Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden shared his mobile number with his 60,000 employees – the multinational CEO’s goal was to promote empathy and good management at the company, according to a report from Wall Street Journal.
This unusual practice aims to establish a more direct connection with the workforce, allowing employees to provide suggestions and advice to improve the company’s situation.
When Gulden, a former footballer, took over the sporting goods manufacturer in January 2023, the company was going through a crisis. Adidas had just cut ties with rapper Kanye West and suffered a $763 million loss in the final quarter of 2022.
This setback led the German company to take drastic measures, including layoffs and a reevaluation of its business strategy.
Adidas Yeezy, the company’s big loss.One of the first steps Gulden took was to address some of the transparency concerns raised by employees themselves. And offer your top secret phone number.
“Some people think I’m crazy,” Gulden said, adding that he thought leaders would be better off “having no filters.”
The CEO of Adidas gave away his personal phone to all his employees.After this strange decision, Gulden listened to his employees. The CEO told the WSJ In a week they contacted him about 200 times. Among other things, he told the media that they urged him to “reform the company.”
Gulden’s strategy of opening direct communication channels with employees reflected a shift in perception of the importance of internal opinions in business success.
“Our industry is not that complicated. There was a culture of finding reasons not to do things”Gulden explained.
He’s not the only one
Gulden isn’t the only CEO to recommend that his staff communicate easily with him.
Anna Lundstrom, CEO of Nespresso in the U.K. and Ireland, she told Fortune that “her workforce can communicate with her across multiple platforms at any time, from Teams and email to WhatsApp and LinkedIn.”
In Lundstrom’s eyes, always being available keeps her on top of trends, her team, and the competition. “I think I’d always rather know something than not know it,” she explained to the outlet. Furthermore, she added that her phone is always within reach from the moment she wakes up.
Source: WSJ and El Economista.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.