Fortune:
There are lots of things people wonder about Ahrendts. Why did she, the celebrated architect of Burberry’s turnaround, give up her post as CEO and uproot her family to become, at best, the third or fourth most powerful executive at the $183-billion-in-sales tech giant?
Here’s another: What does Apple think Ahrendts—whom it paid an astounding $73.4 million in stock and cash in her first year—brings to a company that has redefined the technology and retail sectors, one that, at this point, seems not to need a whole lot of anything? And a third: What has she accomplished so far?
A lot of people don’t understand Ahrendts role at Apple, assuming she’d be as high profile at Apple as she was at Burberry. It’s the curse of short term thinking and not realizing that both Ahrendts and Cook are, as usual, playing the Long Game.
One thing she’s not doing is respecting Apple’s long history in the education field, implying that students can pick up the Apple Watch in order to cheat without being caught by teachers. A joke, sure, but not one I’d ever see Tim Cook or Phil Schiller making.
I think she was more joking about it being the new way to pass messages to one another other than tossing them to each other on scraps of paper the teacher can intercept. Passing funny notes is a totally different thing from cheating. Why does everyone immediately take comments to their extremes these days?
She didn’t uproot her family. They have always lived in Indiana (close to me, ironically) even when she worked in England.
Completely overrated hoopla concerning that comment. Some people to to chill.
We have yet to witness the true talents of Ahrendts.
” It’s the curse of short term thinking and not realizing that both Ahrendts and Cook are, as usual, playing the Long Game.”
There’s plenty of evidence for the latter. Especially when he was COO and building out logistics. What is the evidence for the former. You can’t just say, “X is playing the long game,” without identifying a) what the long game is and b) how that person is positioning the company for success at the long game.
The moment I heard of her hiring I thought the long game was (and is), pushing Apple into traditional retail, beyond their stores. We’ve seen this with Watch a little, mostly on the high end. I would bet that we’ll see more of it in the years to come. Oh, we won’t see Apple stuff at Sears – but at Tiffany or even Nordstrom? Very possible, especially if wearables start to become a thing and they expand past watches.
implying that she meant cheating is all in your head. she never said that. my impression from her quote was passing around notes, not cheating. you’re searching for controversy. i call that trolling.
They’re already in traditional non-Apple retail. You can buy Apple items at Target and Walmart today and have been able to do that for years.
As someone working in higher ed, we’re currently trying to combat cheating on some very high-stakes testing. While I imagine she meant it in jest, it still suggests something to students who are already trying to figure out a way to game the system. It’s not malicious, just careless.
Whatever the reason, so many websites that are about business or the stock market, do not get Apple, or choose not to, or are just posting link bait articles. I guess if they really knew about business they would be out there actually making money, not trying to tell other companies how to make money. Apple certainly doesn’t need their assistance.
Again, going straight to cheating as the meaning of her comment is taking her comment way out of proportion, and maybe doing a lot of your students a disservice lumping them all in with cheaters.
And Best Buy. But those tend to be the computer products and accessories which is all they’ve had to now. I see her as driving them more into mistier and high end retail, esp as wearables happen.
You have no evidence of this and are simply going along with the second hand interpretation of what some guy wrote. Come on. Show some sense.
One of the problems is that she has had no role in any Apple events, and has not spoken on behalf of the company anywhere. It’s as if Apple is hiding her. At a time when every tech company is scrutinized for how they promote women, Apple is trotting out more and more female managers to speak except for the highest ranked one. It is odd, regardless of the length of their game.
Another thing – did anyone not notice that Jeff Williams and not Kevin Lynch talked up Apple Watch yesterday?
Why should Ahrendts be visible at all? We don’t see Sir Jony except in videos, and then we only hear his voice. Architects aren’t out there. Industrial designers aren’t out there. Their finished products speak for themselves. Besides, they’re most likely well immersed in daily tasks to have much time for public faces.
We’ve heard about her and Sir Jony working on new store designs. That’s a huge endeavor involving so much thought, research, planning, and coordination. And it’s highly proprietary.
So let her be and get on with her weighty responsibilities. We’ll see her products when they’re ready.
I think we’ve been seeing the retail-level effects of her work for months now, if not more than a year.