Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts nominated for Ralph Lauren board of directors
Fashion brand Ralph Lauren has announced plans to nominate Angela Ahrendts, Apple's retail head, for a non-executive position on its board of directors.
Ahrendts will be up for election at Ralph Lauren's annual shareholders meeting, currently expected in August. Top-level executives -- including Lauren himself -- are treating her appointment as a done deal, suggesting they expect little if any resistance in voting.
The appointment will leave Ahrendts in her current full-time position at Apple, making her little more than an advisor in her added duties.
Ahrendts is no stranger to the fashion industry, having served as the CEO of Burberry until she joined Apple in 2014. That background is widely believed to be the reason for her hiring, since Apple announced the Apple Watch later that year and embarked on an international revamp of its retail aesthetics with fashion in mind.
That overhaul is still in progress, since the company has over 500 stores worldwide and many U.S. locations are a decade or more old. In some cases Apple has waited until it could move into larger spaces to accommodate growing traffic.
The last dedicated pop-up store for the Watch is set to close on May 13. Under Ahrendts, Apple launched several around the world in a bid to position the product as a fashion accessory.
Ahrendts will be up for election at Ralph Lauren's annual shareholders meeting, currently expected in August. Top-level executives -- including Lauren himself -- are treating her appointment as a done deal, suggesting they expect little if any resistance in voting.
The appointment will leave Ahrendts in her current full-time position at Apple, making her little more than an advisor in her added duties.
Ahrendts is no stranger to the fashion industry, having served as the CEO of Burberry until she joined Apple in 2014. That background is widely believed to be the reason for her hiring, since Apple announced the Apple Watch later that year and embarked on an international revamp of its retail aesthetics with fashion in mind.
That overhaul is still in progress, since the company has over 500 stores worldwide and many U.S. locations are a decade or more old. In some cases Apple has waited until it could move into larger spaces to accommodate growing traffic.
The last dedicated pop-up store for the Watch is set to close on May 13. Under Ahrendts, Apple launched several around the world in a bid to position the product as a fashion accessory.
Comments
I honestly don't get Robin's complaints. Apple Retail stores are very popular places and always have been. Apple has been moving into larger buildings and mall bays to try and fix some of these space constraints. Unless Apple starts building their own standalone buildings which would be extremely expensive I don't really see how any of the complaints could go away. The fact that people are actually coming to those trainings and other sessions proves that it is a success. Its still one of the best retail experiences you can get. In an era where most retail stores are struggling to survive, Apple is still thriving. Sears, BonTon, Toys R Us, JCP, etc could only dream of having the apparent issues Apple has with retail so Apple must be doing something right.
Is there room for improvement? Absolutely! There's always room for improvement, but someone sitting on the board of another company isn't going to stop improvements from happening. These are very talented people who are able to do more than one thing at a time and still be successful.
Yes, she was massively successful as Burberry’s CEO for years, unlike Ron Johnson who left Apple to go fail at J.C. Penny. John Browett also left Apple and went into clothing retail. But hey, she’s a woman so she only knows about clothing, right? /eyeroll
Its really no different from the store manager of an Apple Retail store. I don't think Apple really cares how much a particular person knows about computers in general, but rather their experience in running a retail store, how they treat customers and employees. How they solve problems within the store and provide the best customer service they can, etc. When I interviewed for a Mac Genius position waaaayyyy back in around 2006'ish it had very little to do with how much do you know about the Mac or iPod, iLife, etc and more about how do you treat customers, provide good service, etc.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Excellent post.
I’d be happy for Ahrendts to take the top job if there was ever a need. (She’s a bit older than Cook so I imagine they’d retire at the same time). The only problem I have with her is that she has one of those surnames I need to check before typing.
By the way, no one cares about RL anymore. Who even wears their clothing? An old tired brand that young people don't give two blanks about... will fade off into the sunset and become irrelevant.
After he left for JC Penny, Browett came into this "EASY" "plug and play" job as you describe it and was a massive failure. It all played out as a complete disaster. But hey, anyone can do this job, it's so easy, right?
I'm guessing all women "PC hires" in your book. That tells me pretty much all I need to know about you.