Author Archives: Frank Thomas (Moderator)

Frank Thomas (Moderator)
.

3 cheers for efficiency & how it enables a financial record

Frank Thomas (Moderator)May 3, 2013 7:47 amBusiness Operations, Corporate Perspectives
3 cheers for efficiency & how it enables a financial record

Ever since our CEO Herbert Hainer presented in 2010 our five-year strategic business plan ‘Route 2015’, he has always been very clear about one thing: the adidas Group aims for quality growth that needs to be first and foremost sustainable. One way to foster sustainable growth is for example by investing smartly into our brands. Another way is by continuously improving efficiency. This might be achieved on an organisational level or through innovations in the supply chain: if, for example, we manage to decrease the amount of fall-out materials, we minimise cost and become more efficient. There is a lot of room for creativity to improve efficiency. Through relentlessly focusing on such initiatives, the adidas Group managed to achieve a pretty strong result in terms of its gross margin.

read more

2Comments
Frank Thomas (Moderator)
.

Behind the scenes of the adidas Group Blog (Click-Tip)

Frank Thomas (Moderator)February 26, 2013 5:50 pmBusiness Operations
Behind the scenes of the adidas Group Blog (Click-Tip)

The adidas Group Blog’s goal is to give authentic and personal insights into the company behind the brands. Our employees from across all different departments and from across the globe create blog posts on top of their daily work in order to give you a picture of what it is like to work for the adidas Group and which topics really matter to us. However, these employees need to be identified, motivated, coordinated, and sometimes they also seek consultancy.

Just recently, I was asked by Jan-Paul Schmidt, who takes care of Social Media in the Corporate Communication team of the Scout24 Group, to give him some insights into our approach to corporate blogging for a series on the Scout24 Corporate Blog. This interview was published today. So if you want to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the adidas Group Blog, see the interview here. As it’s in German, we had parts of it translated for you here.

read more

1Comment
Frank Thomas (Moderator)
.

Click-Tip: “Boost is coming” and you can watch it! (announce live stream)

Frank Thomas (Moderator)February 12, 2013 4:12 pmBusiness Operations
Click-Tip: “Boost is coming” and you can watch it! (announce live stream)

Really big things happen…unfortunately most often without us, right!? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could say that you sat in Steve Job’s presentation of the first iphone? It probably would also have been quite amazing to witness the moment when the first thought of Facebook hit Mark Zuckerberg. How mind blowing would it have been to take a seat in the sound studio with the Beatles when they recorded their break through single “I want to hold your hand” – clicking your fingers to the music. On the other hand it is not even certain that we would have realized the real meaning of these special moments – afterwards one is always wiser…unless you get a hint.

read more

1Comment
Frank Thomas (Moderator)
.

How adidas unlocks human potential through innovation

Frank Thomas (Moderator)February 4, 2013 2:45 pmOn-the-Job Records
How adidas unlocks human potential through innovation

“The art of innovation is to anticipate what consumers can’t articulate yet”

Back in the days, common football player’s opinion was that a boot mainly needed to protect you from the opponents’ tackles and the impact of kicking the ball. Adi Dassler was said to be an inventor and a lateral thinker more than anything else. He observed that a footballer was only in contact with the ball for maybe 90 seconds of the 90 minutes; the rest of the time he was running, so Adi Dassler reasoned that a footballer needed footwear as light as possible instead of heavy, clumsy leather boots. Apparently Adi Dassler didn’t care much about conventions. He had his own ideas and followed them, no matter what others said. When I recently read about this little anecdote in our history book I immediately thought that you can still feel Adi Dassler’s visionary and creative spirit here at adidas. But what makes an idea a successful innovation? What is our framework for innovation? My curiosity was piqued and I decided to ask Bernd Wahler, adidas Head of Innovation, for an interview. Here’s what I learned…

read more

2Comments
Frank Thomas (Moderator)
.

Guest Post: My job as a coach for the adidas tennis Player Development Program

Frank Thomas (Moderator)January 31, 2013 5:00 pmOn-the-Job Records
Guest Post: My job as a coach for the adidas tennis Player Development Program

For the past six years Mats Merkel has been working as a consultant to the adidas global sports marketing tennis division. He is travelling and working with some of the greatest athletes in tennis. In the following guest post he is giving you some insights into his amazing job.

My job as a coach for the adidas tennis Player Development Program

My name is Mats Merkel. I just got back from Melbourne, Australia and as you are all into sports you know that in January the first Grand Slam of the year was held in Melbourne. In 2005 Jim Latham who was Head of Individual Sports and Olympic Sports GSM has founded the adidas Player Development Program. Since then the team has been expanded to 4 consistent coaches/mentors, Sven Groeneveld, Darren Cahill, Gil Reyes and I. Let me give you some insights into my work…

read more

3Comments