple Retail, upper management panicked, etc.
Only time will tell, I suppose. But I look at JCP and I see Sears and Montgomery Wards. Both were survivors for a long, long time. Sears had to completely revamp everything to survive, and their survival is still on fairly tenuous footing. Monkey Wards is history. I view JCP as having more in common with Wards than Sears.
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I hope you're wrong, but I fear there may be at least some truth to that statement.
Hint: don't go for the head of Curry's (now pretty much the only remaining tech shop chain in the UK - Dixon's, run by Browett, was once a competitor). Go for someone from a cool retail chain; doesn't matter whether they sell clothes, food or fast food as long as they get the Apple approach. Browett never did.
Montgomery Wards was a train wreck for many years before it all ended, in no small part due to the company being bought out by Mobil Oil in the '70s. They turned operations upside-down without a real plan. It's one of the sadder episodes of bungled management in recent history. Wards died the death of a thousand cuts. They might well have survived had it not been for Mobil.
I wouldn't count Sears out so quickly either. Lots of retailers have come and gone while Sears is still around.
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Don't be so quick to blame it all on Browett. Typical scenario: a new division head is hired for his ideas and then is fired for actually implementing them. That episode did not reflect well on Apple's board or management.
Browett took over a successful company, expected to make some changes on the margins, such as speeding up store openings, but turned off customers and employees, which lead to management panicking. JCP was circling the drain before Johnson got there, board members authorized radical changes he advocated for, but they panicked before the changes could bear fruit. Now do you see the difference?
Not really. Browett was hired to head a division, not run the company. In any case, if the board and management didn't understand Browett's plans for Apple Retail before he was hired, then they've got nobody but themselves to blame. Very likely they did and panicked when he actually did what he was hired to do. The same goes for Johnson at JCP. The story played out very similarly at two different companies. This is a very common scenario at big companies. They think they know what they want until they actually get it.
Because Apple has a legal obligation to the shareholders to maximize profit; and before someone chimes in that Apple's way leads to maximized profit, let us recall that Apple's stock just took a heavy dive. I'm not saying the capitalistic system is perfect, far from it, but it does explain some things.
I personally don't like the direction Apple is heading; sure they take care of the whole package, but sometimes I'd prefer not handing over so much control.
Perhaps Browett wasn't forthright with the management/board about what his strategy was. Who knows? But you're right about one thing: If Browett sat across the table and said, "I'm going to take arguably the most successful and profitable retail model in the last 100 years and turn it upside down, replacing the emphasis on customer experience with a focus on the bottom line." and they hired him then they were stupid to do so.
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Apple's stock has taken a dive because the idiots that control stock prices in this day and age are shortsighted lemmings who never look past the current quarter.
are they really gonna take this risk, are they really gonna hire someone who doesn't has any experience of working in apple for this BIG post.
Apple Store a Banana Republic
It's really an insufferable place to work, especially under vindictive, angry local leadership. The head of one of the New Hampshire stores was cause of higher-than normal turnover when I was there years ago. 'Hiring event' after hiring event was staged at local venues to feverishly keep pace with the revolving door. It seemed penny wise and pound foolish, but that's what a horrible local manager deserves. A recent visit back to the store showed it as a sad place indeed.
But at a macro level, Apple Retail has seen its best days. It's a joyless place to visit and work now, and no one wants to steer a ship like that.
It's really an insufferable place to work, especially under vindictive, angry local leadership. The head of one of the New Hampshire stores was cause of higher-than normal turnover when I was there years ago. 'Hiring event' after hiring event was staged at local venues to feverishly keep pace with the revolving door. It seemed penny wise and pound foolish, but that's what a horrible local manager deserves. A recent visit back to the store showed it as a sad place indeed.
But at a macro level, Apple Retail has seen its best days. It's a joyless place to visit and work now, and no one wants to steer a ship like that.
Dixons wasn't a competitor to Currys, they're the same company. Browett was head of the whole parent company which includes PC World. Dixons stores just changed their name to Currys a few years back.
Browett did a bad job because he tried to do the same thing at Apple that he did at his last job, cut costs at expense of customer service, that's obviously all he knew how to do.
Wouldn't be too hard for the next SVP not to make that mistake. And for people saying Apple's current way of running has resulted in a huge stock price fall, it's also resulted in them recently posting the best quarter in their history profit wise.
You get it, I get it, Ron Johnsson gets it. But try to explain it to Tim Cook.
I wish there was some way to leave corporate feedback with Apple.
(like the feature request / bug reporter forms)
I would flood that feedback with Ron Johnson's name!
tcook (at) somefruitcompany (dot) com
I think it's pretty obvious that the board and the CEO wanted to make the retail operation more profitable and efficient, and they hired someone they thought could do it. The strategic decisions I am certain did not come from Browett, and there is certainly no point in Browett taking a job and not doing what he was hired to do. When it didn't come off well, he was thrown overboard. Happens all the time, but not much at well-run companies. This is one of the issues that has me less than totally thrilled with Cook's leadership.
On the stock price, investors look for growth in earnings and nothing else in the final analysis. Apple has delivered three straight quarters of declining earnings. Anybody who doesn't expect the stock price to go down in the face of those facts is just whistling in the dark.
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And in what alternate universe did that happen?