On the Pivot podcast yesterday Nike was brought up as a prediction by Scott Galloway. An activist investor will come in and decide on JD, either he gets the boot or they give him 12 months. Kara Swisher also said she has talked to several Nike people and they said it is a hot mess. Personally I think it will take more than an activist investor. This might be interesting. Thoughts?
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Let’s be clear, JD hired RL. JD was still on the board when the hire occurred, but gave the final sign off. The COO job was nothing without the tech org. AC wouldn’t have taken the role without it, as he was arrogant enough to think this was his path to CEO. We all see how that worked out. Eric or Elliott should have become our CEO, not JD.
I continue to be amazed that RL never directly reported into JD - instead through AC - even though one of the main objectives for JD’s role was the tech transformation. How on earth did that decision get made??
Donahoe has made a complete mess. He’s absolutely not the man to make Nike a sports brand powerhouse again. He completely sc--wed up the one job he had, which was the tech transformation. He doesn’t know anything about product, marketing, marketplace, or sports marketing. He’s a total waste of time.
We need a senior, credible, veteran sports industry executive as next CEO. None of the current ELT are that executive.
Not sure how long the Company Censors will keep this up.
There is nothing any current common shareholder can do. Those are Class B shares, does no one ever read his book, PHK knew many things back in the late 1970's, not the least of was that no one anticipated, including him, that the company would leap to be the beginning of this Titan. Only Bucky the Book Keeper was doing the real math, Hayes, Johnson, Strasser, were tired, worn down, because building a company as they had done, is exhausting. Converse's and Gibb Fords attempt to ruin Nike with the help of the USG, taught PHK that leadership brought many enemies, external and internal. You could make a good case that the financing was a miracle of luck and guile. But PHK knew he needed to solve the capital problem. The wealth created, to the inner circle anticipated for years, fought over till the very end, at those times in Oregon, were unheard of. But as the book describes, it was an intransigent PHK, his most consistent feature, who kept at it until they, his advisors, suggested Two Classes of Stock. This solution fit PHK to a T. The Class A share ownership is not always clear, Kara is usually better at this than that, maybe missing Walt Mossberg more than understood.
l So nothing will happen by any shareholder, PHK controls the majority of the shares, and the election of all the Board. Nothing could be even accumulated, because Phil's firm Jasper Ridge does a great job with shares and the family.
The rumor or whatever that was, that TC was headed to the steering wheel, is like Jasper Ridge, PHK having many tools to do whatever is his plan. Loved the article that PHK said unlimited NIL budget to buy an NCAA Championship, NCAA is now Pro Ball anyway, so Ducks have unlimited budget to acquire whatever is necessary.
The American Track team for Paris, even those not paid to wear the Swoosh is a result of the Company making NCAA TRack a legit place to develop, should be an epic show, hope NBC does not sc--w it up.
It is PHK's company. He has given more money to his State, to his University's, and personally made Thousands of Oregon residents, wealthier than many ever dreamed of, or deserved.
May TC review all the talent "retired", and bring them back quickly, let those released, fire the next large batch of pretenders. Fire the children, who have never been in fox hole, stop promoting embarrassingly stupid, and incompetent people.
The recovery is simple, get back to being a Company that makes good value products that Nike's Loyal Customers demand, and expect, over there long relationship with the Brand.
The market is and always will be huge, although being a World Wide company will be more difficult than ever.
Coach said it Best - " If you can move, you are an Athlete" that is your customer. Everyone must get moving......EVERYONE.....Every Age, Male and Female, "Move or Die"
Guessing JD has until Q3 or Q4 of this year. If the business doesn’t show a return to strong growth he’ll be replaced. The problem is… we don’t have any candidates to take his place, and most of the ELT also su-ks and will continue to su-k even with a JD replacement. Major changes need to happen to the entire leadership team. The entire succession planning of the next generation of leaders was botched by JD, and the few arguably capable candidates were forced out, retired, or left on their own volition. It is a hot mess all around.
How will they get enough shares? PK still owns majority of the company outright or via a trust. Ain’t no one going to be able to do anything he doesn’t want to while he’s still alive.