Apple retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, has recently sat down with Fast Company for a brief interview. She discussed her first two years working at Apple, as well as why this company is one of the most successful companies in the world.
Ahrendts first noted that she was able to travel to 40 different markets in order to meet retail leaders, as well as to plan her strategy. Perhaps the most notable result of her retail strategy is the fact that Apple had the highest retention rate in 2015, at 81 percent. Interestingly enough, Ahrendts explains that she doesn’t look at retail employees as simply retail employees, but instead she sees them as executives. This is Ahrendts’ comment about Apple Store employees:
[quote]“We just ended the year with the highest retention rates we’ve ever had: 81%. And the feedback [from Apple Store employees is that it’s] because they feel connected. They feel like one Apple. They don’t feel like they’re just somebody over here working with customers. I don’t see them as retail employees. I see them as executives in the company who are touching the customers with the products that Jony [Ive] and the team took years to build. Somebody has to deliver it to the customer in a wonderful way.”[/quote]
It is also interesting to note that Apple retail chief thinks highly of the company’s values and culture. This goes deeper than just the products, since Apple CEO, Tim Cook, wants to be involved in societal issues. Here’s Angela’s comment on this aspect of the company:
[quote]“The thing I didn’t know before I came in—a month in, I told my husband, “I now know why this is one of the most successful companies on the planet: Because the culture is so strong. The pride, the protection, the values.” The company was built to change people’s lives. That foundation, that service mentality, that drive to continue to change lives—that is a core value in the company. And Tim [Cook] then has added his on: He says it’s also our responsibility to leave it better than we found it. So you have these two amazing pillars and a culture built around that. It’s the same in retail and in [Cupertino]. That is the underlying mission, and how could you know that unless you’re inside? But it is deeper than you would ever imagine.”[/quote]
Angela Ahrendts is the senior vice president of retail and online services at Apple, since 2014. Before that, she was the CEO of Burberry from 2006 to 2014.
You can find her full interview with Fast Company by following this link.
