World Monitor Mag, Industrial Overview WM_November_2018_WEB_Version | Page 85

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Leading a сompany that wants
to change lives through sports
Inside the Mind of the CEO
Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted explains how to align business strategy and
execution during a shift in global consumer demand.
by Ulrich Störk, Nadia Kubis, and Art Kleiner
Photograph courtesy of Adidas AG
Think high-profile consumer goods, and sports apparel comes
quickly to mind. It has the most memorable slogans, the most
famous brand ambassadors, and a rapid-fire, trend-catching
production cycle for sleek new products. The sports apparel
category is also expected to grow fast, at about 4 percent a
year — a reflection of the increasing global interest in health and
fitness. The market, with its dizzying array of custom footwear, is
set to have annual sales of nearly US$190 billion by 2020.
For the past few years, the fastest-growing major sports
apparel enterprise has been the German company that
founded the sector in 1924: Adidas. The CEO overseeing
Adidas’s flourishing is Kasper Rørsted, a man who spent the
first half of his career in the tech industry and is known in
business circles for his ability to link strategy and execution. He
was hired in 2016 from the top post at Henkel, a manufacturer
of laundry and beauty products, where he had led an eight-year
turnaround that tripled the company’s share price.
Rørsted, originally from Denmark, is an avid athlete who
once played on his country’s national youth handball team.
Now, with the motto “Through sport, we have the power to
change lives,” he is positioning Adidas as a globally influential
enterprise. The Adidas strategy — speed, a focus on a few
trendsetting cities, and open source innovation — was
introduced in 2015 by Rørsted’s predecessor, Herbert Hainer,
who had retired after running Adidas for 15 years. Rørsted
continued promoting all three strategic priorities, and focused
on execution. On his watch, Adidas reorganized its operations
and launched two innovative “Speedfactories,” or rapid-
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