????去年五月，博柏利（Burberry）首席執行官安吉拉?艾倫茨從倫敦總部飛赴美國加州，去會見一位她認為對公司前途至關重要的人——他就是Salesforce.com的首席執行官馬克?貝尼奧夫。二人在半月灣的麗嘉酒店見了面，他們站在大廳里交換了整整15分鐘的意見，然后才落座。艾倫茨向貝尼奧夫闡釋了她的愿景：建立一個公司，讓任何想接觸博柏利品牌的人都能擁有獲得它的渠道。要實現這個目標，她所需要的僅僅是一個數字平臺而已。

????貝尼奧夫在紙上畫了一幅草圖，向艾倫茨解釋如何通過運用Salesforce、SAP、Twitter和Facebook等軟件和社交網絡工具把博柏利變成一家“社交型企業”。（貝尼奧夫還在草圖上寫下了“安吉拉+馬克=喜歡”的字樣。艾倫茨把這張草圖用像框保存起來，掛在自己的辦公室里。）艾倫茨說：“我對他說，我終于遇到了一個說話比我還快、精力比我還旺盛的人。”

????這兩個人看起來似乎不太搭調——一個是風風火火的科技企業家，一個是優雅的奢侈品公司CEO，而且她的企業具有156年的歷史。不過自從6年前艾倫茨執掌博柏利以來，她就一直在大膽地革新博柏利的形象和業務。現在她的新政已經取得了非常漂亮的收效：博柏利的年銷售額已經達到了30億美元左右，比2007年的水平翻了一番還多。而且自從艾倫茨就任后，博柏利股票回升了近300%，而同期英國富時綜合股指僅上長了24%。

????艾倫茨認為，要使博柏利繼續保持增長勢頭，就必須吸引更多的年輕消費者和海外消費者，這部份消費者喜歡網絡交流，而且經常在網絡上分享信息和購物。因此她決定制訂一個全面的科技戰略，充分利用Facebook和Twitter等社交工具，同時整合Salesforce和SAP等公司的企業軟件。

????由于擔心傷害品牌的高端形象，奢侈品行業一向不愿和高科技走得太近，艾倫茨的網絡戰略使博柏利成了這個行業的異類?？萍碱愖稍儥C構L2公司的莫琳?慕蘭表示：“他們做的事是時尚行業其他公司都沒有做過的，也就是堅決把重點放在數字化創新上。”

????在博柏利公司的倫敦總部，員工們個個衣著光鮮時尚，沒人會把這兒跟一家科技創業公司混淆，但總部大樓里卻的確彌漫著一股創業公司那種新銳進取的味道。公司總部70%的員工年齡都在30歲以下，而且公司鼓勵他們在工作時間使用Facebook和Twitter。今年51歲的艾倫茨更是帶頭嘗試硅谷的新技術。

????Last May, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts flew to California from her London headquarters to introduce herself to an executive she thought could be critical to the future of her business: Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. When the two met at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, they stood in the hall batting around ideas for 15 minutes before even sitting down. Ahrendts explained her vision: to create a company where anyone who wanted to touch the brand could have access to it. She just needed a digital platform to make it happen.

????Benioff sketched a diagram of how Burberry could become a "social enterprise," overlaying technology like Salesforce (CRM), SAP (SAP), Twitter, and Facebook (FB) atop the entire company. (Benioff signed the drawing "Angela + Marc = LIKE," and Ahrendts keeps the framed original, pictured below right, in her office.) "I told him, 'I think I finally met someone who talks faster and has more energy than I do,' " she says. "We just connected."

????The two might seem an unlikely pair -- the brash tech entrepreneur and the polished CEO of a 156-year-old luxury retailer -- but Ahrendts has been boldly reinventing Burberry's image and operations since she arrived at the British company six years ago. Her moves have paid off handsomely: Annual sales of some $3 billion are more than double 2007 levels, and the stock has returned nearly 300% since Ahrendts' arrival, while Britain's FTSE All-Share Index is up 24%.

????To keep Burberry growing, Ahrendts recognized she needed to woo younger and more global consumers, who communicate and share information -- and shop -- in the digital world. She set out to develop a comprehensive technology strategy, one that utilizes obvious tools such as Facebook and Twitter, and also incorporates enterprise software from companies such as Salesforce and SAP.

????The approach makes Burberry a standout in the luxury business, which has historically shied away from technology for fear of eroding its aura of exclusivity. "What they've done, that no other organization in the fashion industry has done, is put a relentless focus on digital innovation," says Maureen Mullen of tech think tank L2.

????The employees scuttling around Burberry's Horseferry House in London are too well dressed to allow the company's headquarters to be mistaken for a tech startup, but the building does exude the same kind of feel. Seventy percent of the employees at Horseferry are under 30 and are encouraged to peruse Facebook and Twitter during work hours. Ahrendts, 51, spearheaded the office's free-lunch perk à la Silicon Valley.