THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 16,2013
BUSINESS
PAGE 3
Apple hires Burberry CEO to boost store sales
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts speaks at the National Retail Federation's annual convention in New York on Jan. 18, 2012. Ahrendts will take charge of Apple's expansion plans and retail operation, as she will become a senior vice president at the company next spring.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is entrusting the elegant stores that help define its brand to Angela Ahrendts, a respected executive who blended fashion sense with technological savvy to establish Burberry as a mark of luxury and success.
Silicon Valley's long-running reliance on men to make key decisions has come into sharper focus as online messaging service Twitter Inc. prepares to go public. Twitter's closely scrutinized IPO documents called attention to the San Francisco company's all-male board of directors and the presence of just one woman in its executive inner circle.
The hiring announced Tuesday is a coup for Apple Inc. Besides providing the Cupertino, Calif., company with another sharp mind, Ahrendts should help Apple deflect potential criticism about the lack of women in the upper ranks of its management.
Ahrendts will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook when she leaves Burberry to join Apple next spring in a newly created position of senior vice president in charge of retail and online stores.
Apple has one woman, former Avon Products Inc. CEO Andrea Jung, among the eight directors on its board.
In a memo sent Tuesday to Apple employees, Cook said he knew he wanted to hire Ahrendts from the time the two met in January and realized "she shares our values and our focus on innovation."
Ahrendts telegraphed her admiration of Apple in 2010 when The Wall Street Journal asked her if she was trying to mold Burberry into something similar to other luxury brands in the fashion industry.
"I don't look at Gucci or Chanel or anyone." Achrends told the Journal. "If I look to any company as a model, it's Apple. They're a brilliant design company working
to create a lifestyle and that's the way I see us."
Ahrendt's arrival comes at a crucial time for Apple and the stores that serve as the main showcase for its iPhones, iPads, iPods and Mac computers.
Like the rest of the company, Apple's stores aren't doing quite as well as they once were, primarily because tougher competition has forced the company to trim its prices.
For instance, in Apple's quarter ending in late June, average revenue per store declined 9 percent from the previous year to $10.1 million. Even more troubling, the retail division's operating profit for the quarter dropped 19
percent from last year to $667 million. Apple ended the period with 408 stores located in 13 countries.
The stores, which are staffed by nearly 42,000 workers, may have been suffering from a management void. Ron Johnson,a former Target Inc, executive
credited for turning Apple's stores into a thriving operation, left the company in 2011 to become CEO of C.J. Penney Co. Johnson's successor, John Browett, left
"If I look to any company as a model, it's Apple. They're a brilliant design company working to create a lifestyle."
Apple in a management shake-up a year ago. Since then, the stores have been under the management of a lower-level executive and
the senior vice president job remained vacant.
ANGELA AHRENDTS Burberry CEO
Ahrendts, 53, proved her ability to galvanize a well-established brand during the past seven years working in London as Burberry's CEO.
burberry, established in 1856 was growing stale until Ahrendrs came along to build upon the popularity of its trench coats.
This will mark the first time that the Apple's senior vice president is in charge of its brick-and-mortar stores also
To help build buzz, the company brought more technology to the catwalk by streaming its fashion shows through online outlets such as Twitter. The strategy boosted Burberry's sales as Web surfers bought the fancy coats, shoes and bags the company previewed.
will be in charge of the company's online sales.
both jobs until he got to know Ahrendts.
In his memo to Apple employees, Cook said he never had met an executive capable of doing
Are Lawrence's state-named streets in the order that they joined the Union? Sort of. Twenty-two streets, from Delaware Street to Florida Street are in order, with the exception of five east Lawrence streets (New York Street to Mass Street).
POLICE REPORTS
Information based on the Douglas County Sheriff's Office booking recap.
Emily Donovan
- Sunday, a hit and run occurred in the parking lot of the McDonald's restaurant at 1309 W. 6th St. An unidentified gray vehicle drove around a silver GMC, hitting the GMC's front right corner, ordered food, continued through the drive-thru and left the scene. The gray car was last seen westbound out of the parking lot.
BECAUSE THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU HAD IN MIND WHEN YOU SAID...
"THINGS WERE HEATING UP."
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