One of the the things that I particularly love about having Angela Ahrendts as tonight's star interviewee is that Angela comes from a town called New Palestine, Indiana. [ APPLAUSE ] Which is barely over 2, 000 people still to this day. And she is now, senior vice president of retail, for the most valuable company in the world, Apple. And there is a way to get From there, to here welcome Angela. [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] Thank you. Muah. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] So this is also very special because This is only Angela's- since Tim Cook came calling in 2014, when Angela was the CEO of Burberry. This is Angela's second on- stage interview since she took the job at Apple. And it's the first time she's going to be talking publicly about the new Apple Store design, and we're gonna even be talking about that concept of Apple stores, which you're completely rethinking. But let's start. I wanna start in New Palestine, Indiana. [ LAUGH ] And you know we have these fantastic three dozen of you, high school girls with us. And I'd like to know first of all Angela, what did you wanna do when you were 16 years old? [ LAUGH ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] It's a long time ago. [ LAUGH ] But it's funny, I grew up in a large family. So I'm one of six kids and I have four sisters And there are six of our in seven years so we're really really close. And my dad used to joke they did have TV so it's like but and my kids said we were from this very rule town so sports were a huge part of our lives. team sports were huge part of our life. In a very small neighborhood, community was a big part of our life. So it's funny back then, and I love to work. I always love to work. I mean, I did every chore that was known to man and I would log them all down so my mom would pay me the right amount at the end of the week and [ LAUGH ] And I know, it sounds odd, so between sports and between- And what sports did you play in high school? tennis, gymnastics, swimming, you name it but when you have six kids you kind of put them in everything. And so that keeps them really busy and wears them out, so those were the three and then I played tennis at college for a couple of years as well. And what was your first job? And I played golf too. [ LAUGH ] My first job was actually waiting tables. Okay, and I know you worked at the Music Land in the Munsey Mall. I did. You did. And now you're head of Apple Retail, which is like, that's like amazing. [ LAUGH ] Selling LPs too. [ LAUGH ] So Angela, you went from New Palestine, Indiana to Ball State University. You got to not filling in every dot in your career but, you became the- Head of Donna Karan International, and then you went to Liz Claiborne, and you were one of the top people there. And then in 2006, was it, that you went to Burberry and you became CEO of Burberry. And for those of you who are not familiar with what Angela did at Burberry And so how would you describe the transformation, and it was a transformation of a 200 plus year company, correct? It wa s pretty strategy and what did you set about to do there and what what would you do there? In three minutes or less. [ LAUGH ] You know, we, so I had met Christopher, we had hired him. Christopher Bailey was the chief, well he was actually the designer at [ UNKNOWN ] when I started. We knew each other because Donna had actually hired him right out of school. He won one of those contests in New York. So he had come to work at Donna. So we knew each other. And we actually set out to funny oddly enough not just to be tops in luxury, I remember sitting and having a three hour lunch before I ever decided to do it cuz packing up at that point in time three kids and two dogs and moving from New York City where we've been for 25 years to London was a huge huge decision and. And but Christopher and I sat there at lunch for three hours and we decided at the end of the lunch that, I had never done and he had never done it and maybe together we could actually create the kind of company that we both always dreamed of working for. So it was company first And I already said it was a business, a publicly traded business. And they happened to be in the business of fashion. And that was the lens we took, and we were in the people business. So happened to be in the business of fashion meaning that you wanted to create a new kind of lifestyle brand? Okay .>> And incredible company. Where the best talent and we decided the strategy fro the company over launch that day before ever started. >. And what was that strategy? That we absolutely wanted to retail that growth strategy, 25 % of their business was retail at that point and we knew that that's what we had, that we knew we wanna target younger customer because none of the peers were the millennials if you will and we knew everything we did had to be British Because that was our differentiator compared to our big Italian and French counterparts. And we just literally sat there, you know, and went line by line. And I think you know most importantly, I trusted him and he trusted me. And I think it goes back to the family, and values, and that's always And you're leaving out one thing here. You made Burberry a digital leader in the luxury space, in the fashion space. Angela posed on the cover of Fortune when she was the CEO of Burberry. Little did she know then, when she posed with an iPad in her hand, where she would end up. Tim Cook ended up noticing that. But you gave iPads to all Burberry sales people. Mm- hm. So Tim Cook comes calling in 2014 and had you ever met Steve Jobs? Had you ever met Tim Cook? Was this totally out of the blue? Tell us about this. No I had never had the honor of meeting Steve Jobs. I had followed him, I was a fan girl. And in interview we'd say that we turned the company around because of Apple, because of all their technology enabled us to do all over the world. And when Tim called the first time I told him thank you very much. I'm incredibly honored but I have the greatest job in the world so no thank you, because I'm loyal. And if you come from where I come from, you always put people first. And I had an amazing team and We won an amazing run and just acquired the beauty business back, ect, ect, ect and so I couldn't even fathom leaving my kids who are now in university but they were patient and persistent. So I tell my kids those are two great attributes to have. So we did the first dig on the record about Angela last year in the most powerful women issue, Jennifer Ryan Gold who is hosting tonight did a wonderful story, interviewed Angela for the first time on the record and you explained that when you told Tim Cook specifically what did you say to him, I'm not a? [ LAUGH ] The very first time we chatted, I finally was home for the holidays, I was living in London for almost nine years. And so we were home to Indiana for the holidays, and I think they knew we were gonna be home. And so they said would you please please fly out? And meet Tim, and again it was an honor to meet him. I mean I again admired everything he was doing at Apple. So I did but my mission was to talk him out of me, and so I said, don't believe everything you read. I am not a techie. Honestly, ask me daughter, I am absolutely not a techie. And he was so calm, and he just shook his head, and he just said, I think we have 10, 000 of those I think we're covered there. [ LAUGH ] And then I said but you don't understand, I'm actually not even a great retailer. I said we do so much more than that. And yes we have retail stores. And And he just very calmly, he said, last time i looked, we had the most productive stores in the world, so I think we got some really good operators too. [ LAUGH ] So it's like, okay. So it seemed like, and at one point he even, at one point he said, he just looked at me and he said you know you're supposed to be here Wow. Wow. And I said, how do you know that? And he said, because I watched your TED talk, and trust me, you're supposed to be here. And that was, and I think you have a lot of crossroads in your life, and I think that It, you know, people will say one thing that sticks with you and it actually haunted me. So, I have, it's interesting that you say that, I had no idea I would be so prepared but I have. I really didn't. I didn't know Ann would even mention the TEDTalk but I knew that was meaningful and I have a key line from your TED Talk. But before I read the key line, what was the essence of your TED Talk? It was on energy, on human energy. Because I think as you get older and you lead big groups of people, you realize the The gift, the power, the unity and clarity of vision, and most importantly, what I have discovered was no different than my childhood was that when you have this incredible foundation built on trust. What it empowers and what it enables and the hope and the belief. Trust just takes all the barriers away. And I think it's the same in a personal relationship or in a small business or in a huge business And that's really what I had always focused on. So Apple, though, Angela, has a- okay, it's the most valuable company in the world. So something is working there in terms of the culture, but it has a controversial culture. It has a famously secretive culture. It is a hard place to work and what could you bring in terms of the culture that wasn't already there ?>> And again, I speak on behalf of retail which is about half of the company's employees, give or take 60 to 65 thousand Incredible, incredible people that you guys all face when you go into the stores around the world. And then the contact centers that whenever you have a problem, if there's someone you need to call they're always there for you. It's an amazing group with incredible tenure. I mean, incredible tenure. Typically, retail average is about a 20, 20 % retention rate. We average about an 87 % retention rate in retail. I mean the numbers are unheard of. So the culture in retail may or may not have been slightly different than the rest of the company. It's harder to speak because I'm not in the engineering departments or product departments. But the culture in the retail organization and their mission or vision is not to sell you. Their whole values if you will Is to enrich people's' lives, that's how they talk about it. And they're hired for those right brain or those prefrontal cortex values. They're hired for empathy and compassion and very different then. And so that's, I think, when Tim heard the TED Talk, And then he knew this retail culture. I think that is why he was. So Angela said in this 2011 Ted Talk called the Power of Human Energy. She said, the more technologically advanced our society becomes, the more we need to go back to the basically fundamentals of human communication. Okay I agree, we agree. So what are you doing now, let me back up. What did you think then about what the opportunity was in 2014 when Tim Cook was lording you. What did you tell him the opportunity was to increase the value of these most productive stores on Earth? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Well, and again, he had one goal in mind. He had a retail store position open And it's hard once you are running the entire thing to go that narrow, if you will. So and again, realize I'm trying to talk him out of it because I [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ LAUGH ] So I In one of the emails, I kind of proposed something that I thought might delay him a couple months. [ LAUGH ] So I sent a very nice, gracious, humble email, and I just, thank you so much, etc. And if you ever would consider The retail stores and integrating those in the online business, cause that's the lens that I see the world through. At Burberry we did everything digital first. So I said if you ever wanted to integrate those and then wanted to make sure that they did something even greater Everywhere that they played, played a more important role in community. If you really ever considered doing that, then, of course, I would have to consider. And Good, good. About five minutes later, again, and he emailed back. Well, I haven't thought of it, but I love it. But then I think, I'm not young. I've been in business a long time, and I think that we were trying to do some really wonderful things at Burberry. We had the board agree to put 1 % of the profits into the Burberry Foundation, so we could help unlock creative thinking in kids. It was all around education. And the arts that had been taken out of schools. And so all of a sudden there's this incredible, the greatest platform in the world. And then it's not as much about a job, it's almost more of a calling. And you realize there's 500 of these incredible, incredible Stores, places, if you will where all of these people that want to do more and it's around if you open your eyes. Then if you take that it's you know. And then did you expect him, basically Angela is up for this job and she's redefining the job to the CEO. Before she even accepts it. Did you expect him to accept your vision of the job? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] No. No. No. Well, good for you and that is true power and now tell us, Angela. Seriously, it is. Good for you. So, Angela, how does That vision that you had in 2014 translate into what we are going to see. Now you, Angela, just came back from London on Friday night. The Regent Street store which is Apple's first store in Europe. Got the redesign. And at this point Union Square in New York, Regent Street, how many other stores have the new design? By the end of the year, we'll be at 95. 95, but you're not really doing your big launch. And you actually described to me, the launch will be at the point that The new source sort of turn on the App Store, right? They turn on the service [ UNKNOWN ] Explain that, explain what you're doing. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So again if in fact this was, if in fact that [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I'm at the stage in life where I think that companies have a huge obligation. And I think that the bigger the company, the bigger the obligation. So our whole vision for the new store design concept was what does the community need. How do we make it so that the best of Apple can come together in one place? You mentioned the app store. Apple Music is huge. Apply Pay, health and fitness, home kit. It's the number one camera in the world times a multiple of like ten. So therefore how do we help you become a better photographer. So we kind of mapped out everything people do on their devices. And said how do we make sure that we create an experience where the best of Apple comes together, one. But two, how do we make sure that the bigger that apple gets, we put something there that's so wow, but also that is so incredibly locally relevant. And we said how do we, you mention Steve and Tim has followed on. Tim says that education is a pillar for the company. The company gives 100 million to ConnectEd, to the poorest schools in America. iPads etc. I just visited one in the Bronx when I was in New York a couple of weeks ago. And so that is a pillar so therefore what's our roll in education? And maybe for students, to teach them something they're not being taught in school. So one of the things we'll turn on next year, as we turn on these stores, is a Swift curriculum. We will teach kids to code three times a day, free of charge, whenever their parents can bring them in. So there's programming for children under the Educate. There is programming for parents And there is programming for teachers so there is we just have been piloting in Union Square something we call teachers Tuesdays. Where teachers are allowed to come in every Tuesday and the team will do nothing but spend their time helping them and last Tuesday 78 teachers showed up from around San Francisco so. [ APPLAUSE ] Thanks [ APPLAUSE ] And musicians, photographers, our people in the arts, to what extent do you see this as kind of you're creating a gathering space for them? You know it's funny we call it a town square. And I think having three teams, and you go to Washington Square Park in New York, or you go to Covent Garden, or Eugent \ g Square. And on the weekends you'll see an artist over here sketching something, or a guy playing at a guitar over here, and kids love that, right. It's a human experience, because they're so used to living in their digital worlds, and so. So our whole concept was how does the story become like more like a Town Square. Again when the best of Apple comes together everybody is invited and it becomes almost a community hub .>> Does this change the way you hire people for the stores ?>> It changes. We did actually change the structure to go along with the new stores designs. So we talked bout the story being the biggest products that we produce now. And we launched five new features in that product. And the accessories now are called the avenues because there's typically little shops that go around a town square. There's a huge high res digital screen that we call the forum that you can seat 75 in front of. So the vision was I love the street sign that Steve used to put up the keynotes. That Apple was the intersection between liberal arts and technology. It just always resonated being a 50 50 right brain left brain kind of person and so, so our geniuses have been so revered for repairing your product But how did we? We needed to counterbalance that liberal arts. So in order to now service music and gaming on the app store, it's art and creativity, we've actually created a whole other group. And those are called creatives. And we have a creative pro position that will now rival that genius position. But that creative pro will teach you how to be a better photographer. So you come in, they will demo that product for you, sign you up for a photo walk, tell you Invisco is coming into the forum to show what's new on their app. That creative probe that handles photography will do all they can if that's your passion to make you the best you can be at it. Are you trying to What do you think about the term store, are you calling them that? No. [ LAUGH ] What are you calling them? It's Apple Union Square, it's Apple Region Street, it's Apple Keystone in Indianapolis, again the next generation they don't think of going. To the store, no. Angela very quietly a couple of weeks ago, like the press did not pick up on this, you change your title from Senior Vice President of Apple Retail and Online. To Apple retail which is a statement in itself. Angela, one more question and this is a tip of our hats to the young girls out there. What would you tell your 16 year old self? Looking back, if you could today. You know be your best self. Know who you are. Know what you know but know what you don't know. And you know every body has gifts that they've been given. And I think that it's so easy along the way to become incredibly insecure about everything you don't know or. And I think along the way people will tell you too and try to convince you to become something that you're not. Early in my days I had a man in human resources come up to me and tell me I was doing a good job but I really wasn't CEO material and that I needed a coach. And I was young so I said okay And I was supposed to be in Minneapolis for a week so they could teach me how to present better and it was funny because the very first day, they did these videos and then they played it back and I liked it I thought, well I liked it. I felt the energy, I felt really positive and then they spent the next 5 hours criticing every single thing I did Don't move your hands. You talk too fast, you know. And at the end of the day, I was supposed to be there all week long, I was so upset. And I just looked at them and I said I like me. And I'm, and this is who I am. [ APPLAUSE ] And I don't care if I become a CEO, so. And little did you know back then how important In the age of social media, authenticity has become. So Angela is an authentic leader. Thank you for that. Thank you, Angela. [ APPLAUSE ] [ SOUND ]

Angela Ahrendts joins the Most Powerful Women Conference to explain

This Woman Went from Small-Town Indiana to Becoming Apple's SVP of Retail