For the CEO of adidas, HBS Executive Education is about gaining applicable knowledge, building community within his team, and rewarding his best employees.
Kasper Rorsted, CEO of adidas, believes that studying at HBS Executive Education isn't just an opportunity to build knowledge; it's a well-deserved reward for top performers. "Harvard is to education what the Champions League is to soccer," says Rorsted. "There's pride in being able to say 'I was at Harvard.'"
Rorsted was named CEO of adidas in 2016 after holding senior leadership roles at Oracle, Compaq, and Hewlett Packard in addition to serving as CEO of Henkel. Over the course of his tenure, adidas has experienced great financial success, with market cap growth exceeding 75%. Operating in more than 75 countries worldwide, the company currently employs more than 57,000 people.
To help meet adidas' growing needs, HBS faculty and program designers worked closely with Rorsted and his leadership team to develop a customized program. This year's sessions focused on optimizing performance management and adapting to a digital future.
While the inaugural program included adidas' Core Leadership Group of 30 top executive leaders, the following year, Rorsted invited the next 120 senior leaders from around the world to attend the custom executive education program at HBS. By providing this unique opportunity to additional tiers of management, adidas established strong, company-wide buy-in that enabled attendees to speak the same language, collaborate more easily, and quickly put any plans developed at HBS into action.
In fact, the adidas executives didn't wait until they got back to headquarters to begin implementing their new ideas. After the sessions concluded, the Core Leadership Group continued the discussion among themselves, applying what they learned to their business challenges and strategies. "They would ask 'why is this relevant for us?' and ‘how can we directly put an action plan in place?'" says Rorsted.
Within four weeks of returning to their offices, the entire group of 150 HBS participants convened at their bi-annual meeting to determine how to cascade their learnings and how to apply them when executing the company's strategy throughout the organization.
In addition to the educational opportunities, Rorsted also found value in the on-campus living/working experience. "You develop a different relationship with your colleagues while you're here," he said. "You get up together. You run together. You have breakfast together. You live in a community. It's the compounding experience that makes HBS so unique."
Naturally, the team from adidas ran their own exercise program while on campus. Asked to describe the venerable tradition of running the steps at Harvard Stadium, Rorsted laughed and said, "Cruel."
IMPACT
