There's a recent news:Apple's share price has evaporated by 25% in two months.Even Buffett, the stock god who owns a lot of Apple shares, will be locked up for the time being.

In fact, this is not an accident, after all, has been for several years,Apple no longer has a breakthrough technology release, which has led to the iPhone's market share has been being chased by a variety of cheap models and counter-super。

But subtly, while the proportion of people buying Apple phones worldwide has been declining,but it doesn't affect them making money at allApple's net profit rose as much as 32% from a year earlier, according to its quarterly results.

Because when it comes to "phones," people still have the best impression of Apple.Think of it as a luxury in a mobile phone.

The iPhone is also the phone model with the highest fashion rate

Technology aside, Apple's experience of buying services, to the design of its stores, is increasingly giving the impression that it's buying luxury goods.

Many people may not notice that Apple has been quietly updating the details of its stores in recent years, with the latest staircase at Apple's Shibuya store (left) and the original staircase (right).

The new staircase adds classical design to the original sense of technology, and when you walk through it, people think you're in a luxury store

The credit behind this,That's thanks in part to an executive named Angela Ahrendts inside Apple.

Angela Ahrendts, now Apple's senior vice president of retail and CEO of luxury goods company Burberry until 2014, paid $73 million for her.

△Angela Ahrendts

She is now said to be Apple's highest-paid employee, with an annual salary of $25.8m ($170m) last year.

There's also a little story about Ahrendts' job-hopping:

When Apple CEO Cook took the heavy gold to dig her up, she bluntly refused: "I'm sorry, I don't know technology." " 

But Cook responded calmly: "We've got tens of thousands of technicians here, and you don't have to know the technology, just be yourself."

In the face of the temptation of heavy money and such a overbearing response, Ahrendts still did not agree, in the endIt took Cook 18 months to successfully lobby her to Apple.

Left: Tim Cook; right:Angela Ahrendts

At that time, people who were outside did not understand, since this person even technology do not understand, then the start of the technology of Apple really value her what point.

Cook himself replied: "Unique insight and sensitivity to the market.”

Time goes back to 2006, when Angela Ahrendts was just appointed ceo of Burberry.

And then we all know,In 2008, the global financial crisis eruptedThe luxury business has shrunk so much that most of the rich are no longer in the mood to buy expensive luxury goods.

But in this case, Ahrendts resisted the pressure and let Burberry's performance rise.

Burberry's magical growth curve has been soaring against the trend since a small adjustment in 2008

By the time she left office, Burberry's revenues had not declined in the years after the financial crisis, but had been growing at double-digit rates every year. So.By then, she was the highest-paid female executive in the world of luxury goods.

Such an experience, how to listen to like a man of great capital, psychologically powerful strong woman.

But that wasn't the case, and TED had invited Ahrendts to give a speech, and she did it all the wayFinished his speech in a very tense and trembling voice.

So much so that some viewers commented that she seemed unconfident and how to teach others how to 👇

But the problem is, this is clearly a real annual salary of more than 100 million female executives ah. Out of curiosity, I went to study herexperience.

I found that Ahrendts really didn't have a background to show off, was born in a small village, didn't go to any good schools, had a good background, and was very mediocre throughout his student days.Basically can be said to be the kind of person who took a bad hand.

And her subsequent success is a lesson for everyone:

1、

No design talent, go and learn marketing

In 1960, Angela Ahrendts was born in a village called New Palestine in Indiana.

△Street view of New Palestine

Indiana in the eyes of americans is already relatively poor rural states, this village called New Palestine is only more than 2,000 people, can be said to be "village village" ...

Her father was a small local businessman, her mother worked part-time as a model for a living, and the family had six children.

On the far left is Angela Ahrendts

Because the conditions are general,A large group of people can only squeeze into a small room.

How crowded is it? According to Adhendts, she often goes to the locker under the stairs to do what she likes, looking for a little peace. (As you can imagine, Harry Porter grew up living in his aunt's locker.)

Also because there are too many children, she also often help her mother to make up clothes for her brother and sister to wear. It was also at that time that she found herself quite fond of sewing clothes, so she often bought fashion magazines to see, the more she looked, the more she loved themDetermined to enter the fashion industry, grow up to be a fashion designer.

With ambition, Adhendts worked hard to finally... I got into a school equivalent to three colleges in China.

Bauer State University, the 158th-ranked university in the United States last year.

She did want to choose a clothing design major at first, but found that she had no talent at all.

Later, a professor suggested thatYou can take care of other people's ideas in particular, it's better to learn marketing。 So she eventually studied marketing and commodity marketing.

It can be said that until she graduated from college at the age of 22, her experience was lacklusco and unsolued.

After the last college exam, Ahrendts bought a one-way ticket to New York and made up his mind to break through. In the words of our country's national conditions, that is, the "north drift" went.

2、

In five years, I gained twice as much experience as my peers

Limited by academic qualifications, Ahrendts initially had to start with a low-level salesman in a small New York menswear.

She revealed in an interview that she worked 80 hours a week for the first five years because she learned that it was not easy for an average graduate like her to survive in New YorkIn a short period of time, you get more than twice as much work experience as your peers.

Later, because of her outstanding sales performance, she was soon dug up by CK underwear to continue working overtime, until 1989, one of her bosses jumped ship to Donna Karan, took her with her, and eventually referred her to management.

PS: Young people today don't know what Donna Karan is anymore, but in the 1990s, when Ahrendts was in office, it was one of the hottest brands in fashion.

Donna Karan's advertisement in the 1990s promoted that women could continue to work even if they had children

Of course, a promotion doesn't just depend on hard work, and some of her former boss's comments about Ahrendts give you a rough idea of why she's not highly educated but popular:

“She never flinched, never whined, never shirked. I can’t say that about too many people. ”

She didNever flinch, never complain, never run awayNot everyone has that quality. "

To put it simply, you can clean up the mess. Even those problems that are not entirely her responsibility will be solved by her.

Donna Karan, for example, was so hot that the company suddenly found that its productivity and supply were completely out of keeping up with order demand and were stretched everywhere.

Cindy Crawford walks the catwalk for Donna Karan in autumn/winter 1988

As a result, Ahrendts, who had just started out in a marketing management position, quickly took over the task, helping the boss to reform the supply system, eventually increasing supply by 25 per cent and successfully solving the mess.

Who doesn't like such a person?

So after more than two decades of hard work, by 2002, at the age of 42, she had finally become president of a fashion company called Liz Claiborne.

3、

Simple business insight

Now think back to what was going on in the fashion world in the early 2000s.

If anyone who knew something about that era might remember that time, every Hollywood star had oneNow it looks like the ugly Juicy Couture sportswear👇

△从左至右：Jennefer Lopez；Paris Hilton；Britney Spears

It's popular all over the world,Thanks to Ahrendts' push.

In early 2000, when Liz Claiborne planned to buy one or two fashion brands, Ahrendts took a photo of Juicy Couture to the board.

The board thought she was crazy, and people in the fashion world were dismissive of the suit.

Ahrendts sees the other side behind fashion:This kind of dress is both public and comfortable,Between "fashionable" and "simple", to fill the gap in the market at that time.

Eventually, she convinced the board and helped get a bunch of stars. Her insight proved accurate, and Juicy Couture did become a star favorite in the years that followed.

They usually wear it when they return home from a dinner party, when they drink coffee, when they walk their dogs, and when they go to 👇

Paris Hilton often wears Juicy Couture when flying

Even if you look back now, Juicy Couture is pretty earthy, but there's no other dress like these fluorescent sportswear.It's convenient, and it doesn't look too shy when it's photographed by the paparazzi.

Ahrendts's colleagues at the time later commented and praised her:

"She doesn't take into account her image, she doesn't take into account what looks cool, it's a personality that's rare in the fashion industry, and that's why she's able to focus on what she's in hand." Everyone wants to work with her becauseShe is simple, not conceited, and has her own attitude to life.”

Angela Ahrendts with her children

Simplicity, a word that doesn't sound worth showing off in the fashion world, is the most authentic impression and compliment to her.

Eventually, Liz Claiborne's acquisition of Juicy Couture was completed in 2003, after which Ahrendts acquired brands such as Kate Spade.Almost every brand later became popular among young American.

She also appeared on TIME's List of Women of Rights in 2004

A few years later, at the age of 50, she was finally ceded to Burberry, a real luxury brand.

4、

Think differently

In 2006, Burberry suddenly invited Ahrendts to be president.

The whole fashion world is a voice of doubt. Because the name Angela Ahrendts has never been president of a real luxury company, burberry is a centuries-old British veteran.Most people in the industry think she's not professional enough at all.

The Financial Times even commented at the time: "Burberry is not afraid to enter the market in Ahrendts' home state of Indiana." " Words are full of irony.

At the time, the Financial Times thought Angela Ahrendts' birth and background were very different from Burberry's

But Burberry's decision to travel to the U.S. to get a president was also a last-of-a-year reasonAt that time they were in deep trouble and in urgent need of rescue.

Around the beginning of 2000, the world was littered with Burberry plaet fakes, first because football hooligans in Europe were littering around, and second because of the proliferation of their own external mandates. AnywayBrand value has been severely eroded.

So the consensus in the industry at the time was that Burberry urgently needed to bring the brand back.That's probably why they're questioning why this girl from Indiana isn't up to it.

But Ahrendts himself thinks soIt's not just that it doesn't sell well, it's not just that it's not enough.Think about it from the perspective of a customer who can really spend.

She went for a walk around burberry's store before taking office, and when she came back, she had a feeling that the brand was in such a mess that I didn't want to buy anything.

Then it took her six months,From a consumer's point of view, visit a burberry branch and store across the worldand later discovered a fatal problem:

Brand that year in order to sell, any category is produced, even pet supplies are sold.

Burberry's Scottish plag pet bag

Some customers think Burberry produces Polo shirts, some think their family produces raincoats, and others think they sell Scottish plaque scarves, but no one knows exactly what the luxury brand started with.

Ahrendts finally gave the response: directly cut 35 product categories, reduce the frequency of the emergence of grid elements, take back the flood of fashion management rights, take back the right to make-up agents,The whole brand only pushes one of the earliest star products, that is, now everyone knows the "windshield".

Burberry Spring/Summer 2007 ad

The best brands “are the pure brands,” she said. “The purer our message, the more compelling it is to consumers.”

"The best brands are the ones that are particularly 'pure'", "the less information we send, the more attractive our consumers are." "

After that, the thought of Burberry immediately came to mind the image of a windcoat.

In 2007, when the reforms began to bear fruit, Burberry's sales grew by 25% in the third quarter and everyone was confident about their future.

5、 

Don't miss a chance for an economic retreat

Happy times are less than a year away, the 2008 financial crisis came, in more popular terms,It's about starting to downgrade consumption...

Just how much of an impact this had on the fashion industry at the time, just share a set of numbers. The year after that, sales at Swiss-owned Calendar fell 7 per cent, while sales at Paris Spring department stores fell 12 per cent.

Lehman Brothers, America's fourth-largest investment bank, declared bankruptcy that year

Everyone in the luxury world panicked.

While the recession has also affected Burberry, Ahrendts' advantage is that, after decades of experience cleaning up the mess, she can quickly come up with a solution:

First, stop loss.She immediately suspended the renovation of half of Burberry's flagship stores around the world, turned the way stores were supplied by air to sea, encouraged more video conferencing, suspended internal promotions, lowered market budgets and so on, saving the company $78 million.

Burberry's spring/summer 2009 ad, in the indoor greenhouse also produced a large number of effects

Second, in contrast,She took advantage of the financial crisis to buy Burberry's now-popular headquartersThe building, once home to the British Parliament, sits on 15,000 square metres of eight floors in central London. This gives every employee a sense of accomplishment when they come in and out of headquarters.

Burberry's current headquarters, Horseferry House

Finally, it was the most important decision of Ahrendts at the time:

Now that the financial crisis has hit the market hard,Why not target Burberry sales to young people who are more willing to spend money?

Burberry has been advertising teen idol Emma Watson since 2010

What's more, if you want to attract young people, you don't have to "waste" big budgets on traditional media insteadspending money on online communication,Not only can you save a lot of money, but you can also radiate to more people.

△Burberry built an online museum called Art of the Trench in 2009 to replace paper-based communication with online communication

Perhaps in today's eyes, many people will find this decision nothing new. But note that it was 2009, not to mention luxury brands, which were skeptical about the future of new media.

Under the influence of Ahrendts, Burberry, a British luxury brand in its 150s,ActuallyAdventure became the world's first brand to broadcast a fashion show live online。

Even after a 3D holographic projection show in Beijing in 2011, they are still quite pioneers when they look back.

When models appear before your eyes, you'll find that everything is a mirage

MeanwhileBurberry alsoIs.The first brands to dare to run video ads on InstagramIt was also the most-fanted luxury brand on Facebook and Twitter at the time.

As can be seen from the timeline, Burberry launched its Facebook page as early as 2009

So in 2011, when the economy recovered slowly, the old British brand managed to attract the attention of young people, with revenues of 1.5 billion pounds, up 27% from the previous year and twice the growth rate of the LVMH group over the same period.

△Burberry's share price performance in those years: market capitalisation soared threefold in the wake of the financial crisis

After that, Angela Ahrendts concluded in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:

“Don't waste any chance of an economic retreatIt tells us what really mattersand those less important things will be eliminated on their own. "

TED smelled the wind and immediately invited Ahrendts to share the experience. Unfortunately, the whole speech didn't look so good and didn't make any waves.

But as it happens, Apple CEO Cook is looking for a leadership role from the luxury industry to help the company transition. He noticed the video of the speech and dropped by to investigate Ahrendts' professional background.

There is no doubt that no one is more suitable for the position than her.

Then came the opening scene: after 18 months of lobbying, Angela Ahrendts finally went to Apple in 2014.It also became the world's highest-paid female executive that year.

Some business commentators think that digging Angela Ahrendts,It was one of the most correct decisions Apple Ceo Tim Cook has made in his years in office.

Her departure has also led to Burberry's stagnating performance in recent years.

△Ahrendts' last shows during the Burberry era were broadcast live on the iPhone 5S

But many outsiders still don't understand why this woman, who looks ordinary from birth to educational background, can come to this day with her TED talk voice shaking.

In fact, even Ahrendts themselves didn't know it at first.

In 2010, Bauer State University invited her back to her alma mater to share her successful life experiences with her siblings.

Ahrendts rebuffed: I didn't even think about why I could succeed, I just kept learning and living for 20 years and working hard for 30 years.

But in the end, she spent five months reviewing, writing 10,000 words and standing on the podium at her alma mater.This life experience, which comes at the age of 50, is simple, but more helpful than many:

First, everyone must discover their core values no matter what.

It sounds old-fashioned, but most people can't.Because many people have a deviation in their understanding of the word "value". People tend to think that only the characteristics of "strong" and "independent" are valuable, but the truth is that everyone has their own value.

In Ahrendts's case, she thinks her strengths are that she cares so much about other people's ideas that she has said that she is very dependent on her family and can't live without her husband and children, which sounds neither cool nor independent, or even like an advantage at all, but that doesn't mean it's worthless.

So the second point that comes with it,It's important to choose what's best for your core values.

The characteristic of "minding what others think" may not make Ahrendts a very strong leader, but it is ideal for marketing and service retailing because she is naturally sensitive to "what others think".

Coupled with her modesty and simplicity, she takes the opinions of others very seriously, which also helps her see more opportunities to be ignored.

The third largest news site in the United StatesBuzzfeed even once rated Ahrendts as a priest

Finally, it is she who often emphasizes with her children that it is essential that, after setting goals,Stay on your own track to compete.

"Don't listen to anyone who advises you to do what you do, only you know what you're most passionate about." Once you find this direction, focus on it, and the more focused you are, the more successful you will be. "

In fact, Ahrendts was first questioned by the training manager when she worked in New York because she didn't seem confident enough to lead a marketing role.

But now she is one of the most likely candidates to replace Tim Cook as Apple's president.

If there is any value in her presence in this world, it is probably a reminder that it is not only those with strong personalities and talents who are talented enough to succeed.

Finding your place in the world is everyone's greatest success in life.

(Editor's Assistant for this issue: Xiao Jie)

Weibo: @freshboy 

WeChat: @byFRESH

Boutiques:Fresh list