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Being a global business
Our brands are visible all over the world, through our presence at major sports events like the Football World Cup or the Olympic Games, and through online communi-cations such as social media. This draws attention to the way we do business and the conditions under which our products are made.
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Being accountable and open
To manage our business on a global scale we set clear standards, rules and procedures that apply to our operations and our supplier partners. We seek to be open about our operations, for example, by disclosing our global supplier relationships to the public or submitting our global supplier compliance programme to evaluation and accreditation by the independent Fair Labor Association.
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Being competitive …
To respond to changing consumption patterns and customer demands, we need the right products delivered by a highly capable supply base. Ensuring consistent compliance with our social and environmental standards across a broad and complex supply chain is a challenge.
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… But not at any price
As we have outsourced most of our production and source from a multi-tiered supply chain, the way we manage our suppliers is under scrutiny. The adidas Group Workplace Standards are fundamental to our relation-ships with our suppliers and are contractual obligations. We have our own team that assesses how well our suppliers comply with our supply chain code, and also work with external monitors to complement our measures. We strive to work with business partners who are fully committed to fair, safe and environmentally sound working conditions because we are convinced that it strengthens our – and their – position in the global marketplace.
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Being environmentally responsible
Climate change is on the top of the agenda of governments around the world. Environmental sustainability poses a number of challenges for our product management, innovation and development teams, facility managers, manufacturing partners and sales organisations.
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Reducing our footprint
We have a Group-wide Environmental Strategy in place that determines targets and areas of actions within every part of our value chain to significantly reduce our environmental footprint by the year 2015.
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Being an employer of choice
We operate all over the world and have to mirror the global marketplace with a multinational workforce. We know that our people are critical to our success. Our challenge is to recruit, retain and develop this diverse group of employees so that they achieve their full potential.
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Managing our people
To address these challenges we have a Human Resources strategy in place that has the following pillars:
1. Create a working environment that stimulates team spirit, passion and engagement
2. Instil a performance culture based upon strong leadership
3. Be an employer of choice.
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Being a good corporate citizen
What is our role in addressing global issues like population growth, disease or environ-mental degradation? While these are global trends, local communities are the ones affected. We need to under-stand local needs to design programmes that make a positive difference to people’s lives.
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Supporting local communities
Because we recognise that our regional subsidiaries and Group entities best understand the needs of their local communities, we have adopted a largely decentralised and brand-oriented model for community involvement. Initiatives are managed through the adidas Fund, the Reebok Corporate Responsibility Programme and the TaylorMade-adidas Golf Charity Programme. At Group level we support our suppliers’ communities and also contribute to aid organisations that promote sustainable development practices within the industry.
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