Surprised this isn’t on here already … things are happening fast. Big layoff in the sports marketing area. Everyone told to work from home today Monday and Tuesday.
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No good. Their work authenticates the brand.
@jq The “law of big numbers”, hastened by bad leadership under JD, was eventually going to catch-up to Nike. Growing at 8% annually as a $10B company is a very different proposition than growing at 8% annually as a nearly $50B company. Add to the big numbers and poor leadership:
- Layoffs of dedicated and key personnel;
- Several newer, more nimble, more innovative competitors;
- The loss of media hegemony (everyone consuming the same media and adverts on a small number of mostly TV stations);
- Telling smaller distributors - who acted in part as some of Nike’s longest and most dedicated salespeople - that they are no longer needed;
- Forgetting that “Sport” drives everything;
- Forgetting how to create adverts that had real and lasting emotional impact (like the fat kid running down a country road);
- Broadly losing that intangible but very real ‘swagger’ (I’m not sure what else to call it) of KNOWING you worked at a cool, hip, often fun, industry-dominating and unstoppable behemoth. And realizing everyday that, this time, those days might very well be gone for good.
It’s sort of like getting old itself; you have a ton of great memories and experiences that bring you joy, underlined by the sadness of knowing most of that was from a different time & place and won’t be returning.
Sad that Sports Marketing is taking a hit, if that’s true. SM is one of the smaller functions at Nike in terms of people (maybe a few hundred globally?) but in several ways sports marketing is at the very core of what Nike is and does. Lots of people in that org who have been around forever and know “everyone who’s anyone” throughout the entire industry. It would be a shame to see Nike again toss some of those people to the curb like last week’s trash. It’s devastating to give a company everything for years upon years, only to discover one day that it really is true…you always WERE just a number on a spreadsheet, now having overstayed what you had mistakenly thought was a hard-earned spot on the team.
Back in November I spoke with just such a person who was let go after 21 years. His first thought relayed to me was great advice: “If I had known it was going to unceremoniously end like this after 21 years, with a video call and insincere “Thanks for your service” from an unknown HR person almost half my age, I wouldn’t have put in even half the effort all those years. Too bad I’m not getting any of that time back.”
After years of layoffs, losing marketshare, and declining stock price, can we finally drop the "we are a growth company" propaganda?
Winning!
Elliott - are we winning yet /s