Role Model Leadership

Our learning and development offerings focus on developing the leadership behaviors and essential skills needed to ensure our continued success. Our ambition is to inspire and nurture talented and diverse leaders who exemplify our leadership behaviors.

Leadership groups

We have four standing groups to ensure leadership excellence and develop future leaders. The first two groups, the Core Leadership Group (CLG) and the Extended Leadership Group (ELG) focus on excellence in execution of our strategy and ensuring global consistency. The other two groups focus on developing global, regional and functional succession pipelines.

• The Core Leadership Group (CLG) is made up of approximately 20 members of our senior leadership population. Members of this group jointly represent critical positions and roles across our company worldwide. This group partners with the Executive Board in leading the execution of our business strategy. The CLG is also responsible for developing and inspiring the next generation of leaders. In addition, selected members of this group are potential successors for the Executive Board.
• The Extended Leadership Group (ELG) has approximately 110 members. The ELG collaborates across markets and functions to lead the execution of our strategic initiatives and to drive continuous improvement and consistency throughout the organization. The ELG also mentors and sponsors the Global and Local High Potential Groups. In addition, selected members are potential successors for the CLG.
• The Global High Potential Group (GHIPO) enables us to identify and develop global high-potential leaders who have the ability to take on more complex, demanding and higher-level responsibilities at an executive level. In 2019, the second GHIPO generation started their development experience, with approximately 40 members and a balanced gender split. They will conclude their development experience in the first quarter of 2021. At the end of 2020, nearly three-quarters made positive career movements through either a promotion to the next level or a lateral, cross-cultural or cross-functional moves.
• The Local High Potential Group (LHIPO) was formed in 2019 and enables us to identify and develop local high-potential leaders who have the ability to take on more complex, demanding and higher-level responsibilities at a global or regional leadership level. The program is designed to build peer relationships and to give participants cross-functional and cross-cultural exposure. The first LHIPO generation, consisting of approximately 120 leaders of 30 different nationalities, concluded their development experience in the first quarter of 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the second LHIPO generation started their 12-month development experience with approximately 180 members of 41 different nationalities representing all markets and functions. 55% of the members of this group are female.

Leadership development experiences

To drive clarity and accountability, we worked on further activating our global Leadership Framework in 2020 by embedding it in our leadership groups and development experiences. The Leadership Framework is based on three critical behaviors – Creativity, Collaboration and Confidence (the ‘3Cs’). The 3Cs define the behaviors that are expected of employees at adidas. The framework provides a global and universal language that is inclusive, reduces the need for local interpretations, and outlines concrete behaviors that serve as a measure of leadership effectiveness. Creativity, Collaboration and Confidence serve as the foundation for the way we hire, promote and evaluate performance.

We offer a portfolio of leadership development experiences designed for every level of management across all markets and functions. These include the Manager Development Experience (MDE), Director Development Experience (DDE) and Executive Development Experience (EDE). These interactive learning experiences support the development of leadership skills that are directly linked to the participants’ current roles and responsibilities. In 2020, 1,277 employees activated their MDE or DDE experience, with 933 graduates and of those 768 employees graduating the programs through the virtual experience.

Succession management

Our succession management approach aims to ensure stability and certainty in business continuity through the development of strong internal pipelines of talent for critical leadership positions. We achieve this through a globally consistent succession process that identifies these critical leadership positions within the organization and matches top talent as successors for these roles. Furthermore, we drive the translation of succession planning into realizable development plans to prepare successors for their next steps. The leadership groups we have established serve as succession pools for the executive roles of our organization.