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Apple's Search for New Retail Chief Extending Internationally

citi said:
This is going to read poorly, and I have no intention of offending anyone but...

It's hard to believe we can't find someone to run a company that started in America, IN AMERICA. :eek:

Can't we hire someone from the GAP? :)
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That's a very discouraging comment. Steve is not stupid. Apple is close to saturating the USA future growth will take place outside our borders. If Apple wants to continue its phenomenonal growth it needs to find someone who can translate that magic.
 
Well, the Pudong store is breathtaking...

And I agree with a poster on the first page. Apple's lack of presence in Taiwan is disgraceful and silly. You're losing out on quite a bit of busines... and there definitely needs to be more stores in China.
 
Ugg said:
That's a very discouraging comment. Steve is not stupid. Apple is close to saturating the USA future growth will take place outside our borders. If Apple wants to continue its phenomenonal growth it needs to find someone who can translate that magic.
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it's discouraging for a lot of reasons. for people, like s. jobs and other visionaries, are not limited in their perspective or held to boundaries for excellence. there is something missing, imo, when ideas, developers, creative minds and executive searches are supposed to be limited to the area between the atlantic and pacific oceans. it feels like such a micro view of the real world, when wildly successful people who understand global issues exist outside our borders. it's a healthy business step, another in a long line of efforts to excel by apple, some of which hit home runs, some are misses, but at least they reach out beyond the parochial perspective in their thinking.
 
I can shift a few things around in my schedule to open up enough time and space for this position—and, I am multi-cultural. :):eek:;)
 
claus1225 said:
they need a store in Taipei, Taiwan.

right in the 101 or sogo area.

those are the most prestigious and crowded district.

even a 3 year old in taiwan can tell you that.
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This.

I've been living in Taiwan for over two years now, and Apple seems to have exploded in popularity since the time I arrived. An Apple store (or two, or three) would be flooded with customers.
 
re marketing in china

i say name the next mac os "dragon"
beside we're running out of big cat names
i always wanted tiger 2 or tiger 3 and so on
where is bruce lee when you need him
 
For the rest of us

Maybe he wanted to deal with the common folk on their home ground. Remember that Apple only puts their stores in the most snobbish areas of the towns they move to. Even though I live in the central part of Omaha, NE I have to travel about 14 miles to the Apple Store here in town. Plus it is the only store that I show at that is in the shopping center (center to what).

It would be nice to see Apple Stores in the regular retail areas of town. Not just in the exclusive snobbish areas. This is in an area that wanted to sue the local school district & a medical center for building in what they called "their area." What happened to Apple's ad line, "for the rest of us."

We've found a racist here that may be the one to take over as the head Apple Retailer. Or maybe he is not ready to run anything other than a racist group. Apple is generally considered to be snobbish, bu not racist like him. Oh, well I guess that Apple will have to keep looking.
 
Ugg said:
That's a very discouraging comment. Steve is not stupid. Apple is close to saturating the USA future growth will take place outside our borders. If Apple wants to continue its phenomenonal growth it needs to find someone who can translate that magic.
Click to expand...

I notice most people taking issue with my comment are not in America, which is understandable. I completely understand that the world is becoming a smaller place and that there are many talented and bright people in it. However, there are many talented and bright people here also, some of which already have international ties. There are plenty of US companies with internationail sales that are successful and the last time I checked, we had a pretty diverse melting pot of races. Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, Hispanic. My issue is that we, Americans, are not in the best financial situation. We have to do what we can to keep our businesses in America thriving, in America. This is not just about Apple, it's about America in general and I'd like to see our country survive the next Millennium.

There is nothing wrong with the pride of seeing - Made in America stamped on the product.
 
writingdevil said:
it's discouraging for a lot of reasons. for people, like s. jobs and other visionaries, are not limited in their perspective or held to boundaries for excellence. there is something missing, imo, when ideas, developers, creative minds and executive searches are supposed to be limited to the area between the atlantic and pacific oceans. it feels like such a micro view of the real world, when wildly successful people who understand global issues exist outside our borders. it's a healthy business step, another in a long line of efforts to excel by apple, some of which hit home runs, some are misses, but at least they reach out beyond the parochial perspective in their thinking.
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Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have almost half of the world's population between them. Selling Apple products in those countries needs to address the uniqueness of each market and for that matter, submarket of each country.

A few years back, I read how the European manager of McDonald's turned sales around by creating sit down restaurants with a more cozy and up scale atmosphere than the sterile and kid-friendly places in the US. Sometimes it takes someone from within to address issues that simply go over an outsider's head.

citi said:
I notice most people taking issue with my comment are not in America, which is understandable. I completely understand that the world is becoming a smaller place and that there are many talented and bright people in it. However, there are many talented and bright people here also, some of which already have international ties. There are plenty of US companies with internationail sales that are successful and the last time I checked, we had a pretty diverse melting pot of races. Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, Hispanic. My issue is that we, Americans, are not in the best financial situation. We have to do what we can to keep our businesses in America thriving, in America. This is not just about Apple, it's about America in general and I'd like to see our country survive the next Millennium.

There is nothing wrong with the pride of seeing - Made in America stamped on the product.
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Where would Apple be without Jonathan Ives?

Apple hasn't been an American company for years now. Foreign sales have accounted for more than 40% of the total for a long time and I'm sure if you were to include sales to all those VAT avoiders taking advantage of the weak dollar :D it would surpass 50%.

Apple is in the process of creating the 'Mothership' in Cupertino. Do you know why? because Apple has been hiring tens of thousands of employees and needs a lot more space. These aren't low paid Walmart jobs either, but jobs with a future, excellent benefits and a workplace free of racism and homophobia.

I'll bet a lot of those people come from the far reaches of the planet and believe it or not, that is why Apple and Silicon Valley in general has been the birthplace of so much amazing technology for the last few decades. Diversity breeds creativity.
 
"Apple's Search for New Retail Chief Extending Internationally"

Steve, don't pay that firm. Pay me $250,000. I've found your guy.

chinese-jobs.jpg


chinese-steve-jobs.jpg
 
Of course the are looking outside the USA but there is nothing to say they may well not employ an American. This is simply a case of cast the net as wide as possible and find the person you think is best suited to the job not matter were they are from.

Would you argue that Jonathan Ive was a bad choice for Apple ?
 
RalfTheDog said:
Why would anyone jump ship from Apple to manage JC Pennies? Skip out on the fastest growing company in the world with the most upside potential to run the retail aspect of a company that is cratering? There must be more to the story.
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Easy. No more challenge at Apple. Big challenge at JCPenny.
And he might have wanted the CEO tag too.
 
I'll definitely be following this story. Very interesting move, leaving Apple for JC Penney. Congrats on the ballsy move.

There are pitfalls.

I saw what Bob Nardelli did to Home Depot. He came from GE and was a technical Six Sigma type CEO and nearly killed the culture of the company. He also did not understand retail. He was also a peckerhead.

I just left a job where one our Brand and Communication directors was from Apple and she was horrible, and useless.

Johnson's challenge is really tough. Malls are declining. And for most people, JC Penney is an afterthought, if it's even a thought at all. It will be interesting to see how he approaches this. They probably don't have the money to turn all of the stores into a beautiful mecca of suburban retail.
 
RalfTheDog said:
Why would anyone jump ship from Apple to manage JC Pennies? Skip out on the fastest growing company in the world with the most upside potential to run the retail aspect of a company that is cratering? There must be more to the story.
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There usually is. Money might have been a factor. Or maybe somebody simply no longer wanted to live and work under Steve Jobs' dictatorship. Or maybe the challenge was gone with Apple doing so well and now somebody wanted to find out whether he can repeat and maybe even top the success somewhere else.

It's also fascinating to see that Apple doesn't really care that they are investing so massively in the biggest police state on the planet. And, no, arguments "if they won't do it, somebody else will" and "it's in their best business interest" are not valid - they didn't count as a defense back in 1945 either, and this situation actually isn't different at all. The Chinese government spits on Human Rights but nobody gives a crap because there's so much money to be made there. It's disgusting, but symptomatic for our shallow system.
 
Winni said:
There usually is. Money might have been a factor. Or maybe somebody simply no longer wanted to live and work under Steve Jobs' dictatorship. Or maybe the challenge was gone with Apple doing so well and now somebody wanted to find out whether he can repeat and maybe even top the success somewhere else.

It's also fascinating to see that Apple doesn't really care that they are investing so massively in the biggest police state on the planet. And, no, arguments "if they won't do it, somebody else will" and "it's in their best business interest" are not valid - they didn't count as a defense back in 1945 either, and this situation actually isn't different at all. The Chinese government spits on Human Rights but nobody gives a crap because there's so much money to be made there. It's disgusting, but symptomatic for our shallow system.
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Apple is just following Germany's lead. :rolleyes:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...in-east-as-exports-to-china-eclipse-u-s-.html
 
A lighter note

A little lateral thinking and a challenging search on Apple's part may land them some outstanding candidates. See this thread.

The people who set up these endeavors have demonstrated true entrepreneurial spirit; they're committed to the Apple brand; they've developed highly motivated employees; and, they have intimate knowledge of the Chinese retail market. That type of pull yourself up by your bootstraps, better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission attitude is gold in retail sales. :D

Although Apple would be prudent to have considerable oversight on their management.:(
 
Johnson going to Penny's isn't a stretch. He came from Target, a very successful mini department store. Now he's off to Penny's a stagnant department store that needs to succeed or die. Personally I would have rather seen him go to Macy's. That place is living off it's legacy.

Apple's retail push is international. Whether the new retail chief is American or not is irrelevant. The new chief needs a strong international background.
 
citi said:
There is nothing wrong with the pride of seeing - Made in America stamped on the product.
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And which Apple product has that written on it? Agreed there's nothing wrong with having pride in your company, unfortunately businesses don't see it that way, and sadly neither do western governments.
 
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