Project Management Analysis: Adidas' Strategic Shift Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Adidas' project management practices, specifically focusing on a critical decision-making scenario: the company's strategic shift from primarily sports footwear to include casual and converse shoes. The report begins with an introduction to the importance of decision-making in management, using Adidas as a case study. It outlines the decisive situation, detailing the competitive pressures from rivals like Nike and Puma, and the need for innovation. The paper then explores the steps Adidas took in its decision-making process, including identifying the problem, gathering information, identifying alternatives, choosing the best option, and taking action. The report examines the project management methodology employed, including the use of Maslow's hierarchy and SWOT analysis. It further delves into the problems faced during the transition, such as market competition and design challenges, while also highlighting the advantages of diversifying the product line. The conclusion emphasizes the revolutionary impact of the decision to enter the casual footwear market, leading to increased revenue, brand recognition, and market share. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Decisive situation:..........................................................................................................2
Project management methodology.............................................................................4
Problems Faced..........................................................................................................4
Advantages.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion......................................................................................................................6
References......................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
Decision making is one of the key task that is to be done by any of management team
in any company. It can be explained as a process of making choices by properly identifying
and gathering relevant information also asserting alternative resolutions for a problem
(Turner, 2015). The organization that have been chosen for the process is the footwear
making held of the world Adidas. One of the major decision making situation that came up
for the management team of the organisation was to take the decision of making casual and
converse shoes other than that of the sport shoes that adidas was main concern of the
organisation(Ind, Iglesias & Schultz, 2015). This decision was to be taken because of the
factor that the competitors in the market were increasing and the organization lacked the
proper innovative options. This paper evaluates some of the major reasons and problems that
the organisation faced.
Decisive situation:
Adidas which is one of the big shot name in the world of the footwear industries
which world have seen for the last years(Ind, 2017). The organisation was started by the ADI
Dassler by the year of the 1900. The world knew the adidas to be one of the top notch in the
field of the sports ware and sports equipment’s like the footballs and gears.
The organization mainly focused in making some of the world in class sports shoes
for the sport personalities around the world. The first sport shoe that made a hit in market was
worn by the German football team for FIFA world cup. By this time the market came up with
new brands like the Nike, Puma and rebook. Adidas market cap decreased by the late 90s as
there cam plenty of other organisation. At this time of crisis, the organisation came up with a
new idea of how to tackle the ongoing situation with some of the major changes in its shoes
making concept (Lindner, 2015). Adidas became of the first brand in the world to introduce

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shoes that were sports inspired but focused on the street wares. This concept became a
revolution for the organisation as there were no other organisation which was providing such
an alternative to the clients. In order to take decisions the organisation follows some of the
major steps to gather proper information and sure that with the new decision there is no loss
to the organisation (Wang, 2017). The steps that the organization follows are:
 Identifying the Decision: In this case the main decision that was to be taken was to
ensure that whether entering in the field of the daily foot wares and the street wares
would be beneficial for the organisation or not. The management had to do huge
market research and understand the proper idea of the people(Holtbrügge & Schuster,
2017). Other than this the other major problems were the cost and the designing of the
shoes and whether the society would accept it or not.
 Gather relevant information and doing proper market research: In order to make the
idea of the street wares play successfully in the market the management had to do
huge research and gather proper information on the ongoing trends of the market.
Other than this one of a major challenge was to understand the rivals and what have
been doing by for the market change.
 Identifying the alternatives: Although there were no such many alternatives for the
organisation at the time of the launching of the street wares, but the organisation
would stop the process of launching the shoes.
 Choosing the correct alternative: AS there was only one choose to be made that was
to be launched or not (Frumkin, Bradley & Weiss, 2012).But some of the choosing
alternatives were choose the design and price of the shoes that would attract the
people of the world.

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 Taking proper actions: The organisation needed to take proper and immediate actions
to launch the product in time so that there is no delay and to take the maximum
advantage.
Project management methodology
In order to make the process of taking proper decisions the team had to follow some
of the major decision making techniques, some are:
 Maslow Pyramid: The Maslow’s pyramids states the hierarchical needs of the
peoples (Laluyan, Pangemanan & Worang, 2017). It has seven layers
psychological needs, security, social relationship, recognitions, and
acquisition. In order to make the decisions taken by the management this has
to be done and made sure that there is proper result of the product.
 SWOT analysis: Strength, weakness, opportunity, Threats, this is one of the
major concept that had positive results on the decisions of the manager. The
major strength of the organisation was the name it already had from the sports
market. While the weakness of the organisation was its less knowledge of the
market of the street shoes(Rudolph, 2016). While the opportunity came up as
people would buy things by the name of the adidas and hence an opportunity.
Threat lied as the organisation did not knew what other organization had been
doing.
Problems Faced
Before the product was to be launched there were many problems and challenges that
the organisation faced. In the mid 80’s, the organisation faced huge losses due to the market
competitions (Liu et al., 2015). Hence in order to increase the sales and revenue of the

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organisation the order to increase the revenue of the same the management had to take up
huge decisions of taking the market of the street shoes and canvas shoes. In order to do the
same the organisation had to face many problems and challenges. Some of the major
challenges were:
 Although the organisation has huge name in the field of the sports ware and
sports equipment but had no knowledge of the ongoing trends of the street
wares and hence it became a huge challenge for team to make the same.
 Many of the designers in the organisation refused to work in the domain and
hence became a problem for the management to cope up with the situation.
 The organisation had no knowledge on how the market would behave on how
peoples will take the concept and buy the things.
Advantages
Even though Adidas is a massive name in the shoe industry as they are very popular
for making premium sport shoes and most of the famous sport persons also advertise their
products. However, they are not the only one in the market. There are other massive brands
which are equally completing with each other to get an extra edge such as Nike and puma.
Business analyst must consider new opportunities to gain exponential growth (Moser, Muller
& Piller, 2016). Adidas market cap decreased by the late 90s as there cam plenty of other
organisation. At this time of crisis, the organisation came up with a new idea of how to tackle
the ongoing situation with some of the major changes in its shoes making concept. There are
several advantage adidas can achieve by making casual and converse shoes. By making new
type of shoes they can expand their key business areas as not only sportspersons, normal
peoples will be engaged directly with their product. They will be able to make more revenue

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as their sells will be higher than usual. Adidas will be also able to compete with the other
brands such as Nike and puma. As a shoe brand they needs to utilize every opportunities to
sell their products and present their products to everyone(Schmid, Dauth & Kotulla, 2012).
They will be also able to gain many insights and new opportunities to envelope their business
even further. Further it became famous as many of the super stars and film stars
revolutionised the concept of the converse shoes and the street wares.
Conclusion
Although the organization is one of the biggest organization in the world of the world
the management of the organisation had to make some of the biggest decisions in order to
make the organisation rise. By the late 2000 it became not only the biggest organisation for
producing the sports and the street wares. Other than this Adidas also became a name of the
canvas shoe market. Currently mane of the world biggest superstars of the world use the
common ware made by the Adidas. Other than this there are many customised shoes that are
specially made by the Adidas. Hence it can be said that the decision of making street wares
and canvass shoes became a revolutionary decision that was ever made by the management of
the organisation.

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References:
Frumkin, S., Bradley, S., & Weiss, M. (2012). Innovation and new product development in
textiles. In New Product Development in Textiles (pp. 3-21).
Holtbrügge, D., & Schuster, T. (2017). The Internationalization Strategy of Adidas. The
Internationalization of Firms: Case Studies from the Nürnberg Metropolitan Region,
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Ind, N. (2017). adidas: rediscovering the source of its success.
Ind, N. I. C. H. O. L. A. S., Iglesias, O., & Schultz, M. (2015). How Adidas Found Its Second
Wind. Strategy+ Business, 80, 1-5.
Laluyan, W. N., Pangemanan, S. S., & Worang, F. G. (2017). The effect of advertising,
perceived quality and brand awareness on consumer purchase intention (Case study:
Adidas sport shoes). Jurnal EMBA: Jurnal Riset Ekonomi, Manajemen, Bisnis dan
Akuntansi, 5(2).
Lindner, C. (2015). The oblique art of shoes: popular culture, aesthetic pleasure, and the
humanities. Journal for cultural research, 19(3), 233-247.
Liu, H., Kim, K. H., Choi, Y. K., Kim, S. J., & Peng, S. (2015). Sports sponsorship effects on
customer equity: an Asian market application. International Journal of
Advertising, 34(2), 307-326.
Moser, K., Muller, M., & Piller, F. T. (2016). Transforming mass customisation from a
marketing instrument to a sustainable business model at Adidas. International
Journal of Mass Customisation, 1(4), 463-479.
Rudolph, M. (2016). A Financial Analysis of the Sportswear Company Adidas AG.

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Schmid, S., Dauth, T., & Kotulla, T. (2012). The Acquisition of Reebok by Adidas.
In Fallstudien zum Internationalen Management (pp. 713-731). Gabler Verlag,
Wiesbaden.
Turner, T. (2015). German Sports Shoes, Basketball, and Hip Hop: The Consumption and
Cultural Significance of the adidas ‘Superstar’, 1966–1988. Sport in History, 35(1),
127-155.
Wang, Y. (2017). Authenticity, Creativity and the Future---Adidas Advertising and
Contemporary Youth Culture(Doctoral dissertation, Maryland Institute College of
Art).