October, 15th, 2013

LONDON | CHIEF CREATIVE EXECUTIVE OFFICER ! | BURBERRY

Burberry Chairman Sir John Peace discusses with Angela Ahrendts and Chris topher Bailey the news that Angela will step down as Chief Executive Officer by mid-2014, with Chris topher assuming the role of Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer ..

Why? After Yves Saint Laurent’s Ceo Paul Deneve, Nike’s designer Ben Shaffer, Apple taps Angela Ahrendts from Burberry as as a senior vice president with oversight of retail and online s tores, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Ahrendts will be looking to do better than John Browett who quit Dixons to lead the iPad and iPhone maker’s global retail expansion in 2012. He left six months later.

Yet, Burberry still innovates by naming Chris topher Bailey CEO, a position that is time consuming and requires very different skill sets from a being Chief Creative ..

The experience is the br and. The digital can make or break the experience. By dedicating 40% of its marketing budget to digital, Burberry have paved the way.

Angela Ahrendts and Chris topher Bailey have transformed the way Burberry engages with the world, from its consumers to its associates, leveraging disruptive technology to share its pure br and vision through content-rich, compelling s torytelling. Blurring the lines of physical and digital–with a flagship s tore that mirrors the website and a website that shares live experiences from concerts to runway shows–Burberry constantly challenges itself to keep pace with society.

Now Burberry is calibrating the same experience in a bold illogical move. By naming a 13 years-in-force Chief Creative as Chief Executive Officer, Burberry might anticipate a new creed in fashion, but certainly not in corporate management. Time will tell. We anticipate some (inves tor) concerns but not any regarding effective targeting of millennials or engaging global audiences through digitally-led authentic and emotive s torytelling.

What about Angela Ahrendts + Apple? Well, it’s L’ÉDITOR

PS: The Burberry Prorsum Womenswear Spring Summer 2014 shot entirely with iPhone 5s !