Yesterday, The New York Times ran an article entitled The mysterious case of Apple and the elusive Angela Ahrendts which, in a nutshell, made the case that Apple’s Senior VP, Retail and Online Stores, Angela Ahrendts, was missing from public view.
At the heart of the Times’ article was this quote:
“Instead, it is Jonathan Ive, chief design officer of Apple, who has become the face of the brand.”
As part of the followup to our post of the Times’ article, I received this direct response to that quote, in an email from someone who works on the retail side:
Not to us Apple Retail employees! I don’t remember the last time I saw a photo of Tim Cook on any internal communications, but Angela? We start every week with her latest video. Hell, we see her so often that after she got her hair done a few weeks ago, employees noticed.
To me, this quote speaks volumes, both about Angela’s location (head down, hard at work improving the Apple Store experience) and about the loyalty that she engenders in the people who work in Apple’s retail operations.
Just an anecdote, but one I thought was worth sharing.
I don’t recall hearing a lot about Johnson (until he left for JC Penny)..
i could see her spending 48 hours just hosting those calls… they can’t all be at the same time (assuming it’s before/after retail hours) – so she’s got to have at least one per timezone. (globally).
I’ll bet she had at least something to do (networking) with the fashion show and co-branded Hermes watch.
“retail”, as far as her title is concerned, is as much about increasing luxury marketshare as keeping the “common” apple stores running.
is an Hermes iPhone UI a possibility? (i could see a ~1500 phone with a leather back or a matching phone/watch set). or that super tacky LV or Gucci branded phone.. Coach Leather ipad sleeves, Filson bags, the list goes on and on.. and these phones/watches are only available from the apple guy that lives in the Coach/Filson/Gucci stores so they’re “really exclusives”
with @apple.com being part of her email address.. I’m sure she can get a meeting with anyone she wants. (not that she couldn’t with @burbury previously)
what’d they sell 40M last quarter? who doesn’t want a piece of that?
Since she joined the company, I’ve seen numerous articles noting her attendance at store openings, etc.