20131022 catwalk credentials (october 19 2013)
TRANSCRIPT
10/22/13 Technology and luxury goods: Catwalk credentials | The Economist
www.economist.com/news/business/21588087-why-burberrys-boss-perfect-fit-apple-catwalk-credentials 1/4
More from The Economist Subscription [email protected]
World politics Business & finance Economics Science & technology Culture Blogs Debate Multimedia Print edition
Bringing a touch of style
In this section
Runway or another
Oh really, O’Leary?
Safe as houses
Fizzing with rage
Commercial law
Oct 19th 2013 | From the print edition
Technology and luxury goods
Catwalk credentials
Why Burberry’s boss is a perfect fit for Apple
AMONG stewards of big luxury brands Angela Ahrendts, the boss of Burberry, is probably
the geekiest. Her main achievement has been to make the 150-year-old British company the
most technologically savvy of its peers. Burberry plans to be the first luxury company that is
“fully digital end to end”, she boasts. But what can she do for Apple, which on October 14th
said it would poach her to run its retailing operations? Probably the opposite: revive a sense
of style at a tech firm that has lately looked a bit dowdy.
Many purveyors of luxury fret about cheapening their wares by selling them online. Of the
100 biggest luxury brands just 56 have transactional websites, according to Exane BNP
Paribas, an investment bank. Ms Ahrendts, an American who took over Burberry in 2006,
had no such hangups. Not content with flogging calfskin trench coats online, she has
deployed every platform, device or bit of software she could think of to romance customers
and spark collaboration among employees and suppliers. iPad-wielding salespeople in
Burberry stores can look up what customers have already bought, and suggest what might
take their fancy next.
Ms Ahrendts should add pizzazz to Apple’s bricks-and-mortar
shops, which are the most profitable in America measured by
sales per square foot. But that seems a small job for a
woman who last year was the highest-paid chief executive of
a company in the FTSE 100 share index. At Apple, from next
spring, she will merely be a senior vice-president.
Advertisement
Follow The Economist
Latest blog posts - A l l times are GMT
The Economist explains: How do bike-
sharing schemes shape cities?
The Economist explains - 3 hours 10 mins ago
Comment (14) Print
E-mail Reprints & permissions
10/22/13 Technology and luxury goods: Catwalk credentials | The Economist
www.economist.com/news/business/21588087-why-burberrys-boss-perfect-fit-apple-catwalk-credentials 2/4
Catwalk credentials
Tap to hail
A new business idol
Reprints
Related topics
Technology
Consumer electronics
Science and technology
Electronics
Smart-phones
So the odds are that her brief will go well beyond managing
Apple’s stores. She can help it crack the Chinese market,
where its iPhones are also-rans in the race against cheaper
smartphones from Samsung and local manufacturers.
Burberry earns more than a third of its revenue in Asia
compared with Apple’s 28%.
A bigger job will be to ready Apple for the coming fusion of
fashion and technology. The most talked-about new devices
are wearable. Google’s Glass smuggles a smartphone into a
pair of spectacles. Samsung’s Galaxy Gear squeezes some
smartphone functions into a wristwatch. Apple is also keen to
surf the wearable wave. An iWatch, which Apple may launch
next year, would pull it towards Ms Ahrendts’s home turf,
since it would compete with fashionable timepieces like Burberry’s.
Apple has long been something of a fashion house. Its product launches are choreographed
like catwalk shows. But its glamour has faded since the death of Steve Jobs, its founder, in
2011. His successor, Tim Cook, is striving to regain it. He recently hired Paul Deneve, the
boss of Yves Saint Laurent, a French fashion house. Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s design guru, now
oversees the look of software as well as hardware. Ms Ahrendts brings another eye for
beauty, and a knack for seducing consumers.
From the print edition: Business
Recommend 19
Submitto reddit
View all comments (14) Add your comment
More related topics:
Related items
Smart-phones Mobile phones Fashion
Want more? Subscribe to The Economist and get the week's most
relevant news and analysis.
TOPIC: Technology »
Shipbuilding in South Korea: Extreme drilling
Difference Engine: The threat in the pocket
Computer security: Verify, then trust
TOPIC: Consumer electronics »
Taxis and technology: Tap to hail
Money talks: October 14th 2013: The end of theroad?
Business this week
TOPIC: Science and technology »
Daily chart: Unlikely results
Economic history: Plagued by dear labour
The Economist explains: Why are so manypeople leaving the Mississippi Delta?
TOPIC: Electronics »
Electricity: Edison’s revenge
Mobile banking in Myanmar: Leapfrog spotting
BlackBerry: Still in a jam
Kenya and the ICC: Trying trials
Baobab - Oct 22nd, 22:57
Edward Burtynsky photographs water:
Snapping from a hole in a Cessna
Prospero - Oct 22nd, 18:52
Airline customer service : Mr O’Leary
takes to Twitter
Gulliver - Oct 22nd, 17:14
Pensions: Save yourself
Buttonw ood's notebook - Oct 22nd, 16:53
Low-cost tablet wars: You won't find an
Apple under every Christmas...
Schumpeter - Oct 22nd, 16:05
Obamacare : One reason for the
complexity
Democracy in America - Oct 22nd, 16:02
More from our blogs »
Most popular
Recommended
Commented
Advertisement
Sponsored by
Problems withscientific researchHow science goeswrong
Unreliable research: Trouble at the lab
The fiscal deal in Washington: Worse thanEurope, really
Politics this week
Letters: On Spain, Bulgaria, David Cameron, thecensus, art, missing people, roundabouts, energy,consultants
The fiscal deal inWashingtonWorse than Europe,really
Barack Obama's speech: Is the presidenttrolling?
Problems with scientific research: Howscience goes wrong
The debt-ceiling deal: Last-minutemen
Shutdown politics: Romanticism, meet reality
1
23
45
1
2
3
45
10/22/13 Technology and luxury goods: Catwalk credentials | The Economist
www.economist.com/news/business/21588087-why-burberrys-boss-perfect-fit-apple-catwalk-credentials 3/4
Professor ofeconomics with aspec…
Jobs.economist.com
Economist/SeniorEconomist –Financ…
Jobs.economist.com
Professor ofeconomics with aspec…
Jobs.economist.com
Deputy RegionalDirector for theEa…
Jobs.economist.com
Classified ads
Products & events
Stay informed today and every day
Get e-mail newsletters
Subscribe to The Economist's free e-mail
newsletters and alerts.
Follow The Economist on Twitter
Subscribe to The Economist's latest article
postings on Twitter
Follow The Economist on Facebook
See a selection of The Economist's articles,
events, topical videos and debates on Facebook.
Advertisement
Sections
United StatesBritainEuropeChina
Blogs
Americas viewAnalectsBabbageBanyan
Research and insights
TopicsEconomics A-ZSpecial reportsStyle guide
10/22/13 Technology and luxury goods: Catwalk credentials | The Economist
www.economist.com/news/business/21588087-why-burberrys-boss-perfect-fit-apple-catwalk-credentials 4/4
Contact us Help About us Advertise with us Editorial Staff Staff Books Careers Site index [+] Site Feedback
Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2013. All rights reserved. Accessibility Privacy policy Cookies info Terms of use
Contact us
My account
Subscribe
Print edition
Digital editions
Events
Jobs.Economist.com
AsiaAmericasMiddle East & AfricaBusiness & financeEconomicsMarkets & dataScience & technologyCultureMultimedia library
Debate and discussion
The Economist debatesWhat the world thinksLetters to the editorThe Economist Quiz
BaobabBlightyButtonwood's notebookCharlemagneDemocracy in AmericaEastern approachesErasmusFeast and famineFree exchangeGame theoryGraphic detailGulliverNewsbookPomegranateProsperoSchumpeterThe Economist explains
The World in 2013Which MBA?The Economist GMAT TutorReprints and permissions
The Economist Group »
The Economist Intelligence UnitThe Economist Intelligence UnitStoreThe Economist Corporate NetworkIdeas People MediaIntelligent LifeRoll CallCQEuroFinanceThe Economist Store
View complete site index »