I get back to this being so SUDDEN. No rumors, no hints, no nothing. Say what you will about the web, but things like this always seem to start leaking onto Reddit, Twitter, or the other tech press a few days or weeks before they come to light. This just came out of the blue.
Plus putting the head of HR in there seems to me to be an "Oh crap we have to get someone in that position. Who's available for the next little while until we can find someone better," choice. This all strikes me as a surprise. Either she dropped a bombshell at today's board meeting, or there's some skeleton in her closet that's about to surface, or they discovered something she was doing that wasn't copacetic.
I always suspected that she might go back to fashion at some point, as that's more in her blood than technology -- but the bottom line is that she built on what Ron and Steve did beautifully, expanded the educational aspect, enhanced the entire experience, and redecorated to give it a freshness while working in tandem with Lisa Jackson to make the stores as zero-footprint as possible. Overall, I'd say she was a terrific hire with her only weak point being unable to grasp more tech stuff than she did, but for her goals it wasn't mandatory. An excellent hire, overall.
I guess it makes sense that Ms. Ahrendts would leave in April. She has about 105,000 time-based RSUs due to vest on April 1st.
But she's also giving up a lot of unvested RSUs. She has another 200,000 or so unvested time-based RSUs and perhaps 350,000 unvested performance-based RSUs.
She can't spend what she already has, so waiting around to get more is simply gorging on resources that are useless to her IMHO, wealth only for wealth's sake.
What would be great is if Deidre is temporary and they convince Ron Johnson to come back. He was great at this role. Apple would be lucky to get him back.
Yes - Ron was outstanding. He would’ve saved JCPenney with more time...and a better interim plan.
Johnson was saddle with a brain-dead Board. JCP will be the next retailer to file for Chapter 7/11.
Johnson was the moron who changed pricing before he changed the stores (and with it the clientele). It was the same people shopping there but now without the coupons/sales and very confusing pricing structure. Anyone with half a brain could’ve seen that was a disaster waiting to happen.
The pricing structure was not confusing at all, in fact if I remember right it was very simple at $20, $30 or $40 per item. He got rid of the constant coupons and timing of sales, etc. It seemed like a great idea, but apparently people like buying $40 items with a 50% off coupon rather than just paying $20 for the item.
Sounds to me like her stock got vested and decided it was time to look for greener pastures. She could retire now live several lifetimes of pure luxury if she wanted to. Besides, going from a CEO to a lesser position only goes so far and I'm sure even she has an ego. She's got Apple on her resume, did relatively well for retail during her 5-year term so she's probably going somewhere to be a CEO again. Can't blame her I suppose.
I always suspected that she might go back to fashion at some point, as that's more in her blood than technology -- but the bottom line is that she built on what Ron and Steve did beautifully, expanded the educational aspect, enhanced the entire experience, and redecorated to give it a freshness while working in tandem with Lisa Jackson to make the stores as zero-footprint as possible. Overall, I'd say she was a terrific hire with her only weak point being unable to grasp more tech stuff than she did, but for her goals it wasn't mandatory. An excellent hire, overall.
Why would the head of retail need to grasp tech stuff? And what evidence is there that she wasn't adequate in that regard anyway?
She put Burberry on the path to some very innovative uses of technology in fashion.
Sounds to me like her stock got vested and decided it was time to look for greener pastures. She could retire now live several lifetimes of pure luxury if she wanted to. Besides, going from a CEO to a lesser position only goes so far and I'm sure even she has an ego. She's got Apple on her resume, did relatively well for retail during her 5-year term so she's probably going somewhere to be a CEO again. Can't blame her I suppose.
I guess it makes sense that Ms. Ahrendts would leave in April. She has about 105,000 time-based RSUs due to vest on April 1st.
But she's also giving up a lot of unvested RSUs. She has another 200,000 or so unvested time-based RSUs and perhaps 350,000 unvested performance-based RSUs.
She can't spend what she already has, so waiting around to get more is simply gorging on resources that are useless to her IMHO, wealth only for wealth's sake.
There are uses for (greater) amassed wealth other than just spending it on, e.g., nice homes, vacations and Ferrari 288 GTOs.
Some people might want more wealth to help fund new business ventures they're interested in starting, or to do charitable work, or to leave it to others who might do who knows what with it. (Or, you know, they might just want to try to acquire every 288 GTO which still exists.)
That said, I have little idea how much Ms. Ahrendts cares about amassing greater wealth. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But there are good reasons why she or others might care to.
Oh thank god. Tim had been grooming her for the top spot and I've been fearful she'd get it. She brought nothing to the table, and I'd argue that she was out of her depth at Apple during her entire tenure.
Apple's a technology company. I know they made a brief pivot to fashion with the Watch introduction, but that was clearly a failure (the fashion angle they were playing up, not the watch). I don't know if Ahrendts was partially responsible for the fashion push or if she was brought on to support the push after the decision had been made, but it was clearly a mistake (ask anyone who owns an Apple Watch Edition).
Lot of claims, zero proof.
Proof that Cook was grooming her to take his job?
Proof that she was out of her depth managing retail? (her primary field)
Proof that the fashion angle of AW is a failure? (they still sell 11 Hermes models from $1250 - $1500)
...love how people just make up their wild claims and asset as fact.
Retail management has zero to do with the price points of top-tier iphone models. It’s why you also don’t give her credit for the low tier price prices, like the $329 iPad.
Technically 5 years is not a failed hire. One year, absolutely. But in every fortune company I’ve worked for, 5 years is not short. We’re not executives, but still it’s not technically a fail.
Sounds to me like her stock got vested and decided it was time to look for greener pastures. She could retire now live several lifetimes of pure luxury if she wanted to. Besides, going from a CEO to a lesser position only goes so far and I'm sure even she has an ego. She's got Apple on her resume, did relatively well for retail during her 5-year term so she's probably going somewhere to be a CEO again. Can't blame her I suppose.
She has lots more RSUs which haven't vested and won't vest before she's scheduled to depart - perhaps more than 500,000. Whenever she left, that would likely be the case though. The number would be different depending on the timing, but the way Apple does RSU awards for its SVPs now, whenever one leaves they'll have lots more RSUs that they'll be giving up. So they can't really wait for their RSUs to vest. Ms. Ahrendts has some that wouldn't have vested for another 4 years.
That said, if you're referring to the RSUs she was awarded when she first came to Apple, those were all vested as of June of last year. And the vast majority of them were vested as of June of 2017.
Overpaid but glad she's leaving. She seemed very bright, but the reality is she turned the best retail experience ever into the DMV and basically added nothing but logistical complication. The threat of her possibly becoming CEO has me breathing a sigh of relief as she was not a good fit.
The new head of people and retail seems like an AWFUL idea as she is basically head of HR, and now magically a master of retail?
What would be great is if Deidre is temporary and they convince Ron Johnson to come back. He was great at this role. Apple would be lucky to get him back.
She turned the best retail experience into the DMV? How so?
And what was great about Ron Johnson other than he ran Apple retail when it was a much smaller company?
Um he CREATED apple retail. When everyone said it would never work. Go google the articles of it's doom. He pulled it out of his mind and made it what it was. The highest $ per square foot retail ever. So yea, there's that teeny tiny creation thing.
As for DMV, go to a store today. You're a pinball. She added logistical complication and ruined and poisoned the retail experience. Before, you'd go to the genius bar and deal with your issues.
Now you show up, you try to find where to check in, there is no genius bar. You ask one employee, they say, um no, im not the check in person, go over there, thats where the check in person is. You go over there and say I'd like to check in. Oh I'm not the check in person, but they are right there. Then you check in and they send you to table X,Y over there. Some people go to the wrong table. The geniuses come looking for where you should be, but the person is in the wrong spot, and now the genius goes to 2 or 3 tables finding the right person. In the mean time, people who have problems are interspersed throughout the store with their poison "my iDevice doesnt work" griping, poisoning the buying experience around others.
Before, you just went to the bar, you and your problems were isolated and didnt poison others' purchasing experience, and you didnt pinball through the miserable DMV experience. I used to love just stopping by at apple stores when Ron was in charge. I cringe if I have to go there now. So that's how it's the DMV. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stores-suffer-from-customer-complaints-long-wait-time-2018-3/
My stores must be an anomaly — our Genius Bar is clear and there is never any confusion to get to it or checked in. The only complaint is it’s always busy. A good problem for a retailer to have.
Apple have had so many executive departures over the past few years, I'd love to know why
Well, Apple has so many SVPs that you'd expect maybe one per year, on average, to leave. It has 9 SVPs plus a COO, and that doesn't include Mr. Cook or Mr. Ive.
FINALLY!!! The 17 THOUSAND Appkewatch DISASTER. FIFTH AVENUE STORE IN NEW YORK LATE AND A DISASTER. PRODUCTS LATE OR NEVER RELEASED AND DRESSED FOR THE KEYNOTE AS IF ANNA WINTOUR WAS GOING TO JUDGE HER OUTFIT. GREAT DECISION TIM. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.
What disorder are you afflicted with that makes you believe the head of retail is responsible for new product delays? And type in all caps?
Overpaid but glad she's leaving. She seemed very bright, but the reality is she turned the best retail experience ever into the DMV and basically added nothing but logistical complication. The threat of her possibly becoming CEO has me breathing a sigh of relief as she was not a good fit.
The new head of people and retail seems like an AWFUL idea as she is basically head of HR, and now magically a master of retail?
What would be great is if Deidre is temporary and they convince Ron Johnson to come back. He was great at this role. Apple would be lucky to get him back.
She turned the best retail experience into the DMV? How so?
And what was great about Ron Johnson other than he ran Apple retail when it was a much smaller company?
Um he CREATED apple retail. When everyone said it would never work. Go google the articles of it's doom. He pulled it out of his mind and made it what it was. The highest $ per square foot retail ever. So yea, there's that teeny tiny creation thing.
As for DMV, go to a store today. You're a pinball. She added logistical complication and ruined and poisoned the retail experience. Before, you'd go to the genius bar and deal with your issues.
Now you show up, you try to find where to check in, there is no genius bar. You ask one employee, they say, um no, im not the check in person, go over there, thats where the check in person is. You go over there and say I'd like to check in. Oh I'm not the check in person, but they are right there. Then you check in and they send you to table X,Y over there. Some people go to the wrong table. The geniuses come looking for where you should be, but the person is in the wrong spot, and now the genius goes to 2 or 3 tables finding the right person. In the mean time, people who have problems are interspersed throughout the store with their poison "my iDevice doesnt work" griping, poisoning the buying experience around others.
Before, you just went to the bar, you and your problems were isolated and didnt poison others' purchasing experience, and you didnt pinball through the miserable DMV experience. I used to love just stopping by at apple stores when Ron was in charge. I cringe if I have to go there now. So that's how it's the DMV. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stores-suffer-from-customer-complaints-long-wait-time-2018-3/
This has never happened to me, it's always been a very smooth experience minus the wait once in a while (turns out they're super busy for some reason).
What would be great is if Deidre is temporary and they convince Ron Johnson to come back. He was great at this role. Apple would be lucky to get him back.
Yes - Ron was outstanding. He would’ve saved JCPenney with more time...and a better interim plan.
Johnson was saddle with a brain-dead Board. JCP will be the next retailer to file for Chapter 7/11.
Johnson was the moron who changed pricing before he changed the stores (and with it the clientele). It was the same people shopping there but now without the coupons/sales and very confusing pricing structure. Anyone with half a brain could’ve seen that was a disaster waiting to happen.
The pricing structure was not confusing at all, in fact if I remember right it was very simple at $20, $30 or $40 per item. He got rid of the constant coupons and timing of sales, etc. It seemed like a great idea, but apparently people like buying $40 items with a 50% off coupon rather than just paying $20 for the item.
Yeah, this was perplexing. I don’t shop at JCP tho.
Comments
Plus putting the head of HR in there seems to me to be an "Oh crap we have to get someone in that position. Who's available for the next little while until we can find someone better," choice. This all strikes me as a surprise. Either she dropped a bombshell at today's board meeting, or there's some skeleton in her closet that's about to surface, or they discovered something she was doing that wasn't copacetic.
Nothing about this seems planned.
She put Burberry on the path to some very innovative uses of technology in fashion.
Some people might want more wealth to help fund new business ventures they're interested in starting, or to do charitable work, or to leave it to others who might do who knows what with it. (Or, you know, they might just want to try to acquire every 288 GTO which still exists.)
That said, I have little idea how much Ms. Ahrendts cares about amassing greater wealth. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But there are good reasons why she or others might care to.
Proof that Cook was grooming her to take his job?
Proof that she was out of her depth managing retail? (her primary field)
Proof that the fashion angle of AW is a failure? (they still sell 11 Hermes models from $1250 - $1500)
...love how people just make up their wild claims and asset as fact.
Retail management has zero to do with the price points of top-tier iphone models. It’s why you also don’t give her credit for the low tier price prices, like the $329 iPad.
Technically 5 years is not a failed hire. One year, absolutely. But in every fortune company I’ve worked for, 5 years is not short. We’re not executives, but still it’s not technically a fail.
She has lots more RSUs which haven't vested and won't vest before she's scheduled to depart - perhaps more than 500,000. Whenever she left, that would likely be the case though. The number would be different depending on the timing, but the way Apple does RSU awards for its SVPs now, whenever one leaves they'll have lots more RSUs that they'll be giving up. So they can't really wait for their RSUs to vest. Ms. Ahrendts has some that wouldn't have vested for another 4 years.
That said, if you're referring to the RSUs she was awarded when she first came to Apple, those were all vested as of June of last year. And the vast majority of them were vested as of June of 2017.
My stores must be an anomaly — our Genius Bar is clear and there is never any confusion to get to it or checked in. The only complaint is it’s always busy. A good problem for a retailer to have.
What disorder are you afflicted with that makes you believe the head of retail is responsible for new product delays? And type in all caps?