Angela Ahrendts

When I asked Angela Ahrendts how she made the transition from being CEO of Burberry, to the senior vice president at Apple, she shared that what may seem like an unconventional path is really just another way of doing what she’s always done: working in the “people business.”

She was named to the Forbes Most Powerful Women list an incredible eight times, and Angela famously says she prefers to focus her attention not on her organization’s P&L, but on its P&I, as in “people and impact.”

Once she arrived at Apple, she went all in on impact by leading the company in a crowdsourcing exercise that asked Apple’s 55,000 employees around the world to answer the question, “What should Apple be doing in your community?” The answers that came back became action points and ways she improved the relationships she had not just with the community in the areas of education and business opportunity, but also with her team.

Following Apple, Angela performed another one of her pivots and took her talents and experience to the boards of such brands as Ralph Lauren, Airbnb, and Save the Children International, a charity focused on improving the lives of at-risk children worldwide. As with those she’s led or serves with on boards, listeners to the podcast will benefit from lessons Angela draws from her remarkably diverse experiences.

Angela says the move from corporate to nonprofit represents less of a pivot than a natural extension of her passion. “When I got the call for Save the Children and saw it had offices in 30 countries and 25,000 people on the ground focused on women and children, it just felt like it was a calling,” she said.

Resources:

• How can you help children in need? Visit Save the Children’s website.
• Connect with Angela Ahrendts.