In 2019 Nike HR identified that we were 5-10 years from a retirement cliff of experienced leaders who had been with the company for ~30 years. We identified a number of up-and-coming leaders who were being groomed to backfill these leaders. Due to the location of Nike in Oregon, the experienced leaders and the backfill candidates were mostly all white men. Donahoe comes in with his Stanford Business School strategy of firing 15% per year, combined with George Floyd inspired aggressive diversity targets and we fire all the experienced leaders and the backfill candidates. Once they leave, no matter how talented the new team is, we lost the institutional knowledge that made Nike successful. Easy as that.
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@fe I mean, sure? But what I see here all the time (to be fair I think it’s the same person) who is constantly saying how Nike is failing because of DEI. I’m guessing it’s a white guy who got laid off and then watches women and minorities getting hired and is seething. Nike isn’t failing because they hired more women and POC. Maybe they didn’t hire the right woman or POC, but that is a different case to open. While I’m here, I also cannot stand the blatant racism against Indian coworkers here. They are some of the best in my experience.
Isn’t the whole point of having DEI that we talk about it? And that it becomes part of the conversation?
If you don’t want it discussed, don’t have one. And stick to a merit-centric approach.
AP: “Nike faces federal probe over allegations of ‘DEI-related’ discrimination against white workers”
“The federal agency for protecting workers’ civil rights revealed Wednesday that it is investigating sportswear giant Nike for allegedly discriminating against white employees through its diversity policies.”
“The EEOC sought the company’s criteria for selecting employees for layoffs, how it tracks and uses worker race and ethnicity data, and information about programs which allegedly provided race-restricted mentoring, leadership, or career development opportunities, according to court documents.”
https://apnews.com/article/dei-nike-discrimination-diversity-eeoc-80b07bba4ce7eb73e0bcac3e1d46a122
CNBC: “Nike sets fresh diversity targets for 2025, and ties executive compensation to hitting them”
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/nike-sets-diversity-goals-for-2025-ties-executive-comp-back-to-them.html
“Nike ties executive compensation to 2025 diversity targets“
https://ceo-na.com/news/nike-ties-executive-compensation-to-2025-diversity-targets/
Who is going to tell her?
There were never money tied to DEI targets. There were targets yes, but not tired to comp. I can’t beleive how butt hurt and threatened these white men are, all they can talk about is DEI this and DEI that.
Agreed. They were responsible for developing the programming that monetized DEI quotas.
Believing or trusting anything that comes from Nike HR is your first mistake. Worthless bunch.
I can explain it for you, but I cannot understand it for you.
Challenge not accepted.
I challenge you to take a minute and re-read the OP’s message.
He or she simply said the planned succession had mostly white men in the ranks. Which is a statistically accurate and publicly reported fact as part of Nike filings.
OP pointing this out isn’t racist. It’s just a fact. Nike disclosed this as a brand risk, and then created diversity metrics/goals to change it.
And they changed it. And now we’re stronger for it.
Race is not the problem at Nike. Incompetence is. These trash leaders are getting what they deserve. Losing their 25 year stock portfolio from millions down to 100ks. I can’t help but enjoy the suffering in collected company destruction
"mostly all white men"
Your racism right here loses you all credibility OP. Like many others, you are distracted by gender and/or s-x and missing the real issues.
When you make stupid a$$ generalizations like this, you show everyone exactly why nobody trusts or listens to you.
Your shortcomings are because of YOU. Not your gender. Not your s-x. YOU. Playing victim is fvcking pathetic and you do your race/s-x a huge disservice when you make BS claims like that.
Stop being racist and Just. Be. Better.
Look at converse.. if you are a POC you can do no wrong and are encouraged to treat caucasians horribly. And you don’t get riffed.
Not just RIFs. Don’t forget about race based leadership development.
VP compensation was partly based on achieving certain diversity targets for their team composition. They achieved them through RIFs.
It’s not a story. It’s grounded in fact and data. The exec leadership of the company monetized diversity targets, and then acted accordingly. To reduce the amount of white males in management (Director and above).
This is not an opinion.
I don’t believe HR was smart enough to figure that out. The story is likely not true.
The “leaders” that replaced those “OGs” weren’t the most qualified but they checked certain boxes and/or were smooth talkers. In many cases, there were more experienced people within the organization (with 10+ years of Nike experience) who were passed over or pushed out due to JD’s diversity targets.
OG’s were aging out.
Their successors weren’t diverse enough, and were forced out.
Diversity targets stratified a new philosophy of hiring, promoting, and retaining talent.
…and, included developing talent. People were literally told they were excluded from opportunities based on lack of diversity. Literally excluded based on skin color.
The problem was that the new team wasn’t as talented or experienced as the old team but they checked certain boxes. That is why we are losing.