Why does only technology bear brunt of layoffs everytime? In the finance and business, we have directors without any reports or 1-2 reports, directors reporting to directors but those are overlooked and everytime GT suffers from most layoffs?
I have a theory that, the uneducated id--t hill doesn't understand technology unlike his predecessor, so everytime GT needs to make sacrifice for the lack of our CEO's intelligence (which separately gets reflected in the fall of stock price from 85 to 55)
All jobs are going to the dITCh!
@jw+1kkz46nzj , it appears that you may be familiar with the ”securities litigation”; good links below. Your statement about ”RL hiring his friends” is interesting.🕵️♂️⚖️👨⚖️🏛️
”I was a director in GT for several years…”
”…Nike's downfall started with RL hiring his friends…”
“…even with MD…”
”…so VP's could grow their headcount…”
”In re Nike Inc. Securities Litigation (3:24-cv-00974)”
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68872389/in-re-nike-inc-securities-litigation/
https://www.cohenmilstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/First-Amend-Complaint-In-re-Nike-Securities-Litigation-2025-02-10.pdf#&page=85
”In re Nike Inc. Securities Litigation (3:24-cv-01150)”
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68945222/in-re-nike-inc-securities-litigation/
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ord.180885/gov.uscourts.ord.180885.1.0.pdf
@OP+1kkz46nzj , below are some good articles/links regarding the ”McKinsey” aftermath. Some good reading material, while you wait for your ”1:1 Meeting”.
X, Joe Haslam: Nike hired McKinsey and well…
https://x.com/joehas/status/1817956777759277197
LinkedIn , Jack Cartlidge: How Nike went data-driven with McKinsey
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackdev_nikes-25b-blunder-shows-us-the-limits-of-activity-7231235563394080768-uBRS
UX Collective, Pavel Samsonov: Nike’s $25B blunder shows us the limits of “data-driven”
https://uxdesign.cc/nikes-25b-blunder-shows-us-the-limits-of-data-driven-ad30b6e3d938
Todd Herman Associates: How Data Drove Nike Into a Ditch
https://www.toddherman.com/leadership/how-data-drove-nike-into-a-ditch
tf is the Kinsey report. do you mean McKinsey
Ask someone to share the Kinsey report with you.
@ph nike is also not a fashion company, look at the sales and the cr-ppy stock
GT is too large of a function for a company that sells shirts and shoes. If you look at the number they have in FTE and ETWs it's almost 1/3 of Nike's corporate employee base. Nike is not a tech company and definitely doesn't operate like one.
Accenture said to
@jw Maybe a reason to start sending the caste system back where it came from?
@jw I think that's the plan, just seems like it, from someone who knows nothing, but EH wants things back to pre JD, and I think that means a large GT reduction, but not sure how many people or total expense (inflation adjusted) has increased by
likely a good start towards that
I was a director in GT for several years before being debanded in last years reorg. My take is that anyone in Tech who blames the business is working for the wrong company. Nike's core competency is to make products. Selling can be done via 3rd party online and retail stores and a very basic online store. Look at how primitive our competitors online stores are, yet they're still able to sell their products. Tech is important, but we're supporting players, not star players. Role players are always more dispensable than star players.
Nike's downfall started with RL hiring his friends who hired more of their friends and they started empire building. Unfortunately, even with MD coming in, the empire building continued and VP's tried justifying building the latest technologies so they could hire more people. Even the growth in ITC is just so VP's could grow their headcount to either justify their position or help them with their next career move elsewhere.
Nike's market cap is the same as 10 years ago. If I were EH, I'd reduce GT's headcount to what it was in 2015 so GT would focus on doing only the most critical work.
@fj
…anyone else see the very timely dilbert post in the tech discussion slack channel. lol.
OP’s question was about the perception that layoffs are overweighted towards tech. Not why we’re getting rid of tech. No one said we should get rid of tech entirely. No one said product launches can happen without tech.
As to the Vomero. Yes, by name it existed before. But not seeing the 18 as a new product would be like considering Netflix when they mailed DVD’s no different than Netflix streaming. This is magnified by the introduction of Vomero as a portfolio franchise unto itself; with many offerings. That did not previously exist.
Somewhere along the way, a reasonable challenge was offered in this thread. What has tech done for us lately? And of course, there counter… What has product done for us lately?
Were the 18 and other recently successful product launches or material refreshes a partnership? Sure. Team win and all. Everyone played a part, sincerely.
Was the 18 an entire refresh. An overhaul, top to bottom? Yep. And others. Not just style and color changes. Material science. Lab work. You name it.
Now, was .com or any of our apps completely overhauled? To support the 18, out similar? Did we rebuild our entire commerce pipeline? If so, was there a significant uplift? Do you have to rebuild the website each year? I’m not a tech person so I don’t know.
But it seems like you have the staff to rebuild it each year.
@fq So a cross collaboration between tech and business launching an established product produced revenue, who would have thought? I'm sure business could have done all of that without ANY help from tech though, trust me bro.
AI can replace Accenture
GT overhired.
You could cut half my team and we’d operate at the same speed
We reported to the street that the last Vomero launch was $100M in 90 days.
There are quite a few others. Just not sure how public the numbers have been.
Your turn. Also, I’m aware of LinkedIn posts about AI. No need to bring them up. And no, posts about something don’t bring in money.
Go on.
@fj good story, strange dude
Last week I had my roof replaced. Guy did a great job. Talked me into the 50 year. Got all the warranties. His crew cleaned everything up. Very friendly and professional.
This week, Monday morning… had a knock on my door. Same guy. Very polite. He asked if I wanted to redo my roof again.
I calmly explained to him I wasn’t interested, and thanked him for his work. I asked if maybe there was an option just for ongoing maintenance. Maybe a gutter clean out. I think I offended him.
He turned and stormed off. He was muttering something about if I spent less on food I could do the roof again.
Strange guy.
Zero product innovation - tech is responsible but not product innovation
Revenue is down- tech is responsible but now sales or marketing
Inventory is not reducing- tech is responsible but not supply chain
Share price home to dogs - tech is responsible but not finance
Gen z, runners, athletes don't want Nike rather On and Hoka- tech is responsible but not strategy
So tech every team is doing an excellent job except got tech, so let's for them
Because tech roles are more expensive than business roles.
@eh When is the last time business did?
What was the last meaningful technology delivery that drove billions in revenue uplift?
In GT VP reports to VP and finally to RA VP. There are also directors who were previously PE and have no idea about management. That is so crazy.
Is Accenture taking over all of GT?
Sounds like you were hired less than 3 years ago.
@ag But almost everything in business is based on technology now, so that isn't an excuse
@OP bc we are a shoe company not a tech one
Tech also typically over hires like crazy which in turn leads to large layoffs
Lay them all off!! AI can run everything!
Business has been hit proportionally hard, you just don't know about it because most of the people on this board are tech. They also tend to do it in dribbles.
@OP those functions all were hit across the board, and deeply, during the three layoffs under JD. GT was expanded dramatically during that timeframe. I think this may be a correction from the JD shift. GT is far larger than we probably need it to be. Without revenue growth we can’t afford the current size and scope of GT