Apple’s leaders have a history of recruiting the folks they want by convincing them to think different with their career choices. Steve Jobs recruited former Apple CEO John Sculley by asking if he wanted to sell sugar water (a.k.a Pepsi) his whole life or come and change the world. Jobs later convinced Tim Cook to join Apple through his unorthodox approach to business.
Now, at Cannes Lions’ International Festival of Creativity in France, Apple’s retail boss Angela Ahrendts reveals how Cook convinced her to join Apple in 2013 — even though this meant turning her back on her previous job at Burberry.
“It was funny,” she told the audience. “I fought joining Apple, because I thought I had the greatest job on the planet and we were flying, and life was incredible, but it was the culture that we had built and the values of the team at Burberry that was so brilliant. [But] Tim kept saying ‘trust me, trust me.'”
Ultimately, Ahrendts said that she found, in Apple, an analog for her own thoughts on how businesses should run. “You guys have been to Apple stores, you feel that energy and the values at Apple of the store teams and the loyalty and the tenure,” she continued. “The company’s values are aligned with my values and when you have that, [you think] ‘let’s go.'”
Like Cook, she was willing to take a gamble on joining Apple. “I was raised to use your instincts,” she said. “My parents would say, what are your God-given gifts, what do you love to do, and my dad was an avid reader and he would always say to thyself be true, and be your authentic self. Be who you are. I don’t care how old I am, I don’t ever want to forget where I came from.”
The risks of joining Apple?
It’s fair to point out that Ahrendts wasn’t making the exact same gamble as Tim Cook. Cook joined Apple in 1998, shortly after it became profitable again, but at a time when future success was still very much in question. Ahrendts, meanwhile, joined the company after Cook had taken over, at a time when Apple was going from financial strength-to-stregth.
The fact that she became Apple’s top-paid employee (including Cook) in her first year probably didn’t hurt, either.
However, Ahrendts’ success as Apple wasn’t without risk. Despite being hailed as the best person for the job, her Apple Store retail predecessor, Dixons’ John Browett, was unceremoniously dumped from Apple within months of arriving. Had Ahrendts suffered a similar fate, it would certainly have reflected poorly on not just Tim Cook, but also on Ahrendts as a leading executive in the retail business.
What have you thought of the Apple Stores under Angela Ahrendts’ control during her tenure at Apple? What, if anything, would you like to see improved? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: CNBC
