Who Is Angela Ahrendts?

Angela Ahrendts is the senior vice president of retail and online stores for Apple Inc and former chief executive officer of Burberry. She is awarded to be one of the world's most prestigious business women and in 2013 she was named the highest paid chief executive at a FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) company. She was born on June 12, 1960 and grew up in a small town in New Palestine, Indiana. Growing up she always wanted to become a fashion designer, as she studied at Indiana’s Ball State University where she quickly realised that she was more interested in the business side of the industry and therefore completed a marketing and merchandising degree. As a leader she increased the financial results in Burberry. Ahrendts is a very positive
person and she sees that energy when she is working.
She believes that you need to set an example for your employee’s to follow, which makes you a role model for the values of an organisation. On October 14, 2013 it was confirmed that she would join Apple Inc as the senior vice president for retail and online stores. Ahrendts lives a balanced lifestyle with the success of having three children and a loving husband. She admits that it is not easy being a working mother, and sometimes she puts her family as a priority instead of her job. For example, as she said during an interview with The Sunday Times that she turned down invites to the Oscars because “It’s not more important than my husband. It’s not more important than my kids. It’s not more important than Burberry.” said Angela Ahrendts. I believe that this is one of the greatest traits to have as there are a lot of working
fathers or mothers who doesn’t put the effort in to be with their family or who’d rather be working then be surrounded with your wife and kids. Another trait that Ahrendts has is being a risk taker. Without a doubt changing jobs from working as a CEO for Burberry a fashion industry to a VP for Apple dealing with the responsibility for the operation and expansion of Apple. I believe that she took a risk coming into a new business environment, where she had to be the leader towards new employees, learn new techniques operating in Apple etc. And lastly, she has become used to regular meetings and as a leader has developed strong listening skills which comes down to being able to communicate with your co-workers. She is known for not interrupting or rushing employees when they are trying to give their opinion or ideas. This is about her being accessible which is a trait that is required for a job position she is in. This is shown in the article Earning her stripes, Nancy Hass described Angela as “... a CEO who mixes folksy sincerity and laser focus so effortlessly.” Angela Ahrendts has a variety of different leadership dimensions such as the characteristics of a deliberate leader.
“A deliberate leader is someone that provides a sense of stability for the group by communicating clearly and ensuring that decisions are made carefully.” (Emma Wilhelm - What I’ve learned from Deliberate leaders). I believe that she wants to be seen as an expert, drawn to projects and roles that lack higher standards such as smaller projects. Also she raised $574,000 for charity after donating 50,000 dollars to the Ahrendts-Couch Foundation. This is a non profit charitable company, which Ahrendts donates to. She also sold just over 500,000 worth of shares to the charity set up by her husband and
her.
The Financial Times interviewed Angela Ahrendts about the leadership style she used at her previous CEO job position at Burberry. During the interview, Richard Edger of the Financial Times asked “What advice would you give a chief executive?” where she responded with a very simple answer to just “listen”. Also Sal Khan of the Khan Academy has interviewed her where I picked up that she is very focused on the collaboration between different departments within the same company, which is a clear indication about the importance of team-work. As well she mentioned that it is all about balance and that she sees herself as someone who takes up a “50:50” position, making sure that the left brain analytical side is equally shared with the right brain creative side within the company. She mentioned that with her experience she progressively gets smarter in a way of her knowledge based but also how you should follow your gut when it’s telling you something. Social engagement is highly effective in the company when you know your customers, their wants and their needs that they desire, which you then will try to fulfil. Angela Ahrendts uses a democratic leadership style which includes other workers in the decision making process, most CEO’s believe that their own ideas and judgement are most important whereas in this case Angela Ahrendts cares about the opinions and ideas of others.