Apple Retail Store boss gets something new: 81% employee retention

What is needed to make changes within a successful business? After all, changing something that is going badly, but is much easier than playing with a team that is winning, right? Because that's what Angela Ahrendts (head of Apple stores both physical and online) talked to Fast Company.

She stepped down as CEO of Burberry to lead some 60,000 employees spread across dozens of countries, in hundreds of stores. Speaking about his Apple arrival, Ahrendts said he traveled extensively to meet people and that, at first, he just watched. After all, Apple Stores were already a place with a whole culture built and the executive's intention was not just to change “for changing”, but to improve what was already good.

First of all I just listened and learned. And then you start to think about what can add value you are bringing people together, making them collaborate. You are building trust. That alone will empower.

Thus, store employees quickly felt connected with the executive and the company as a whole. The result: the greatest retention of people ever seen in the company, with an excellent 81%.

I don't see them as retail employees. I see them as company executives who are sensitizing customers with the products that Jony (Ive) and the team took years to create. Someone has to deliver (the products) to customers in a wonderful way.

On whether there is a difference between retail and corporate employees, if store workers feel the same pride, defend the same values ​​as those who stay at headquarters, Ahrendts was emphatic. For her, the explanation of why Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world has a direct connection with the internal culture.

The company was created to change people's lives. That foundation, that service mentality, that drive to continue to change life, that is a fundamental value of the company. And Tim (Cook) then added his pinch: he says it's also our responsibility to make it better than when we found it. So you have these two incredible pillars and a culture built around that. It's the same thing in retail and in (Cupertino) that is the fundamental mission, and how can you know without being on the inside? But deeper than you would ever imagine.

Definitely, in the executive's words, Apple was Steve Jobs' best creation.

(via AppleInsider)