Opportunities Report
As a leader in the sporting goods industry, our Group is exposed to a global marketplace, offering significant growth and profitability potential for all our brands. Identifying, assessing and exploiting opportunities in a structured and organized way is fundamental to achieving our medium- and long-term revenue and profitability goals. In addition to seizing opportunities evolving from macroeconomic and industry developments, we continuously strive to deliver strategic initiatives at a Group and brand level in order to capture future growth and profitability.
Opportunities Management Principles and Process
All facets of our organization are involved as we continuously
seek to maximize the top line and optimize our cost structure.
Centralized Group and brand functions such as planning,
marketing, finance, treasury, global operations, and mergers
and acquisitions, are responsible for anticipating global
macroeconomic, industry and long-term strategic options.
Brand teams at both global and regional levels are focused
on identifying consumer trends and monitoring developments
in the respective markets. Strategic business plans provide
the overall direction towards the realization and execution
of opportunities. Our opportunities management process is
composed of the following steps:
» Opportunity identification: Situation analysis is the most important process we apply in identifying and quantifying opportunities. We conduct our own qualitative research with respect to macroeconomic and consumer trends, but also consult secondary material and liaise with independent trend and media agencies. In addition, we analyze market data to see which markets, categories, consumer target groups and product styles show potential for future growth. We actively monitor brand, distribution channel and price point developments. Our primary focus is on sport, but increasingly we also look at adjacent market segments such as leisure lifestyle and sport fusion.
» Opportunity assessment: Identified opportunities undergo a rigorous evaluation, to ascertain viability, commerciality, contribution and risk. This approach is applied to both longer-term strategic prospects but also shorter-term tactical and opportunistic initiatives at both a Group and brand level. Each opportunity that we choose to pursue must adhere to the core values of the Group and respective brand, and provide a significant direct or indirect revenue and profitability contribution while meeting stringent cost and investment criteria.
» Opportunity monitoring and controlling: Measuring the success of our initiatives is a crucial aspect of the opportunity management process. The objectives and key performance indicators set during the identification and evaluation process are monitored on an ongoing basis. This not only facilitates the validation of opportunities but also allows us to adapt and refine our products, communication and distribution strategy to ongoing developments in our fast-moving and rapidly changing marketplace. We are also placing increased emphasis on engaging with our manufacturing partners and retail customers to evaluate the impact of our growth and cost initiatives. During the monitoring and controlling process, information is relayed in a timely manner to product, marketing and controlling functions. Management is continuously updated as part of the Strategic Business Plan process, and through regular and ad hoc discussions as appropriate.
