評論
打印
Business
商業報道
Technology and luxury goods
科技時尚單品
Catwalk credentials
優雅融合
Why Burberry's boss is a perfect fit for Apple
Burberry老板與蘋果如此合拍，秘密何在？
AMONG stewards of big luxury brands Angela Ahrendts, the boss of Burberry, is probably the geekiest.
Burberry的老板Angela Ahrendts可能是所有的大型奢侈品牌管理者中最不招人喜歡的。
Her main achievement has been to make the 150-year-old British company the most technologically savvy of its peers.
他的主要成就就是使這所150年歷史的英國老牌企業成為同行中的技術型企業。
Burberry plans to be the first luxury company that is fully digital end to end, she boasts.
她夸口說Burberry計劃成為第一家完全數字化的奢侈品企業。
But what can she do for Apple, which on October 14th said it would poach her to run its retailing operations?
但是蘋果于10月14日宣稱會插手她的零售業務，對此她又能有什么辦法呢？
Probably the opposite: revive a sense of style at a tech firm that has lately looked a bit dowdy.
也許相反，在一家科技公司恢復一種風格有點過時。
Many purveyors of luxury fret about cheapening their wares by selling them online.
很多奢侈品供應商擔心在網上銷售會降低商品價格。
Of the 100 biggest luxury brands just 56 have transactional websites, according to Exane BNP Paribas, an investment bank.
據Exane BNP Paribas ，一家投資銀行稱100家頂級奢侈品牌中只有56家有網上交易平臺。
Ms Ahrendts, an American who took over Burberry in 2006, had no such hangups.
Ahrendts女士，這位于06年接管Burberry的美國人不這么認為。
Not content with flogging calfskin trench coats online, she has deployed every platform, device or bit of software she could think of to romance customers and spark collaboration among employees and suppliers.
不滿足于僅在網上出售皮制品，她已在各個平臺全面鋪開，用所能想到的一切設備吸引顧客，希望與顧客擦出火花。
iPad-wielding salespeople in Burberry stores can look up what customers have already bought, and suggest what might take their fancy next.
Burberry的店員手持IPAD隨時記錄顧客的購買信息，并預測他們的可能喜好。
Ms Ahrendts should add pizzazz to Apple's bricks-and-mortar shops, which are the most profitable in America measured by sales per square foot.
Ahrendts應該投入更多精力在美國每季度盈利最多的蘋果實體店上。
But that seems a small job for a woman who last year was the highest-paid chief executive of a company in the FTSE 100 share index.
但對于一個進入去年福布斯百位收入最高企業高管的女士而言，這似乎是小事一樁。
At Apple, from next spring, she will merely be a senior vice-president.
至于蘋果，從下個春季開始她就僅僅是一個部門副主席
So the odds are that her brief will go well beyond managing Apple's stores. She can help it crack the Chinese market, where its iPhones are also-rans in the race against cheaper smartphones from Samsung and local manufacturers.
所以很有可能她的表現會比在蘋果時更好。她能幫助蘋果打開競爭激烈的中國市場，這競爭來自于三星和中國國產智能機對IPHONE的競爭。
Burberry earns more than a third of its revenue in Asia compared with Apple's 28%.
較蘋果的28%，Burberry的亞洲市場盈利超過其總盈利的1/3。
A bigger job will be to ready Apple for the coming fusion of fashion and technology.
蘋果已經準備好了面對即將到來的時尚與科技融合的浪潮。
The most talked-about new devices are wearable.
現在被廣泛談及的新設備都是可戴式的。
Google's Glass smuggles a smartphone into a pair of spectacles.
谷歌眼鏡將智能機植入眼鏡。
Samsung's Galaxy Gear squeezes some smartphone functions into a wristwatch.
三星是能表將智能手機與手表融合。
Apple is also keen to surf the wearable wave.
蘋果也想趕上這一穿戴式科技浪潮。
An iWatch, which Apple may launch next year, would pull it towards Ms Ahrendts's home turf, since it would compete with fashionable timepieces like Burberry's.
蘋果可能會明年推出iWatch，鑒于可能與時尚腕表比如Burberry展開競爭，他可能會推向Ahrendts's女士的主場。
Apple has long been something of a fashion house.
蘋果現在已成為時尚工廠。
Its product launches are choreographed like catwalk shows.
他的項目都是精心設計的就像時裝秀一樣。
But its glamour has faded since the death of Steve Jobs, its founder, in 2011.
但是自從創始人喬布斯在2011年死后他的魅力正在逐漸削減。
His successor, Tim Cook, is striving to regain it.
而繼任者Tim Cook則在努力重獲魅力。
He recently hired Paul Deneve, the boss of Yves Saint Laurent, a French fashion house.
最近他雇了法國時尚工廠Yves Saint Laurent的老板Paul Deneve。
Sir Jony Ive, Apple's design guru, now oversees the look of software as well as hardware. Ms Ahrendts brings another eye for beauty, and a knack for seducing consumers.
Jony Ive蘋果首席設計師如今不僅要負責軟件也要負責硬件外觀。Ms Ahrendts則從另一個角度帶來美，吸引顧客。
