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Apple Retail's Emphasis on Profits Continues, Tied to Operational Perspective of Cook and Browett
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Does Tim Cook have a heart?
I thought he was a driven automaton..
getting his kicks from sales figures and abercromby models figures...
Unfortunately, the mantra of business in 2012 is "if you can't measure it, it doesn't exist." The problem with this concept is that some things are difficult to measure,
For example, I regularly browse Apple products at my local retail Apple Store, but I buy all my major purchases on-line. That accounts for ~$10K of Apple product since my local Store opened. Did the retail store experieince impact my buying decision? You bet! But it's not clear to me that Apple has te means to make that correlation.
Of course they are. Cook has started paying a dividend which reverses the trend of Apple operating almost like a private company with little or no direct return to shareholders. Apple has to continue its crazy PROFIT growth curve in order to keep those shareholders happy.
As in so many other cases this looks like Apple sacrificing what made it great for a short term (but probably significant) gain in profits. Of course there are other rumors (mostly on the questionable Gizmodo) of some Apple stories being run like Animal House. So I think there is some need for accountability and discipline.
If the Apple stories lose their mojo then the company will really suffer. We all pay a premium for their products. We know it but on some level it becomes joining an exclusive club. If the clubhouse becomes a drag then more people will stop paying dues.
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My wife and I did the same thing when we bought her loaded Macbook Air because the Apple store didn't have the config we wanted in stock and we currently live almost two hours away. We KNEW that but the trip was worth it because that way she could see all the options and talk to friendly sales staff. Are the Apple Geniuses always worth their title? No. But they've gotten better over the years and we had one employee trying to hunt down an Air with Final Cut installed just so my wife could see if it was fast enough for her to log footage. . . after we told him we weren't going to buy anything that day!
Why is this so surprising and hard to see? If you higher people from the establishment you get the establishment. Duh. Why can Apple/Cook not appreciate the real reason why their retail sales are growing while almost every other electronics/gadget seller is dying under the weight of Amazon and the other online resellers? I mean we can ALL buy Apple products on line. So why do we go to the retail stores? Because they don't feel like retail stores!
Tim Cook has been with Apple for more than a decade and he understands its culture and loves it as much as all of us, if not more (his last keynote was an example). Maybe there is a reason behind his methods, maybe he is just trying to trim excess capacity while improving the quality of the service. Just leave the man to his work...
I've said it many times already - Cook is just a GREAT EXECUTOR, NOT a visionary - in fact, his "lineup foresight" goes as far as any of us and way, way below SJ's genius. So once the last SJ-led projects get out of the pipeline, we will almost surely see a descent just like the Sculley or Spindler years.
In this regard, it's absolutely evident that, if the rumors above are true, the hiring of the benighted Browett will DESTROY most of Apple's success as top-customer service brand. Cook is DIRECTLY responsible for that.
So if he honestly feels like absorbing feedback, he should immediately reverse course, fire Browett (so he can return to crappy Dixons) and put retail service and device quality ABOVE anything else. If not, Apple will become just another Dell or Best Buy - nothing more.
Apple ALREADY has the highest revenue per square meter - don't blow it all for a few cents more, please.
Over-satisfy your customers and massive revenue will just follow; this was the GREAT contribution of the late SJ.
Thought exactly that first too, was one of the reasons why I convinced so many friends to do the switch aswell shortly after buying my first Mac (because I'm the tech guy for them to fix everything when they f.... up something on their machines).
But I can tell you from personal experience:
There's always someone who manages to do the limbo below the stupidity bar. Always.
Even if it's set so low like at Apple.
The average user does need support at some point in the life of their Mac.
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No one wants to hear this, but this is what our upcoming election is about. Do you want a president who cares only about profits for a few in the short term, or do you want a president who cares about the long-term quality of life of all of this country's citizens. I hope you'll think about that when you enter the voting booth.
So begins the fall. It seems so clearly misguided. Apple is the only, the only computer maker to actually make real profits. They do it because they're the only one that offers an experience worth paying more for. Everybody else, you aim to get the most hardware for the least dollars, apple, you get because the experience is different. The Apple store, as free, high quality, low stress tech support and sales, is essential to it. If it made no money directly, the apple store would be a boon to apple for making apple products that much more enjoyable to own - but it is an enormous commercial success. Why would you change the formula that works?
Loyal customers are your most valuable asset........ it would be wise if Tim never forgets that fact.
Tim cook made 378 Million in 2011. Browett was given $56,000,000 just for joining the company. With a market capitalization of $632,000,000,000 as of April of 2012, Apple is the most valuable company in history. Apple also has $100,000,000,000 in cash.
Cook and Browett are greedy. You can't argue it or re-frame it at any level.
These people are concerned only with making money and not about the health of the company or the happiness of their customers or employees. And they will run this company into the ground in their pursuit of a dollar they don't need.
The truth about the people now running the show at Apple begins to reveal itself. I'm unhappy with what I see.
-Former Employee
2010-2011
Cook and Browett are greedy. You can't argue it or re-frame it at any level.
These people are concerned only with making money and not about the health of the company or the happiness of their customers or employees. And they will run this company into the ground in their pursuit of a dollar they don't need.
The truth about the people now running the show at Apple begins to reveal itself. I'm unhappy with what I see.
-Former Employee
2010-2011
What cash register? Those were too uncool for Apple stores. Cook and Browett may bring them back though
A Cash Register and checkout lane, a small one. Would be a great addition to Apple Stores, you could move people so much faster. Theres a reason super markets use them
Imagine a super market that runs off the apple retail system This isn´t as bad as everyone thinks. Either way under Apple´s current model they will get to a point that they are to big to grow further:
Case A: Keep Making Great Products
To achieve this Apple needs to focus on few products and do them amazingly. This will limit revenue once the product becomes saturated. To keep on showing growth to the investors, they will at some point have to focus on profits (Charging More for a Product, or Paying less for the same)(Focusing less on Customer Service)(basically focusing on Profits).
Case B: Keep Growing
To achieve this Apple needs to make different variations of everything they make. Various sizes of iPads, Various sizes of iPhones, Cheaper and More Expensive Laptops (400 - 3000$), etc. This way they can continue to grow their market.
Either case Apple has some serious soul searching to do. I guess Steve would go for Case A which is what Tim is doing. Just hope the Investors are not their first priority.
Case A: Keep Making Great Products
To achieve this Apple needs to focus on few products and do them amazingly. This will limit revenue once the product becomes saturated. To keep on showing growth to the investors, they will at some point have to focus on profits (Charging More for a Product, or Paying less for the same)(Focusing less on Customer Service)(basically focusing on Profits).
Case B: Keep Growing
To achieve this Apple needs to make different variations of everything they make. Various sizes of iPads, Various sizes of iPhones, Cheaper and More Expensive Laptops (400 - 3000$), etc. This way they can continue to grow their market.
Either case Apple has some serious soul searching to do. I guess Steve would go for Case A which is what Tim is doing. Just hope the Investors are not their first priority.
Exactly. I can't even edit your post for brevity; you nailed it.
Dell and Gateway tried stores and failed. If Apple re-fashions their stores with overworked, untrained, unfriendly, know-nothing employees, nobody will come to their store.
The company changed immediately after Steve passed away and it was obvious where it was headed. JB and TC do not care about the culture and experience that Apple offered when Steve returned to the company. And since Ron left, the retail sector is so poorly managed that it's not going to change until one or both of these guys go. The vision is lost and been replaced by dollar signs.
In the first place, there's nothing shabby about hovering at $100 billion/year revenue. In the second, they've already demonstrated how to grow revenue: More products in new categories. No matter how many models of laptop you make, people only need one laptop. Same thing with a smartphone. That's why so many people have predicted that they will build a television.
Regardless of what they build, it's painfully obvious that the thing that makes Apple so profitable is their ability to convince a consumer that their products are worth a higher price. If they want to sell build-to-order mail order commodity products like Dell/Lenovo/HP, then they can expect the same results. Sony, Panasonic and Sharp experienced multi-billion dollar losses last year, while Apple profits surged. Why on Earth should they try to duplicate their poorer-performing competitors?
It's possible that Johnson wanted to feel like he could make a difference at a different operation.
We really won't know until Steve's pipeline runs dry, will we
. Almost all of the top management have been entrenched at Apple for almost close to a decade to know Steve's (and Apple's) way. And having been burnt with the Sculley episode, I don't think Steve would've handed over his company to someone who will run it to the ground. Once bitten, twice shy. I still believe in Apple and its team to come out with some groundbreaking products - I don't think Steve could've single handedly come up with all the innovations that we see today. While Tim is an operational guy, my understanding is that he will largely stay out of the way of product design, leaving that ship to be powered by its sailors (they somehow have managed to retain Mansfield) and only serving to steer it in the right direction. There could be someone else in the Apple team who could turn out to have a strong vision for the future products, that may well extend the Apple legacy (someone like MS's Steven Sinofsky, who is reengineering Windows in a radical direction ?). Who knows !
Undoubtedly, but perhaps it was also the lure of being CEO. We don't really know his motivations as he hasn't really said. Maybe he figured he had accomplished everything he ever set out to do at Apple.
It doesn't have to make sense when bean counters start running the show and want to prove that they deserve bonuses because they beat the **** out of some Apple retail employees and squeezed some more profitability out of an already super profitable operation.
I agree with previous sentiments, bean counters are the antithesis of innovation and customer service.
If you need a lesson in this, compare the service you get at your local credit union with the "service" you get from Citibank, Chase, etc.
I wonder if at the boardroom meetings they are licking their lips about how much more $$ they can make now that Steve Jobs is out of the way and can't pitch a fit when they put profit over products and the customer experience.
Final irony? That Cook made his big show of going to China to prove that Apple cared about the Foxconn workers and factory conditions and then hires some douche to run his own retail stores with American employees into the ground to squeeze another buck.