Pros
Global mindset, lots of opportunity for growth within your department and others, high-impact, highly-visible roles. Amazing networking and resources within the company with truly wonderful and talented individuals. Highly variable experience depending on location and department.
Cons
Highly variable experience depending on location and department. adidas is a historic, well-established brand yet operates as a start-up in North America. High operational change and change management needed to realize sustainable, scalable growth and put the proper headcount into place to support growth: Company operates in silos (Running, Basketball, Soccer, Originals, etc.) which results in poor alignment across the brand and lack of a cohesive, strategic vision. Poor alignment and strategic vision, especially from leadership (department-specific). Lack of data-driven decision making and long-term objective setting. Foregoing long-term goals to satisfy immediate needs. Highly impactful/disruptive operational/change management implementation both internally and with suppliers without strategic vision and alignment from all key players from the start. Feels like we constantly shoot our own feet and leadership wonders why. Ambiguous and volatile performance standards, yet high performance expectations. Constantly wondering where you stand and perception-based, rather than qualitative, performance evaluation. Culture of intimidation and bullying in some departments, resulting in toxic work environments and high-turnover. I witnessed an uncomfortable number of people leave management offices in tears, how is this justified? Little on-boarding/information sharing for new hires who feel lost without support and are not set up to succeed. Lack of transparency to working environment such as office location (there can be satellite locations as well away from the main campus), which can impact your commute and relationships with business partners who you may need to see often at another location. New hires feel they were not told the whole story before signing on, resulting in feelings of resentment, especially for those who moved from out of state with their families for the opportunity. It's recommended to summarize conversations in writing in case you need to reference the documentation during a meeting with HR. HR protects the company not employees, be careful not to stir the pot.
