Apple has publicly backed off on this plan, saying it was a mistake. Some new "formula" was being used. Error discovered, error fixed. So why has AI not updated this story? Does that make AI a troll?
Something to consider further; THE most expensive part of business is people. Some may not agree but when you take in to consideration the many different and distinctive departments that serve staff, ie, HR, insurance admin, payroll, etc. people become very costly. Less is more. To be fair we really don't know why the staffing became bloated. But it is entirely possible that store management became lazy or autocratic or ???
We, as Apple, supporters know better that to denigrate a person's nationality. There is no room in this issue or any other for that. In fact, we know "what" but not "why".
It is entirely possible the reason given is just corporate speak for something much more problematic. In fact, to most of us the idea of "making the stores more profitable by thinning staff" seems thin given Apple's profits and prospects for continued uptick. But it could easily be that as staff gets thick and flabby quality slips. The "that's not my job" mantra becomes a swan song. Seen it and been there.
Steve is gone. Apple must find its own way. Steve left a good work plan tor Tim. It's a sure bet Tim is doing his best. Many changes at Apple are taking place. Focus away from computers to phones, tablets and TV. If the trend continues many Apple stores will be mere kiosks! No genius required. The customer will be his or her own genius.....almost that now!
But ask yourself: what's after that? That is the star to watch. Don't be blinded by the flash bulbs. Look higher, guys!
You are incorrect on so many levels.
First, you are viewing the business world from the viewpoint of financial accounting. Somebody, somewhere, pretty much around 1900 started redefining accounting from management accounting to financial accounting and short term thinking (quarterly profits) from long term thinking to support public stock ownership by investors who are not interested in long term viability but short term profits. Thus, non-management employees were accounted for in the expense lines of the financial accounting books. Management, of course, placed management into asset lines in the financial accounting books. (Why do you think the exorbitant salaries of management looks great on the books? Because their salaries, benefits and other costs are more than offset by their fictitious asset values).
Second, and directly to the point. For most businesses, the line employees are a business's only significant assets, but because of the accounting methodology, their critical contributions are not given lines in the asset categories.
Steve Jobs, by arguing that Apple hired only A level folks, likely counter-balanced the financial accounting mindset of a Browett and, more scary, a Tim Cook. Somehow, I think Tim Cook mistook Steve Jobs' dying advice to not ask what Steve would do to mean ignore the basic philosophy behind Jobs' approach and start treating all employees as costs to be minimized. (Not that Jobs' did a particularly admirable job in that category either).
Apple has publicly backed off on this plan, saying it was a mistake. Some new "formula" was being used. Error discovered, error fixed. So why has AI not updated this story? Does that make AI a troll?
I wouldn't put too much stock in Apple's announcement yet. However, it has been documented, contrary to your statement. Did Apple change the decision, or was it merely a PR fiasco that needed to be addressed more slowly with better control of the PR?
Unless Browett is canned, my bets are the laying off and other changes will continue but in more subtle ways.
Other great ideas to increase retail profits short term:
1. Fire all Apple retail employees and outsource the entire operation to the lowest bidder.
2. Get rid of the genius bar. Smart people cost money. Hire only dumb people. That's probably implied when outsourcing to the lowest bidder, but it should be made clear in the contract.
3. Stop opening stores in expensive, high class and high traffic areas. Profits go way up if you pay almost no rent. Any place with a lot of gang shootings is a good candidate.
4. Only open for a few hours a day. Banks figured this out a long time ago - if you're not open you don't have to pay employees.
5. Get rid of all training. Apple customers are fanatics - it doesn't matter how rude or inept the service is, they will buy anyway.
Other great ides to improve profits in the rest of the company:
Stop making computers out of CNC milled aluminum. Switch to cheap plastic. Everyone is doing it.
Fire Jonathan Ive and contract out the design Apple products to the lowest bidder. E.g. RIM could design the next iPhone for cheap. HP could design the next Macs.
Eliminate the research and development budget to zero. That's always a short term winner.
Fire all your engineers and just use off the shelf technology going forward. All PC companies did that a long time ago - Apple needs to catch up.
Outsource all support operations to Vietnam, or whoever has the lowest human cost at the moment. Only hire enough of those people to ensure customers are on hold for at least an hour. Don't solve any problems unless people are willing to pay.
Sell Apple's patent portfolio to the highest bidder.
Cancel the new Apple campus plans and just have everyone work from home. That new spaceship building, or any building, sounds too expensive. Collaboration doesn't work anyway.
Stop pre-paying for computer parts. Don't pay any bill for at least 6 months after it's due. Apple is so big, what are parts suppliers going to do? When you do have to pay, borrow the money like crazy.
Sell off divisions of the company: iOS, Mac, AppleTV all could be sold off to the highest bidder for huge dollars.
Spend billions of dollars to buy companies that will expand Apple's customer base. Great companies like AOL and RIM are the low hanging fruit.
My apologizes for my "borderline postal" outburst earlier. This is the very first action I've seen since Jobs took the helm in 1997 that Apple could be resorting back to its old ways. That bothers me on many levels.
The very first action was the hiring of John Browett; His shortsighted cost-cutting agenda does not fit Apple's world class retail experience agenda. He must go, immediately. The danger for Apple is that the longer he stays at Apple, the more damage and demoralizing and divisiveness he sows. I say in all seriousness and without hyperbole that he must go. He is wrong for Apple.
It would be interesting to know if Browett was being pressured from the top to increase profits, thus leading him to make those decisions. Maybe it would have been easier to just raise prices on all Apple products, since we know Apple defenders will justify the higher prices no matter what.
I fully support him.
Soon he'll have the Apple stores running as efficiently as BestBuy.
Nothing will improve the Apple Store customer experience like having a bunch of pissed off employees who know they have nowhere to go but elsewhere or into the poor house. He's a total genius. Maybe he could get his next job at the genius bar? (but only if he'l work just 29 hours/week.)
You're joking, right?
Whenever I go to best buy, I can never find anyone to help me. On the occasion I did have to go into a store to use the restroom, there were—I kid you not—at least 8 employees in there. Wtf? If that's efficiency, we're all doomed.
Apparently. billions of dollars bilked from the fans from unbelievable profit margin in consumer electronics / computer hardware products and also those billions stashed overseas are not enough for Apple.
Bilked?
Quite the high horse you're riding there. I take it you felt your iPad was an overpriced hack?
Or the Mac you typed that on wasn't worth the few extra dollars to spare you the misery of enduring the endless Windows *popups*...
What is this "bilked" you speak of?
I have gotten my money's worth MANY TIMES OVER from nearly EVERY Apple product I've owned. High margins on high-quality products, translating to high-quality after-service and high-quality end-to-end experiences in both software AND support is not BILKING. It's providing EXCELLENCE. And that happens to be very profitable. Fancy that….
...hasn't anybody ever gone into an Apple Store and felt like there wasn't any space to move around because of all the people in blue shirts?
Honestly? No, I can't say that I have had that experience.
Granted, I haven't visited every smaller, backwater Apple Store that MIGHT be undersized and "overstaffed" given its size… every Apple Store I've been to (with one exception, at The Grove in Los Angeles) has felt fairly spacious. Crowded, but spacious.
Most of the time, I've found the ratio of staff to customers to be a pretty good balance. Sometimes, not quite enough STAFF actually… depends on the store in almost every case, however.
I CALLED IT. I knew Browett was behind the staff reductions. Tim Cook needs to send this guy packing, immediately.
Agreed, can't think of a more ignorant statement. "...even if the customer experience is compromised." Really?!!! If he doesn't get fired for this he'll have dodged a huge bullet.
Something to consider further; THE most expensive part of business is people. Some may not agree but when you take in to consideration the many different and distinctive departments that serve staff, ie, HR, insurance admin, payroll, etc. people become very costly. Less is more. To be fair we really don't know why the staffing became bloated. But it is entirely possible that store management became lazy or autocratic or ???
We, as Apple, supporters know better that to denigrate a person's nationality. There is no room in this issue or any other for that. In fact, we know "what" but not "why".
It is entirely possible the reason given is just corporate speak for something much more problematic. In fact, to most of us the idea of "making the stores more profitable by thinning staff" seems thin given Apple's profits and prospects for continued uptick. But it could easily be that as staff gets thick and flabby quality slips. The "that's not my job" mantra becomes a swan song. Seen it and been there.
Steve is gone. Apple must find its own way. Steve left a good work plan tor Tim. It's a sure bet Tim is doing his best. Many changes at Apple are taking place. Focus away from computers to phones, tablets and TV. If the trend continues many Apple stores will be mere kiosks! No genius required. The customer will be his or her own genius.....almost that now!
But ask yourself: what's after that? That is the star to watch. Don't be blinded by the flash bulbs. Look higher, guys!
You're making this more complicated than necessary. Are you suggesting that hiring practices recently made a giant shift thus bloating payroll? Someone screwed up. This guy is paid millions not to screw up, and there are many sunken costs involved in hiring and training staff that are not recoverable when they realize such a mistake was made. The way to control this is by how many are actually hired, not by large numbers of layoffs outside of seasonal staff. You'll automatically lose staff or staffing availability going into the school season. Just controlling your hiring practices can solve most of this in a far more efficient manner.
I CALLED IT. I knew Browett was behind the staff reductions. Tim Cook needs to send this guy packing, immediately.
Unless Cook was the one who pressured Browett to increase profits by telling him something like "I don't care how you do it, just get it done". But of course, someone has to take the fall and it's not likely to be Cook. It would be interesting to know the real motivations, though.
Samuel L. Jackson, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Scorsese, John Malkovich…
Please read my original post a coupe of pages back. I was responding to criticism when I wrote that Jobs would never allow celebrities to overshadow his products.
I have been reading this forum for a while, but it was this story that made me feel compelled to join and chime in. I have observed and admired Apple as a company for years, and for this man to come in and make a move like this is horrible. The sad part is that someone else must have thought this was a good idea as this had to be vetted prior to implementation. Mr. Cook is undoubtedly a very capable and intelligent man and I hope he has addressed this in a manner that ensures policies like this never even make it out of the conference room again. One should never under estimate the importance of the customer experience.
Maybe it depends on the store, but my local Apple store is always packed with employees and getting their attention is never a problem. They could easily cut back 20-25% without hurting service.
I agree that it's a mistake to cut if it hampers customer service, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't possibly cut.
There are better methods of execution than this for a successful retail business. He should have kept an eye on hiring and controlled it there rather than simply try to prop up his numbers cutting recent hires which Apple would have paid to train along with the obvious morale hit. If they hired too many people in the first place, that is a gaffe in itself, assuming the information was accurate. These were not noted as seasonal employees. I doubt there's any way this can portrayed as solid performance from this guy.
I think you both have unfortunate cases of "BrowettVision" - failure to look effectively ahead.
Coming into a period of major new product releases, followed by the Holiday Season, would be exactly the wrong time to reduce staff and inhibit hiring.
These Apple staffers aren't just helping you find the right size of underpants.
These are sophisticated products, with multifarious uses and potentials, and the very large majority of the buying public (with the possible exception of people under 25),
really still needs a very great amount of help comprehending what these devices and products could do for them, and why they are, in fact, sensible, utile purchases,
not toys or fatuous luxuries.
People hired and trained now just might be able to effectively accomplish that by Black Friday...
This explains a lot. I know people who have been repermanded by store leadership for mentioning concern about Tim Cook and the style he brings to the table and for saying that they had read about John Browett and how things had changed at Tesco and Dixons in the UK under his leadership. Moral is lower than I've ever seen it and loyal long time Specialists are jumping ship on a daily basis.
Comments
He's trying to turn Apple retail in to CompUSA.
What a GREAT hire! Those responsible should be promoted and feted.
Apple has publicly backed off on this plan, saying it was a mistake. Some new "formula" was being used. Error discovered, error fixed. So why has AI not updated this story? Does that make AI a troll?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ronstark
Something to consider further; THE most expensive part of business is people. Some may not agree but when you take in to consideration the many different and distinctive departments that serve staff, ie, HR, insurance admin, payroll, etc. people become very costly. Less is more. To be fair we really don't know why the staffing became bloated. But it is entirely possible that store management became lazy or autocratic or ???
We, as Apple, supporters know better that to denigrate a person's nationality. There is no room in this issue or any other for that. In fact, we know "what" but not "why".
It is entirely possible the reason given is just corporate speak for something much more problematic. In fact, to most of us the idea of "making the stores more profitable by thinning staff" seems thin given Apple's profits and prospects for continued uptick. But it could easily be that as staff gets thick and flabby quality slips. The "that's not my job" mantra becomes a swan song. Seen it and been there.
Steve is gone. Apple must find its own way. Steve left a good work plan tor Tim. It's a sure bet Tim is doing his best. Many changes at Apple are taking place. Focus away from computers to phones, tablets and TV. If the trend continues many Apple stores will be mere kiosks! No genius required. The customer will be his or her own genius.....almost that now!
But ask yourself: what's after that? That is the star to watch. Don't be blinded by the flash bulbs. Look higher, guys!
You are incorrect on so many levels.
First, you are viewing the business world from the viewpoint of financial accounting. Somebody, somewhere, pretty much around 1900 started redefining accounting from management accounting to financial accounting and short term thinking (quarterly profits) from long term thinking to support public stock ownership by investors who are not interested in long term viability but short term profits. Thus, non-management employees were accounted for in the expense lines of the financial accounting books. Management, of course, placed management into asset lines in the financial accounting books. (Why do you think the exorbitant salaries of management looks great on the books? Because their salaries, benefits and other costs are more than offset by their fictitious asset values).
Second, and directly to the point. For most businesses, the line employees are a business's only significant assets, but because of the accounting methodology, their critical contributions are not given lines in the asset categories.
Steve Jobs, by arguing that Apple hired only A level folks, likely counter-balanced the financial accounting mindset of a Browett and, more scary, a Tim Cook. Somehow, I think Tim Cook mistook Steve Jobs' dying advice to not ask what Steve would do to mean ignore the basic philosophy behind Jobs' approach and start treating all employees as costs to be minimized. (Not that Jobs' did a particularly admirable job in that category either).
Quote:
Originally Posted by kent909
Apple has publicly backed off on this plan, saying it was a mistake. Some new "formula" was being used. Error discovered, error fixed. So why has AI not updated this story? Does that make AI a troll?
I wouldn't put too much stock in Apple's announcement yet. However, it has been documented, contrary to your statement. Did Apple change the decision, or was it merely a PR fiasco that needed to be addressed more slowly with better control of the PR?
Unless Browett is canned, my bets are the laying off and other changes will continue but in more subtle ways.
Other great ideas to increase retail profits short term:
1. Fire all Apple retail employees and outsource the entire operation to the lowest bidder.
2. Get rid of the genius bar. Smart people cost money. Hire only dumb people. That's probably implied when outsourcing to the lowest bidder, but it should be made clear in the contract.
3. Stop opening stores in expensive, high class and high traffic areas. Profits go way up if you pay almost no rent. Any place with a lot of gang shootings is a good candidate.
4. Only open for a few hours a day. Banks figured this out a long time ago - if you're not open you don't have to pay employees.
5. Get rid of all training. Apple customers are fanatics - it doesn't matter how rude or inept the service is, they will buy anyway.
Other great ides to improve profits in the rest of the company:
Stop making computers out of CNC milled aluminum. Switch to cheap plastic. Everyone is doing it.
Fire Jonathan Ive and contract out the design Apple products to the lowest bidder. E.g. RIM could design the next iPhone for cheap. HP could design the next Macs.
Eliminate the research and development budget to zero. That's always a short term winner.
Fire all your engineers and just use off the shelf technology going forward. All PC companies did that a long time ago - Apple needs to catch up.
Outsource all support operations to Vietnam, or whoever has the lowest human cost at the moment. Only hire enough of those people to ensure customers are on hold for at least an hour. Don't solve any problems unless people are willing to pay.
Sell Apple's patent portfolio to the highest bidder.
Cancel the new Apple campus plans and just have everyone work from home. That new spaceship building, or any building, sounds too expensive. Collaboration doesn't work anyway.
Stop pre-paying for computer parts. Don't pay any bill for at least 6 months after it's due. Apple is so big, what are parts suppliers going to do? When you do have to pay, borrow the money like crazy.
Sell off divisions of the company: iOS, Mac, AppleTV all could be sold off to the highest bidder for huge dollars.
Spend billions of dollars to buy companies that will expand Apple's customer base. Great companies like AOL and RIM are the low hanging fruit.
The very first action was the hiring of John Browett; His shortsighted cost-cutting agenda does not fit Apple's world class retail experience agenda. He must go, immediately. The danger for Apple is that the longer he stays at Apple, the more damage and demoralizing and divisiveness he sows. I say in all seriousness and without hyperbole that he must go. He is wrong for Apple.
Is this confirmed? Or are these just more rumors from "sources". I just can't believe Tim Cook would let this fly.
It would be interesting to know if Browett was being pressured from the top to increase profits, thus leading him to make those decisions. Maybe it would have been easier to just raise prices on all Apple products, since we know Apple defenders will justify the higher prices no matter what.
You're joking, right?
Whenever I go to best buy, I can never find anyone to help me. On the occasion I did have to go into a store to use the restroom, there were—I kid you not—at least 8 employees in there. Wtf? If that's efficiency, we're all doomed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcrs
Apparently. billions of dollars bilked from the fans from unbelievable profit margin in consumer electronics / computer hardware products and also those billions stashed overseas are not enough for Apple.
Bilked?
Quite the high horse you're riding there. I take it you felt your iPad was an overpriced hack?
Or the Mac you typed that on wasn't worth the few extra dollars to spare you the misery of enduring the endless Windows *popups*...
What is this "bilked" you speak of?
I have gotten my money's worth MANY TIMES OVER from nearly EVERY Apple product I've owned. High margins on high-quality products, translating to high-quality after-service and high-quality end-to-end experiences in both software AND support is not BILKING. It's providing EXCELLENCE. And that happens to be very profitable. Fancy that….
Originally Posted by tribalogical
I take it you felt your iPad was an overpriced hack?
That's not the only hack I'm seeing in that post…
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaarrrgggh
...hasn't anybody ever gone into an Apple Store and felt like there wasn't any space to move around because of all the people in blue shirts?
Honestly? No, I can't say that I have had that experience.
Granted, I haven't visited every smaller, backwater Apple Store that MIGHT be undersized and "overstaffed" given its size… every Apple Store I've been to (with one exception, at The Grove in Los Angeles) has felt fairly spacious. Crowded, but spacious.
Most of the time, I've found the ratio of staff to customers to be a pretty good balance. Sometimes, not quite enough STAFF actually… depends on the store in almost every case, however.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton
I CALLED IT. I knew Browett was behind the staff reductions. Tim Cook needs to send this guy packing, immediately.
Agreed, can't think of a more ignorant statement. "...even if the customer experience is compromised." Really?!!! If he doesn't get fired for this he'll have dodged a huge bullet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ronstark
Something to consider further; THE most expensive part of business is people. Some may not agree but when you take in to consideration the many different and distinctive departments that serve staff, ie, HR, insurance admin, payroll, etc. people become very costly. Less is more. To be fair we really don't know why the staffing became bloated. But it is entirely possible that store management became lazy or autocratic or ???
We, as Apple, supporters know better that to denigrate a person's nationality. There is no room in this issue or any other for that. In fact, we know "what" but not "why".
It is entirely possible the reason given is just corporate speak for something much more problematic. In fact, to most of us the idea of "making the stores more profitable by thinning staff" seems thin given Apple's profits and prospects for continued uptick. But it could easily be that as staff gets thick and flabby quality slips. The "that's not my job" mantra becomes a swan song. Seen it and been there.
Steve is gone. Apple must find its own way. Steve left a good work plan tor Tim. It's a sure bet Tim is doing his best. Many changes at Apple are taking place. Focus away from computers to phones, tablets and TV. If the trend continues many Apple stores will be mere kiosks! No genius required. The customer will be his or her own genius.....almost that now!
But ask yourself: what's after that? That is the star to watch. Don't be blinded by the flash bulbs. Look higher, guys!
You're making this more complicated than necessary. Are you suggesting that hiring practices recently made a giant shift thus bloating payroll? Someone screwed up. This guy is paid millions not to screw up, and there are many sunken costs involved in hiring and training staff that are not recoverable when they realize such a mistake was made. The way to control this is by how many are actually hired, not by large numbers of layoffs outside of seasonal staff. You'll automatically lose staff or staffing availability going into the school season. Just controlling your hiring practices can solve most of this in a far more efficient manner.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton
I CALLED IT. I knew Browett was behind the staff reductions. Tim Cook needs to send this guy packing, immediately.
Unless Cook was the one who pressured Browett to increase profits by telling him something like "I don't care how you do it, just get it done". But of course, someone has to take the fall and it's not likely to be Cook. It would be interesting to know the real motivations, though.
Please read my original post a coupe of pages back. I was responding to criticism when I wrote that Jobs would never allow celebrities to overshadow his products.
I have been reading this forum for a while, but it was this story that made me feel compelled to join and chime in. I have observed and admired Apple as a company for years, and for this man to come in and make a move like this is horrible. The sad part is that someone else must have thought this was a good idea as this had to be vetted prior to implementation. Mr. Cook is undoubtedly a very capable and intelligent man and I hope he has addressed this in a manner that ensures policies like this never even make it out of the conference room again. One should never under estimate the importance of the customer experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Maybe it depends on the store, but my local Apple store is always packed with employees and getting their attention is never a problem. They could easily cut back 20-25% without hurting service.
I agree that it's a mistake to cut if it hampers customer service, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't possibly cut.
There are better methods of execution than this for a successful retail business. He should have kept an eye on hiring and controlled it there rather than simply try to prop up his numbers cutting recent hires which Apple would have paid to train along with the obvious morale hit. If they hired too many people in the first place, that is a gaffe in itself, assuming the information was accurate. These were not noted as seasonal employees. I doubt there's any way this can portrayed as solid performance from this guy.
I think you both have unfortunate cases of "BrowettVision" - failure to look effectively ahead.
Coming into a period of major new product releases, followed by the Holiday Season, would be exactly the wrong time to reduce staff and inhibit hiring.
These Apple staffers aren't just helping you find the right size of underpants.
These are sophisticated products, with multifarious uses and potentials, and the very large majority of the buying public (with the possible exception of people under 25),
really still needs a very great amount of help comprehending what these devices and products could do for them, and why they are, in fact, sensible, utile purchases,
not toys or fatuous luxuries.
People hired and trained now just might be able to effectively accomplish that by Black Friday...