The Executive Board Member HR has 24+ VPs and SVPs reporting to her. These many VPs for managing 55000 employees. What a joke of a company!
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I just wish that if we’re going to have VPs - then the people in those roles know the functions they lead. What’s ki-ling us is giving the most influential VP roles to PMO/Strategy leaders who are very good at selling a new vision, but who have no clue about the functional business reality on the working level.
In my area, the M1 and M2 community is very vocal about the risks we all see…and that’s their job. But it falls on deaf ears because the consultant class has already sold something in, and convinced the Board. They can’t admit they might have f-ed it up. Even the VPs who are functional experts are powerless to fix it.
Such a shame… It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re all game for doing new things and challenging our existing assumptions. But the experience needs to be trusted, invited, and involved in the discussions on what’s next.
And.... scene - that's a wrap folks, try again next time...
"Adidas has announced the departure of its sole female executive board member, adding to the exodus of top women at the helm of the world’s second-largest sportswear maker, which has previously come under fire for its handling of diversity issues."
"Rajkumar’s departure is the latest in a string of exits of senior female managers from Adidas, including head of global marketing Vicky Free, head of global retail Nicole Ghezali and Céline Del Genes, who oversaw the specialist sports division. The number of female members of the company’s two executive leadership bodies, the management board and core leadership group, has more than halved from seven to three since the end of 2022."
I guess it’s checkmate for her banker buddies.
AR has to go…She’s not entirely responsible herself for the disastrous ELS results - but she must have accountability for the employee experience. Whatever she is doing, I’m not seeing the results in Herzo.
Instead, the focus is on her instagram and bumble profiles…Nevermind the rumors flying around about her behavior….drink driving, fender bender in the car park, missing license, the story is so crazy, and I know I don’t have the facts. But if such news can trickle throughout the organization and in different locations, there must be some truth to it.
I guess it’s rather simple: She’ll fade away at the end of the year….The supervisory board would probably have already renewed her contract if that was on the table.
I fully disagree with the comments around AR. She is clearly trying to make a positive change / difference, however has been blocked at every turn by Board members and leadership teams. Highly toxic. I continue to be loyal to adidas, but think it’s time to go for many of the leadership team and Board members who have been there for years.
Not sure what you’re upset about….the man can do what he wishes on the weekends.
So should you.
I think all of them are needed so Mr G can go skiing every weekend. You would think new job, company in crises, major bushfires everywhere etc leaves no time for weekend trips every week! I learn every day.
Well, I think time is ticking for both MS and AR…Plenty of winking and nodding coming from the SLT…toxic toxic toxic!
The Q1 Townhall could be VERY interesting… I‘m hoping Bjorn opens up details on the employee survey, especially how the remaining board members are trusted by their teams.
She’s just as incompetent as her banker friends she’s brought in to run HR. They don’t have the experience or the intellectual horsepower needed. It’s a full on sh*t show. Her contract ends this year…. So there is some hope.
Amen
I entirely disagree with the first comment. I mean before AR joined HR was running 3 SVPs, now it is 9! And including one that only has 6 reports overall. Anyhow this whole concentration on DEI is absolutely ridiculous. I mean as a brown, ho-------l female on the board that might appear as the most important item on my mind but whoever I talk to – 90% are just pi---d off.
Well - I’m not sure it’s OK to challenge HR on the number of VPs for all 55K employees… Shouldn’t we count the employees under each Board seat? Even that is hard to judge across every function…Yes, we have plenty of title inflation. I think some titles are given purely for the external image, and has nothing to do with the size of their department. There are (S)VPs with no teams behind them.
Many VP/SVP departures in Brand over the past few months, and no word on how those teams evolve or change… POPS is also loosing an SVP and VP in April, no word on succession yet.
To me, it smells like a BIG re-org is just around the corner.
This is called Title Inflation. The titles at Adidas are meaningless now and Director is now a middle management position.