New Apple retail VP John Browett planned to cut jobs to raise profits - Page 6

Employees haven't been told anything.....

Standard management techniques from the rubbish bigbox retail chains (except original Apple Retail under Ron J etc). Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em nonsense ... works for mushrooms, they reckon it will work for retail employees.

If Jobs was still alive this guy would first of never have been hired and if he had got in he'd be out FAST.  This is what makes Apple great, great customer service. "even if the customer experience is compromised."  scary.

Bingo.

Yes, a Brit.  You know the Brits of course. Easy with their dispensing of contempt of America, but who got plenty of help from the "fucktards" twice in the 20th century in order not to end up speaking German.  And let us not forget their technological accomplishments like Lucas Self-Extinguishing headlights, and Norton motorcycles, each and every one of which was equipped with a self-lubricating garage floor.

People like Apple because Apple values THEIR efficiency.  Apple avoids taking shortcuts when shortcuts make your life more complicated, when they waste YOUR time, when they make your life uglier.

And you pay for this, but what you pay is usually less than the value of the time Apple saves you.  That's a good bargain.

 

Hiring someone that doesn't absolutely worship that philosophy was a serious mistake.

 

Bean counter thinking cannot appreciate intangibles.  

"We've decided we can save 78 cents by eliminating that lit apple logo from the lid of your MacBook.  Please, hold your applause!"

 

I heard a story about a major US airline. Some new bean-counter was appointed, and he discovered that the salad part of in-flight meals contained two olives. He calculated that reducing that to one olive per salad would save the multi-billion dollar company $85,000 a year, so it was done. Passengers? Phah! Oscar Wilde got it right with his definition of a cynic as "Someone who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcaMqiD64g

 

This puts things into perspective, in a big way.

If this guy is let go within the next few months, then we know what happened. If it was just a total screwup, well, maybe...... er.......... not really. This guy came from a Best Buy save a nickel and screw the customer company.

Why Cook hired him is just a wonder.....

Ok, Jan 2013, we will see.

en

Yup, only one year, and the quality of Apple management is already being diluted with B players. Apple should put him in charge of the design team. He could recommend cheaper components like plastic body casings and lower resolution screens as I am sure they are cheaper...

OH and even better, he should recommend cuts in R&D. This will surely show some short term gains in profits.

Now if somehow they were able to use holograms or even robots to replace the personnel, then I'd say he's thinking Apple like. But really... really?

Mr Browett:
What planet did you come from? Apparently you are an alien life form at best. I have an engineering degree and an MBA and even I know what to do to improve the Apple / Customer experience. You are clueless. The Board of Directors might consider lowering your salary by a substantial amount, link your compensation to pay for performance, and link your bonus to the components you affect on a long term basis. In other words if you are successful in what you do for the next 3 years and do not negatively impact Apple, then you will get your bonus 3 years later. In other words, if you do a good job and it is effective you are rewarded. If not , you don't get a reward - you get a penalty and the boot out the door with lead boots instead of a golden parachute. It is not all about pencil whipping the bottom line to look better; it is about being better - the money or profits will follow automatically.

You are an embarrassment.

When I read about his being hired I could not believe it. Anyone who has shopped in a Dixon's store knows that it is a miserable experience.

Tim Cook may have been impressed with Browett's supply chain management but that is not what he was hired to do at Apple.

This guy's experience is all you need to know. He's run discount retailers like Wal-Mart. It seems to me the Apple stores are so successful because the shopping experience is the OPPOSITE of a Wal-Mart. It really disappoints me that Apple would hire this guy. If this is any indication for how decisions are being made at Apple, I fear for the future. How about instead of just rethinking the staffing idea, they rethink the hiring of this executive idea. There's still time to undo that decision!

If Steve was still the boss, he would fired both Cook and Browett, seriously.

It's a good thing we have you with a crystal ball to tell use what Steve is thinking beyond the ether.

Prove it.

 

Steve hired and groomed Cook so no, he likely wouldn't. 

 

Fact is that it was a misstep. It's going to happen. Hell a lot of folks are saying that Apple was a bit too quick in releasing iOS 6 given that apparently they suspended basically all 'real world' testing after the iphone 4 lost and rumored 4s lost. Since it never went out in the world they should have done more bug testing via the developers, perhaps had them do the 'real world' etc. 

 

There are a number of employees at any retail store that are a waste. They are slow, lazy, don't bother keeping up with the right info etc. They are also often late, take breaks longer than they are allowed, disappear to go to the bathroom every other minute so they can text the girl/boyfriend. Those folks need to be removed because they not only don't create the right experience they often destroy others attempts. Combine this with the folks that were hired knowing they were seasonal for the Olympics and attempts to get staff in the stores at the times that they are needed and not have too many folks during dead times and there are going to be 'growing pains'. Browett probably did suspend hiring, in order to evaluate what the stores really need. Some might need more sales folks, some might need more service. And where they hiring quality or just bodies. There was a time when Apple's employees seemed to be quality folks with great customer service skills etc. Now more than half the sales folks feel like they are just any other kid off the street who doesn't know and rarely cares. They can't be bothered to pick up a piece of trash that is right in front of them. 

 

And yet the blogs, in typical hit whoring style, hyped it up perhaps way beyond what it should have been. Mainly because they have no clue what it going on. Especially any clue about whether or not Steve would have supported this. Steve was number one on the quality front. He had pushed back store openings because the tables weren't the right shade of wood or the railings weren't burnished the 'right' way. That tells me that yes he might have supported changing up the retail system including staffing etc. So while the details were perhaps a bit off in the execution, the intent was probably something that yes Steve would have done.