EH failed. This decade is widely different than the time period he worked at Nike before. He is a boomer, and doesn't belong anymore in the age of social media, AI. Time for him to retire (again...duh!) and Nike need to bring young radical minds to work in the framework of urgency, and eliminate junk VPs roaches by deliberately failing it to show their prominence and not being an athlete in Nike terms. He is not thinking to capture market share by being brutal in seizing it from competitors, but being defensive to save Nike - which will not work...He is going to take everyone down with it.
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JD led the charge for DTC which took Nike off retail shelves and open the door for competition to take away market share.
@ef Hot take -- I dont think JD was to blame for Nike's downfall. It was more HON, AM, TC, and the leadership of the strategy org in the 2020 - 2024 era (MH). JD never claimed to be a product person -- I dont think he added much value, but I also dont think he destroyed as much value as everyone seems to insist he did.
@gz It cost money to move more into AI and that is a factories expense that will be placed onto Nike in the PO, and AI doesn't mean product will be desired and bought by the consumer marketplace. Nike needs to stop being all things, deliver a focused strategy and product, deliver it meeting the financial plan and reduce excessive spending.
I place the blame on two things: high interest rates and their impact on consumer spending; and the societal shift in what is cool now. Innovation without social acceptance will not sell product.
And China- because they’re so upset Nike took a stance on Uyghur/Xinjiang factories that countered their rhetoric.
People just don't get it. Right now, all the momentum is in AI. All the money is in AI. Investors are only pouring money into AI. If I were advising Nike, I'd tell them they need to pivot much more aggressively toward AI. Whether it's automating parts of shoe design, accelerating product development, optimizing manufacturing, or using AI across the entire product lifecycle, that's where the future is. Very few companies are thriving today without making AI a core part of their strategy. Nike will attract more investors that way.
My other advice would be to take a hard look at the culture. It still needs a lot of cleaning up and restructuring. Culture plays a huge role in a company's success, innovation, and investor attraction. There are a lot of talented people who are underutilized, minimized, and hidden, because too much energy goes into politics, ego, and competition instead of innovation. Some managers struggle when an employee shines brighter than they do, so instead of developing that person, they feel the need to dim their light or take credit for their ideas. In my experience, that's one of the biggest things holding innovation back and keeping talent at Nike. Companies don't become leaders by suppressing talent; they become leaders by empowering the people with the best ideas to build, experiment, and innovate. But then again, Nike's loss is another company's gain, a company with a much healthier culture than Nike, and where the employee is actually being rewarded for their own ideas and promoted. The employee wins in the end.
lego but its an edge case. the europeans managed to execute properly.
the man who managed to turn lego around is now sitting in nike's board of directors but the BoD is a joke
Nike cannot execute.
Honest question. What company has ever succeeded by reverting to doing things the way they did then a decade previously?
Nike has sh-t product. Thats the reason.
@ek Tim might also be a good fit as he is stepping down from Apple!
He isn't a CEO material to begin with. He is barely educated, got lucky by growing with the company when it was doing extremely well. Best he can do is sell shoes, does not understand finance, margins, technology, AI, business analytics etc.
Did massive layoffs in technology, because he doesn't understand it (still thinks technology is desktop support), leave aside visualising how technology and AI can be a gang changer for Nike.
Clearly not suited for Nike for 2020's decade. Nike needs someone like Satya Nadella to save this company, otherwise become another uber armour or super dry
Been > 2 years since JD left the helm. It's just getting old now. The stock's staring at 30 now, down from 120 when JD exited.
MP was to guide the recovery. EH is taking all the heat. Nike (JD) gave away our consumers to the competitors by stopping innovation, giving shelf space away at retail, firing all who made Nike tick, etc. I’m hoping for a turnaround in the near future
I like the sarcasm! He is "Joe Biden" of Nike.
He never focused in selling the shoes but he was too focused to decrease cost by playing with people's morale....which never works!
He never rallied his greatest assets, meaning, his loyal dogs to help him win but he disrespectedly drove them away in droves...he is just a bandaid guy and not the guy to deal with current market challenges.
But I thought RTO, cutting Wellness Week, AI, and layoffs were supposed to fix everything?
Sadly under JD the stock was higher.
@a6 he was “supposed to right the ship.” The ship ain’t right and it’s about to capsize. It’s time for him to get off the boat.
@AB
LOL. You do realize Private Equity’s playbook and that JD came from that world with 20 years at Bain. How’d that work out?
Be careful what you wish for. The grass is not always greener.
We need private equity as the exit package.
Maybe Bain capital can save us
He believes that technology in a company is merely about ensuring that employees have monitors and email functionality. Soon, he will be advocating for a return to the days of typewriters. I am not convinced by his leadership and if he isn’t out soon I will be because it isn’t fun or sustainable anymore.
I said this two years ago while everyone on LinkedIn was having a love fest and writing their think pieces.
Now we’re stuck. You can’t fire him after two years because that would be an admission that there never was a strategy. So we’re probably looking at another year or two of this.
And we’re past the point of bringing back the steady hand to right the ship. He was supposed to be the steady hand.