Who else thinks it’s a bad idea? We are releasing skilled knowledgeable people, reducing possibilities to rotate to other areas, cannot serve all markets. Is this just an excuse to drive people to quit?
26 replies (most recent on top)
What’s puzzling to me is adidas has a location in one of the most tech proficient and forward thinking areas of the world, the silicon forest, Portland Oregon… and they don’t use it for the brilliant talent it can attract. It’s a key location, in a talented region of tech pioneers and innovators. Yet… no enablement.
The discussion about hubs misses the real point. We’ve invested 100s of millions into the platforms, infrastructure and custom systems that move this company. These systems process millions of orders at high speed across every market, every hour, every day. That level of scale doesn’t come from slide decks or backlog grooming. It comes from deep technical capability.
When you weaken Tech, by dispersing talent, relocating core teams away from the business or treating engineering as interchangeable, you weaken the only part of the organisation that actually keeps global operations running. Product can outline plans, but none of it reaches consumers without the technology we’ve built and the people keeping it stable.
The location debate matters only in one way: does it protect and strengthen the technical core that carries the weight of the company’s volume, reliability and speed? If the answer is no, then the strategy is already off track.
Tech is the centre of gravity. Everything else relies on it.
@26r AMS feels like a bunch of external consultants… expensive and work is all showboating
Ams is the only location that could have some benefit due to its access to the market, yet they have not hired people for over 2 years, teams are rotting with same ideas with yes people everywhere, the pause on stair stepping made people not care about things even more. Ams is a good example how this company destroys what can be a great success.
Even if they re-open hiring, no great talent is coming here for the pay that no longer matches Amsterdam CoL.
Chill out everyone, AI is here to solve the locations
Herzo roles shifting to gGN to reduce costs is the most obvious short sighted decision this company has done. What major outcome has come from there, who is even minimally aware of bis there
@1mw of course Zaragoza was there, we all know the story of the handful of engineers in one floor and a lot of the people who started since the very beginning and left are the ones that had the “best stories” about the location. But the hub was not nearly as big when the bull went and came back.
@1mw There is a serious issue with Zgz hub, not close to business cause they do not care.
A lot of times one heard how they are not being told stuff but by default they never joined the meetings with business.
Ggn hub is a "for show" hub, are even further away from the business and due to time zone never joining meetings late but they are also not asking to move it earlier....catch the irony?
And Hzo - just getting by with the Damocles sword above their heads.....
@1e8 zgz was there when the spanish bull was there, before moving to hzo. When he left, the hub and its 200-300 were still there. What are you going to do, close it? A pretty big part of the engineering force was (still is) there
In terms of pure engineering power, you just can't get rid of It without a cautious strategy
Hzo has been, traditionally, closer to company strategy at the expense of becoming "just externals managers". Which, at long run, ends up in having low quality software that becomes more and more expensive every year
Ggn? Yeah, you can close It. 20 people more focused on receiving the "employee of the quarter award" that barely deliver what 1 single person could do in any other hub. It was there just because of FC corruption and her rackets with Infosys (anyone else remember her video at Roland Garros being interviewed by Infosys and saying that all adidas external contracts were going to be with them, while wearing a brand new Louis Vuitton handbag?)
@1gb Guess who’s asking to hire those externals. But sure… go ahead and tell us how many tech people are based in Spain without really understanding why.
At least Zaragoza has tech people. Rest are just delegators at every level to externals.
The ZGZ location is still there because the Spanish bully couldn’t live in Germany. So he went crawling back to Spain while still on a German salary. He didn’t stop since and he’s only looking after himself, his money and mostly his own ego. What a dishonest loser. You should hear him talk about his “team” or DB. Or all the colleagues he got rid off for his own good. He should get fired immediately
But these are both exceptions for special individuals but also based on location.
People in the Spain office are allowed to work across the country. You can find some people living in Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona. They are requested to go a week every two months on their dime but this is barely enforced. And then imagine if you work at the Gurgaon office where you have to go almost every day battling traffic and you work with a colleague based in Spain who can stay at his house and barely go to the office. You both work for the same team, which means you work under the same organization.
@x3 I think those exceptions were mostly there for historic reasons. If you want to work remotely from the Caribbean for a year you can still do that if you’re special.
@wr+1k800js7b Exceptions create resentment and affect team morale in the long run. It works for certain individuals and motivate them while damaging team morale. Because “these exceptions” are not given to everyone. Only “special” people get it while the rest of team needs to follow strict rules.
I don’t have an issue with the locations but the new location strategy limits where people are allowed to be located per area. There was already a guidance for this in order to have teams be in the same location and be with their partners but there were plenty of exceptions due to individual reasons. Now those exceptions are no longer allowed and people were forced to move locations, go to a different area or quit. A lot of knowledge, experience and growth opportunities have been lost.
And regarding tech leadership behaviour: I feel they’re not even trying to make things sound better anymore. It’s just gaslighting at this point.
@n1 what did he do? Normally he is very careful with his words?
@n1 what kind of behaviour is going on?
@ha but they do… have you talked to the engineers at his location? With people in HQ? Why nothing has been done and his behavior is tolerated, who knows, I guess as long as numbers are good, who cares. But people know, it’s not a secret.
@k7 This guy knows ball. I’d add that one big issue with ams is that while there is a lot of talent in the city, adidas doesn’t have access to the good ones as it doesn’t pay as high as the tech companies with presence there
@k7+1k800js7b Being committed to brand??? I don’t know how to laugh. I only saw people committed to their agenda and benefits, nobody is committed to brand. It is also a cover up for people who cannot find another job and act like they are loyal while job hunting 7/24.
@cy
AMS - more access to industry but people aren’t committed to brand
GGN - focus on optics and people pleasing- low tech skill and execution
ZGZ - good engineers, very positive but far from business
HZO - close to brand but depend on other locations or externals, bureaucratic
Bagota, Porto - forgotten children, mixed bag
This aligns with certain people keeping the status quo, the Spanish bull-y being one.
HQ is no longer attractive because no expat or German in their right mind would work for such a toxic place.
The company list its charm for IT talents. Same old white guys showing up everywhere.....
The Spanish bull…he removes everyone that’s in his way and it’s all about public appearances. If only people around him knew what he’s really like…
Zaragoza is because it suits one senior leader who lives there no?
I mean, it’s difficult to attract tech talent to the HQ, the location is not attractive. In that sense, Amsterdam makes sense. It’s easy to travel back and forth and there’s a good pool of talent. Gurgaon makes sense too as it’s a big international IT hub very well known due to outsourcing services so it’s also easier to find talent.
The one that I cannot really understand it’s Zaragoza. As much as I like some of the colleagues, traveling to the hub is inconvenient, it’s difficult to attract talent even with the university there, to the point that they let people work remotely across Spain which is not possible in any other hub and I personally also don’t find it very fair. I have asked so many people why that hub is located there and every time I get a different story, no one has been able to give me a definite answer.
I really cannot comment a lot regarding Bogota as hub but it adds a layer of complication when you need to align with people working there too.