The writing is on the wall for JD. Shockingly the CEO who said Nike golf pants are his favorite Nike product didn't drive innovation - and it shows.
So the question is: Who would you pick for Nike's next CEO?
15 replies (most recent on top)
I vote for potato
Someone who understands what accountability is, and is willing to hold teams and individuals accountable. Project with no ROI? Gone. Project massively over budget like SEC? Gone. Can’t figure out the inventory issues in the DC’s? Gone. Teams who don’t fix their brokens? Gone. Cartons packed wrong, shipping & billing data messed up? Gone. Sales padding forecasts for their account and then the account won’t take it in? Gone. A lot of things can be cleaned up with people simply being honest and taking responsibility for their own sh-t. Is teams that constantly f’up and nobody holds them accountable. How could that ever be a successful business model? Does Nike even know what budgeting is? Do they even understand the concept of teams budgeting for and paying for the costs they create? See a lot of teams spending money, delivering nothing of value, and walking away from all the bugs, bad design, and supply chain interruptions their half-a$$ed and over budget work introduced. Nike rewards that kinda stuff, when we should focus on doing the basics right - or at least marginally decent. How many messes does everyone have to work around just to get through the day? Make teams cleanup after themselves- would go a long way to making things more streamlined and efficient … and restore the morale of the people that care and are capable of getting stuff done.
I was hoping that's why Barack came to visit a while back!
@bqr+1rFuNEXp I agree that HON needs to go. In my opinion, Tonya Hvizdak or Amy Montana would be good choices for CEO.
Was gonna say Cuban as well. He-l, he could run for president and I would pick him.
I’m sure the board would prefer a female CEO as the capstone to all the DEI efforts over the past years. HON already seemed like weak sauce before the current fiasco and is in no way ready to clean up the mess that she helped JD create.
JD was an interesting choice as he was an older board member with limited years left in his career. He was brought in to cut costs and prepare for another younger CEO who is more of the typical Nike mold. Does anyone like that exist anymore within Nike? I’m not so sure. AC would have been a good one
Play it safe. Make the next CEO an ETW.
If going external I'd hire Mark Cuban because he seems Nike-aligned (sports guy) and has a relatability that the current leaders lack. If going internal I would have gone with AC but that's no longer an option. With AC (and others I would have also chosen) gone my internal pick would be CW. The leadership pipeline, much like the innovation pipeline, does not exactly seem like it's bursting at the seams at the moment.
Snoop Dogg
It must be someone who loves product. Obviously.
Hoke?
Elliott Hill?
Trevor Edwards?
CEO of Taco Bell. ‘Taco Bell’s customers are the cultural rebels’. 😂
My vote is ….
Hire someone externally who will focus on the physical product rather driving innovation on the tech space. You are not a tech service company. You need to focus on creating products. Not an P0 to optimize supply and delivery. There are companies who specializes on delivery. Now you have the CTO, drive speed and delivery using Amazon channels. Don’t need to surface everything in-house and you don’t need to create home ground software products. Nike was doing well without all this for so many years. ELT ran out of ideas and trying out things even though they failed long back. No purpose of failing fast. All directors are individual contributors and they exist for no real needs. Simplify the hierarchy with 2 pizza teams. Real problem is now the teams are run by directors / sr directors who can fit their teams with 1 pizza slice.
Somebody internal, younger, with a proven track record and decent Nike tenure. This somebody should have a background in design or innovation. Somebody who can bring some excitement and hope back. Somebody with dreams of making cool and crazy $hit. Somebody more keen to script the future, rather than plan their next personal trip on the corporate jets.
After the last 4 years of JD BS, I am not sure such talent remains… and if so, is this even what the Board wants..?
Absolutely no one on the ELT.