8
SCHWERPUNKT
_INTERVIEW
PERSONALquarterly 01/18
PERSONALquarterly:
Herzogenaurach is located in a very typical
German region and Adidas is a very typical German company.
You came to the company in the UK in 1997. What is the diffe
rence in culture then and now?
Karen Parkin:
Since I joined the company 20 years ago we have
evolved to become a significant player in the sports industry.
Sport is our DNA and we want to make the world a better
place, through sport. Our mission is to change lives through
sport. That hasn’t changed over the years. What has chan
ged is the scale of our company, the size, the brands and
the environment that we represent and the truly exciting
opportunities we offer our almost 60,000 employees. In Ger
many around one third of the 7,000 people are from different
countries, coming from almost 100 nations. We live in a ve
ry young dynamic sports environment where we encourage
collaboration, creativity and with that a spirit of confidence.
That’s who we are. This is the footprint we have established
globally. And this is how we attract and recruit talents into
our company and how we retain them. Our DNA is entrenched
in sports, so we constantly live through sport, through global
sporting events, whether it is the World Cup for football or the
Olympics. That gives us another platform to really embrace
globalization as well and ensure that we live alongside that
environment and attract people that want to come with us on
that journey.
PERSONALquarterly:
So it’s the selection of people during the re
cruiting process which is very important to form this culture?
Karen Parkin:
Every company has to take recruitment very seri
ously. I don’t see it just about the people we employ. It is also
about our consumers. We focus very much on who our con
sumers are. And how our consumers are excited about what we
do. And those consumers are the people that also want to come
and join our company. Therefore it is important to excite our
consumers not only about our brands but also about who we
are as an employer. In 2016 over a million people applied to join
our company. In our recruitment process we have to make sure
that the people we want to hire fit our culture. It is important
that the talents understand our culture and see that our culture
can help them grow and develop.
Diversity Networks and HR Strategy
work together
Das Interview mit
Karen Parkin
führte
Ruth Lemmer
PERSONALquarterly:
As a manager at Adidas, in how many countries
would I have to work to have a successful career development?
Karen Parkin:
We are a young, dynamic company with a global
average age of 30. As an international company we offer global
careers, which is very important for a lot of the younger gen
erations as they are looking to explore career opportunities
outside of their home. I don’t know the exact number of how
many managers have worked in how many countries, but I
would say that many of our more senior managers have worked
in at least two. It is important for our current and future leaders
to have experience in a market as well as in the headquarters.
PERSONALquarterly:
Adidas has many international teams being
part of the company culture. How do you define this?
Karen Parkin:
We have always been a truly international compa
ny. Diversity is very important to us as a company. One pillar
in our people strategy is that we want to bring forward fresh
and diverse perspectives. One of the ways we do that is by
embracing different cultures within the organization. If I look
specifically within Germany, about one third of our workforce
is not German. Even from a local perspective we encourage di
versity of different cultures. This is something we focus on and
we think it’s important to ensure that our culture is authentic
and truly international.
PERSONALquarterly:
Are there different management styles in the
regions or would you say that Herzogenaurach is everywhere?
Karen Parkin:
Let’s be proud, let’s be clear, our global headquar
ters is in Herzogenaurach and that’s part of our DNA and we
love that. Outside of Germany we have key international lo
cations such as Portland, Shanghai or Amsterdam with many
important functions. But we drive our global policy as well as
our business strategy from our headquarters. Let’s make one
thing clear: our culture doesn’t change just because we are in
a different market or location.
We will always respect local culture, that brings diversity,
but our core DNA is the same everywhere. We have just
created a global leadership framework, which defines lead
ership in our company. The leadership framework defines,
no matter where you sit, in what location, in what function,
