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John Browett, Apple's New Head of Retail, Sends Introductory Email to Store Employees
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Dixons group have THE worst customer service in the UK. If he has any effect on Apple it will only be for the worse. I think it will be much harder to get exchanges for example.
DSG - Dixons Store Group, includes Currys, Curry.digital and PC World, just using Dixons as shorthand. Mr Browett worked for DSG.
I'm sorry to keep going on about this, but unless you are in the UK and have been to these shops, you don't know what you are talking about. I am sure he can talk the talk, but the harsh truth is, that Dixons Store Group all have terrible customer service, and terrible shops.
I bought an iPad from PC World. Big mistake.
"Hey, guys! Did you hear? We've got a new head of retail, and he sent us this exciting email about 'shifting the paradigm to expose us to the myriad opportunities the world at large has to offer'. Man, this guy hasn't even been in position for a week, and he's already sounding so...so...Apple! I'm so excited"!
"...oh shi. NO! We've all been FIRED"!
"...oh shi. NO! We've all been FIRED"!
Couldn't agree more. Paying someone, ANYONE, 500 times more than the employees you are managing is asinine.
I don't doubt for one second that Tim Cook and others thought very long and hard about who to put in charge. I'm sure they had a good list of candidates, and put a lot of thought into it. But I still can't help but wonder what they see in him. I know he can't be blamed entirely for the mess at Dixons, but under Steve he would certainly be held accountable.
I'm definitely giving him a chance and trust Cooks decision. But he just doesn't strike me as the type of guy who would fit in with Apples culture, let alone be apart of the executive team leading the worlds best retail operation. I hope we start to see why Cook was so excited over Browett, and I really hope it doesn't have to do with "turning browsers into buyers," but rather because he has great ideas to improve the design and experience in the stores.
I'm definitely giving him a chance and trust Cooks decision. But he just doesn't strike me as the type of guy who would fit in with Apples culture, let alone be apart of the executive team leading the worlds best retail operation. I hope we start to see why Cook was so excited over Browett, and I really hope it doesn't have to do with "turning browsers into buyers," but rather because he has great ideas to improve the design and experience in the stores.
Nobody could transfer a Dixon's meme to Apple retail in a year or three. He probably has administrative skills demonstrated in a "challenged" environment. It may not seem like it, but Apple is in a challenged retail environment in a way. New multi-country markets, a strong preference for "new hip" locations. These are challenges in retail.
You cannot say Dixon's didn't present "challenges".
Rocketman
translation: fubar
You cannot say Dixon's didn't present "challenges".
Rocketman
translation: fubar
i'll translate this D-Bags statement to what a retail specialist would read it as...
Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla , bla bla bla. bla bla bla bla bla bla sell apple care and one to one. bla bla bla bla more joint ventures please? k thanks.
-John
PS. jcpenny is hiring..
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i lol'd
Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla , bla bla bla. bla bla bla bla bla bla sell apple care and one to one. bla bla bla bla more joint ventures please? k thanks.
-John
PS. jcpenny is hiring..
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i lol'd
Although nobody can excuse the Dixon's set-up and Browett's contribution, it has to be said he made the best of a REALLY bad hand! Turned things around from a financial point of view, at a time when amazon and online retailers were killing high street in the UK. To boot, his contribution to tesco.com (the UK's equivalent of walmart) was a positive one and genuinely helped launch what was at the time the best online grocery shopping platform in the UK.
Hold your collective noses and give the guy a chance.
Hold your collective noses and give the guy a chance.
I agree.
And while it's fun to post pictures of Dixons stores from the 70s, these days the DSG retail experience looks more like this:
Or this:
UK posters should be more accurate: when they say 'Dixons' they really mean 'PCWorld" - Dixons is the name of the holding company. To be fair to Browett, he's done a pretty reasonable job in turning the PCWorld part round in difficult trading circumstances.
The merger of PCWorld (primarily focussed on computers) and Currys (another Dixons group member) which was primarily a white goods supplier, is one of the main strategy changes he brought about. Together with store updates, getting rid of 'Tech Guys" and bringing support in-house with the creation of 'Know-How' (cheesy I know), suggests that the man is capable of creating a strategy and executing successfully.
If you add to that, the fact that the staff are now better trained, although they have some way to go, the stores are now places you would consider going to, rather than avoid at all costs. Certainly they saw off BestBuy's ill fated venture into the UK.
Whether he will prove a good fit for Apple remains to be seen, since he has big shoes to fill, but I think he should be given a fair go.
Why was this voted down? I agree, he looks much different in this photo. Haircut + Airbrushing
Maybe they actually did it right there, but most of the stores here, it's really hit or miss as to what employee you happen to get. Most are high school or college kids who really don't care(they do not get commission). Also there prices are sometimes insanely higher than what you can find on Amazon or Newegg. The one thing they are actually not terrible with is that their stores are usually pretty nice and it is a good change to be able to actually touch or see a product before you buy it.
You really have to scratch your head and wonder just how far down the headhunters list this guy was?
On paper, he may have the 'experience' and skill sets that Apple HR would ordinarily seek in a head of retail, but anything more than a cursory glance beyond, to his legacy and modus operandi really should have had him blackballed at the shortlist stage.
Either the recruiters and Cook and his team decided to overlook this, or simply the candidates they wanted weren't available/willing to relocate so they went for the barrel-scraping Browett, who no doubt couldn't believe his incredible luck, and talked the talk. Neither scenario is good news.
They'd have been better promoting internally and retaining an external 'advisor' - possibly one of the candidates who couldn't take the job, with European/RoW expertise that obviously was a prerequisite of the job - to input on an ad hoc basis. Not ideal I agree but an infinitely better solution than the insane decision to golden 'cuff sixty million bucks to a retrograde retail bottom feeder like the ex-Dixons CEO.
This guy is like the David Brent/Michael Scott of electronic retail. Excuse the poor taste, but Jobs will be spinning in his grave.
On paper, he may have the 'experience' and skill sets that Apple HR would ordinarily seek in a head of retail, but anything more than a cursory glance beyond, to his legacy and modus operandi really should have had him blackballed at the shortlist stage.
Either the recruiters and Cook and his team decided to overlook this, or simply the candidates they wanted weren't available/willing to relocate so they went for the barrel-scraping Browett, who no doubt couldn't believe his incredible luck, and talked the talk. Neither scenario is good news.
They'd have been better promoting internally and retaining an external 'advisor' - possibly one of the candidates who couldn't take the job, with European/RoW expertise that obviously was a prerequisite of the job - to input on an ad hoc basis. Not ideal I agree but an infinitely better solution than the insane decision to golden 'cuff sixty million bucks to a retrograde retail bottom feeder like the ex-Dixons CEO.
This guy is like the David Brent/Michael Scott of electronic retail. Excuse the poor taste, but Jobs will be spinning in his grave.
I hate to say this but you would think that after 5 years as CEO of Dixons Retail he would have had time to make some positive changes. Neither is Tesco a shining light of customer experience, I just hope he does better now he is starting from a high water mark rather than Dixons slightly grubby low one.
He's responsible for keeping all those other people employed. If he screws up his job, it's not just his to lose, but a lot of those employees and assembly line workers are out of work too. If you're not a sociopath (and, let's be clear, there are a fair number working as CEOs in various companies, but it's certainly not all or even most of them), the stress of that fact alone would be more than most people would want to have in their life. I imagine he's also pretty much on call 24/7, and works some pretty crazy hours.
You can sign up by working hard in high school so you can get into a prestigious university, work hard there, then get admitted to a highly selective business school. Then work hard at various jobs for years and become a successful executive managing tens of thousands of people in a series of several large companies. If you do all that, maybe you too can get restricted stock that you can't cash in on for years, the value of which depends on the quality of your work and continuing employment.
Anyway, give the guy a chance. Ive was certainly not the superstar he is now until Steve Jobs came back and gave him complete run of the place. Even as a CEO, you have bosses (the board), and you're stuck with the business you have when you come in. Whatever you can say about Dixons, I'm sure you can say that the corporate environment at Apple is a lot different. Presumably the headhunters and Apple saw that John Browett has some skills and he can succeed at Apple.
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As much as I want to believe that we live in a meritocracy, the evidence says otherwise. You're certainly right that it starts with a good education, but by the time you get to highschool your brain has already developed it's learning capacity.
Do I disagree that this guy may work twice as hard as everybody else? No. Three times as hard? Maybe. Is it possible that he can work 500 times harder than the average person? Absolutely not. These executive pay package deals are sociopath-etic.
Do you at least agree that people tend to take jobs that pay more over those that don't, and that companies desire to have the best employees they can get? Do you agree that's it's a good thing people are able to choose their own employment based on what's best among the jobs available to them?
How do you propose businesses should get talent working for them, other than using aggressive pay offers, considering each business is competing for the same talent?
Should the government just assign everyone to a company and dictate what every person's pay should be over the course of their careers? That's pretty much the only way you're going to get companies from competing with each other for talent. That's not a world I want to live in, though, do you?
Or is it you think that anybody can do any job, and Apple could have hired some random person off the street for a couple thousand dollars a month? Which is it, exactly? Are there a limited number of people who can do the job, or are there tons of people? I don't think you or anybody else here really thinks it's the latter. Apple certainly didn't, because they paid a lot of money to a headhunting firm to find somebody. So how does a company like Apple get one of those limited number of people to come to their company, when lots of other companies are offering? There's only one way, and that's offer competitive pay. In simpler terms, that means offer them huge boatloads of cash over the course of several years so no other company can poach the only guy who can do the job.
How do you propose businesses should get talent working for them, other than using aggressive pay offers, considering each business is competing for the same talent?
Should the government just assign everyone to a company and dictate what every person's pay should be over the course of their careers? That's pretty much the only way you're going to get companies from competing with each other for talent. That's not a world I want to live in, though, do you?
Or is it you think that anybody can do any job, and Apple could have hired some random person off the street for a couple thousand dollars a month? Which is it, exactly? Are there a limited number of people who can do the job, or are there tons of people? I don't think you or anybody else here really thinks it's the latter. Apple certainly didn't, because they paid a lot of money to a headhunting firm to find somebody. So how does a company like Apple get one of those limited number of people to come to their company, when lots of other companies are offering? There's only one way, and that's offer competitive pay. In simpler terms, that means offer them huge boatloads of cash over the course of several years so no other company can poach the only guy who can do the job.
A few notes from the Guardian.
I know a few people who work for PCWorld and they said the bloke is all about staff development. They were a little worried that he was leaving.
It's also worth bearing in mind that the DSG retail operation is huge, and not just Currys and PCWorld. Can't be that many people who have responsibility for a profitable retail chain as large as that.
The idea that he'll come in and turn the Apple retail stores into clones of Dixons circa 1970 is just ridiculous.
I know a few people who work for PCWorld and they said the bloke is all about staff development. They were a little worried that he was leaving.
It's also worth bearing in mind that the DSG retail operation is huge, and not just Currys and PCWorld. Can't be that many people who have responsibility for a profitable retail chain as large as that.
The idea that he'll come in and turn the Apple retail stores into clones of Dixons circa 1970 is just ridiculous.
This is the same argument put forth by the financial community. We're worth X amount of dollars. If you want us to continue performing this (highly dubious) service you'll pay us an ungodly sum of cash. That is how we ended up living in a world where a disproportionate percentage of the best educated chose the financial services industry as opposed to a profession in medicine or engineering, or bio chemistry. Is an options trader of more value to a society than a doctor? Well if so then maybe that trader can check the pulse of your society and let us know how it's doing. These salaries are not market priced, they are skewed by self interest. Not the world I want to live in.