Roger Fingas
Fashion brand Ralph Lauren has announced plans to nominate Angela Ahrendts, Apple's retail head, for a non-executive position on its board of directors.
Ahrendts will be up for election at Ralph Lauren's annual shareholders meeting, currently expected in August. Top-level executives — including Lauren himself — are treating her appointment as a done deal, suggesting they expect little if any resistance in voting.
The appointment will leave Ahrendts in her current full-time position at Apple, making her little more than an advisor in her added duties.
Ahrendts is no stranger to the fashion industry, having served as the CEO of Burberry until she joined Apple in 2014. That background is widely believed to be the reason for her hiring, since Apple announced the Apple Watch later that year and embarked on an international revamp of its retail aesthetics with fashion in mind.
That overhaul is still in progress, since the company has over 500 stores worldwide and many U.S. locations are a decade or more old. In some cases Apple has waited until it could move into larger spaces to accommodate growing traffic.
The last dedicated pop-up store for the Watch is set to close on May 13. Under Ahrendts, Apple launched several around the world in a bid to position the product as a fashion accessory.
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19 Comments
Why is she taking on outside work when there is so much left undone at Apple? The stores are a mess. Very stylish, yes, but within that visually zen-like shell chaos reigns. In one corner a class is being conducted with the instructor shouting to be heard. Right next to that are a dozen people sitting on cubes waiting for or being helped by geniuses. Everywhere else team members are conversing loudly with customers while others loiter, waiting for their chance to get help. The din is mind numbing. I can’t wait to conclude my business and get out into the relative serenity of the mall. Driving customers out is not a good result. Sound deadening materials are needed badly to counteract all the hard reflective surfaces. A separate theatre is needed for classes. Some visual cues are needed for folks to understand where they should be for purpose for which they came. Come on Angela, do your homework before you go out to play with Ralph.
I am not a big fan... she is a PC hire and nothing else. A monkey could run Apple Retail at the moment. She has done nothing to improve the situation like the above commenter stated. So many failures with the Retail management really. It's SAD!
Just by buying Apple products, we are now all connected to Ralph Lauren . Cool!