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Earlier today, Apple announced the hiring of Angela Ahrendts, the current CEO of Burberry, as its new head of the company's retail and online efforts. Now, more details are coming out about how she was hired and some of her activities at Burberry that could be useful at Apple going forward.
Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin, who now blogs on her own site, writes that Ahrendts loves watches and rolled out a high-end watch brand under her tenure at Burberry. This retailing experience could have an impact if Apple, as is rumored, introduces some sort of smart watch product.
I also hear she took particular interest in the watch retailing space in Burberry stores. Let’s just say her passion for watches is a coincidence. Or maybe just a plus. Needless to say the merchandising around the iWatch, whenever it arrives, will be remarkable.
Separately, The Wall Street Journal reports that Ahrendts agreed to join Apple several months ago, but the announcement of the hire was held back while Burberry determined her successor. It also reported that Apple was not the only company courting Ahrendts.
In pursuing Ms. Ahrendts, Apple won out over a more recent bid for Ms. Ahrendts by J.C. Penney. The department-store chain pursued the Burberry leader for its own top job, according to a person familiar with the situation.
J.C. Penney is looking to replace Mr. Johnson—who once held the Apple role that Ms. Ahrendts is stepping into. Mr. Johnson left J.C. Penney after his attempted makeover sent sales there crashing.
Angela Ahrendts will join Apple next spring after managing the CEO transition at Burberry.
Top Rated Comments
This is my setup (not the clock face, per se), which I find quite elegant:
I always get compliments on it, so from my perspective, a smartwatch isn't particularly a farfetched concept, and can also look pretty great.
And if you're any bit of a watch collector, you'll know any likely price the iWatch retails at ($100-$300 probably) isn't particularly comparable to other high-end watch prices out there (though would be immensely more useful). I only have a couple 'nice' watches myself (Belova, Coach), but I seldom even wear them as I prefer my Nano watch, which was fairly cheaper.
EDIT: Ha! Sorry folks, the band was originally made by a company called iWatchz and can be found at this particular Amazon link (http://www.amazon.com/iWatchz-STLDBRDYTP-Timepiece-Stainless-Deploy-Dark/dp/B00566JHQG) (I actually got mine from an Apple store). But I think the company changed their name to kubxlab and this band (plus many others) can be found here: http://www.kubxlab.com/collections/ipod/iPod-nano-6G (mine is from the Timepiece Collection)
Her eyes are really close together.
Wow, MR is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel here.
How so? It's important to learn about new executives as they will greatly influence Apple.
Wow, MR is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel here.
Quoting the Wall Street Journal is scraping the bottom of the barrel?
I was willing to give their board of directors the benefit of the doubt in letting Ron go when they did, but if this is for real, it just sends a message that they may be out of their depth.
Karl P
How about more pictures like this?