Thread regarding Nike Inc. layoffs

@ak this. everybody else is overcomplicating it.

@1b4 why? They are right you know look at all the sh-t work performed by Accenture and the other welfare offices for indians...all cr-ppy work product.

@yf please don't bring nationality or religion into this, be rational if your pea-size brain allows you to!!

PK is so stupid he doesn’t know Turkey isn’t part of India, that’s why.

She wasn't Indian enough...simple, while we are off shoring everything she was not hindu

OK I wrote it off as a troll post but damn do I love some of the thorough answers so @OP well done with the open question for real.

Hi Muge.

Is there any all hands farewell planned for the departing leader? Also, wondering if any 6-pager memo is being shared to wider audiences?

The question isn't why she was let go. I think the question should be, why was she hired if she had no technical background to begin with? I personally saw the ridicule in the situation when she bragged at the very first meeting about reading 5 books at once, doing yoga handstands (with the teacher's help), optimizing a restaurant on a date with her husband, etc. I was never impressed with her; she ran around in tights and sold us a dream, treated us like rats, worked us into the ground with no promotions, and looked down upon us as if she were more intelligent than we all are. I could have smelled the narcissism in her from miles away. Narcissists also have that particular stare, which she did have. I felt like we were walking on eggshells around her, expected to work for free to do the impossible, or else... She never appreciated non-AI projects, which were a lot more critical to Nike. AI is there to help us, not eliminate us, so I am not sure she read that memo, for that matter. I never liked her, and she was not the type of woman to break the ceiling glass. Lots of technical women out there who would dream of being the CTO of Nike but do not wear fashionable clothes, go to fashion galas, wear tons of makeup, or be all over the internet parading around. But they don't get that chance just for that reason.

Have you checked her LinkedIn? Working at Amazon (an online marketplace) and of that only 3 years was in their “fashion” division makes her extremely UNQUALIFIED to head an entire operations of sports-producing companies Tech. I also heard from many she was a Terrible glory hunter. Maybe she would be qualified to be a VP of tech for Ecom but not the entire company

She was a JD hire and EH is slowly but surely fixing this mess.

MD was a silly hire, Rat was worse for sure ,but She really had no clue what she was doing, As far as I can tell she created a chat bot and that is not the type of AI needed to uplift Nike.

Nike is notorious for hiring people into roles they are not qualified for we currently have a VP of product in Data that has ZERO experience in Product or Data and had zero experience prior to getting their last role, A SD in Tech ops that has no Network experience and so many more. At Nike if you can smooze and give off the impression that you can get stuff done you are in just look at the career of TT another VP in SEC that had zero experience in the area but could they talk. They eventually moved out of Nike

@c4 probably many assuming that because the supply chain connection. It’s logical. Maybe not great but logical based on new COO.

@as RA as interim leader? That hit my stomach like expired oat milk. Have you ever watched him confidently explain things he Googled five minutes earlier, zero supply chain deprt, zero technical depth, zero product instinct. MD was sh-t, but not RA level sh-t

What do you think these changes mean for AI, NPE, and the other platform strategy systems being built? Will they all survive?

When MD was hired JD gushed that she was the best candidate and was many times better than the alternatives. In fact better candidates turned down the job likely because it required relocation to Portland (which neither JD or the RAT really did, he was in California most of the time) and also because anyone worth their salt realized that Nike tech sp-t people out and was a dead end.

So she was a bad candidate from the start, and being a weird pick by JD made her on the chopping block as soon as the could do it without seeming reckless in hiring and firing.

Also she went to war with Venky on a bunch of fronts I know that for a fact and she obviously didn’t win.

Anyone hearing her speak knew she was a bad fit for the job too.

DA announced interim. Haha, that slimy old tool. He should be next.

Not like he’s innocent with all these terrible decisions.

@b5 can vouch that part was true. Moot point now but she was definitely there.

Im not a MD fan but I heard rumors that she actually was in person during the week, had an apartment near campus and drove down every weekend and came back on Thursday. Any truth?

This is @op , I was genuinely curious, no trolling or anything, I thought she will stay a while , at least to see her AI train reaches it's destination or just details and then there would be this decision, her immediate lay-offs along with CW came as a surprise, I am just not able to digest
If Nike ELT is taking such decisions so often there will always be instability up there which will curtail the vision, may be also negatively impact the trust that business have on tech.

Also, you gave soo many department/responsibilities to one guys (VA) , I don't know what is expected of him anymore, even if he has his minions to work for him, it getting too much
I wish we get a breather from such decisions, this is getting too out of hand now.

@as that is the best summary to date and spot on. 1) just because you worked for Amazon doesn’t qualify you to lead tech for a company like Nike 2) a career at Nike in tech is a dead end! Sad but true. Yes, there are super talented people in GT but also to many layers of leaders who are all flash and zero splash. Sadly though there is really nobody internally who actually can evaluate the structure and incumbents in role. Definitely not TH and team. VA is smart and logical but he too may not be able to cut through the fluff to really understand what talent exists. Mark my words.. there will be further reductions and quality people will be let go while smooth talking fraudsters stay employed.

JD brought her in to move to retail and business side to take over for HON or someone else. Tech was a parking lot to get her into the company. When JD was axed so was her path to anything and her lack of technical skills and ability was magnified. The Board has too many tech leaders who are technical and could see through her. She got her warnings in September that progress was too slow. In November they were good to change it.

You now have the old model with tech nested under the COO in a place you don’t have to deal with it if you are EH. Led by an old Nike person. Easier to gut that way.

Wait until DA is announced interim or they do the co-interim with him and RA. They will keep the future leader an internal candidate and not make the same mistake again going external I’m going to bet. Then the RIF comes early 2026.

This has got to be a troll post. Watch out for the people just trying to stir the pot up. I'll take the obvious bait and say all you need to know is MD had the stench of being a JD hire on her. That's enough of a reason.

Tech still moving too slowly for the business and not pivoting quickly enough. Buckle up. It will get bumpy.

She made sure Nike gave Amazon and Microsoft tons of money without aligning her roadmap to Nike’s actual needs. It’s insane she lasted 2 years even. It’s insane that we still have AI enforcers breathing down everyone’s necks justifying their insane salaries.

if you have to ask, you haven't been paying attention

MD that you?

Uh, did you see her speak?