This Is Why Adidas CEO Gave His Personal Phone Number To His 60,000 Employees

Bjorn Gulden, the CEO of sportswear company Adidas, recently took an unconventional approach to boost transparency by sharing his mobile number with approximately 60,000 employees during a town hall meeting, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Reuters

"I'm crazy"??

When Gulden assumed leadership in January 2023, Adidas was facing significant challenges, including a 724 million euro operational loss in the last quarter of 2022 and the termination of ties with rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye.

"Some people think I'm crazy," Gulden said. He highlighted that it was better for leaders to be unfiltered.

Gulden, a former professional football player, aimed to address concerns about transparency and urged leaders to be unfiltered. His move led to employees calling him around 200 times a week, seeking changes in the business. Gulden's strategy was to awaken those who didn't fully grasp the company's challenges.

Gulden worked at Adidas in the 1990s and then worked at Puma.

AFP

Adidas is projected to turn a profit this year??

Under his leadership, Adidas is projected to turn a profit this year, and its shares have nearly doubled since his return, outperforming its American competitor, Nike, which has seen a slight decline during the same period.?

The former footballer made some quick changes at the company beginning with the dismissal of consultants who he claimed made mistakes that sports industry experts would never make.

Other changes implemented by Gulden included bringing back sports like cricket, which have devoted fan bases in large markets like India; streamlining upper management communications so that he received more direct reports from department heads and doing away with a time-consuming evaluation process.

After signing a brand sponsorship deal with the Indian cricket team in 2023, the firm sold 6,00,00 jerseys in India within three months.

According to the report, Gulden said that his style of management could be "polarizing". He said, "Some people love that, others probably hate it".

The Yeezy collaboration??

Meanwhile, with more than $1 billion of unsold Yeezy sneakers, Gulden was left with an unsolvable dilemma when he joined the company. Ultimately, he chose to sell the inventory and give a portion of the revenues to organisations that combat racism.

The Yeezy collaboration "was one of the best things ever created" by a sports company, according to Gulden, even though it ended in controversy. Adidas would collaborate with celebrities to "build small Yeezies" that may help replace the void, he added, even if Yeezy is difficult to duplicate.