Breaking rules and boosting morale at Adidas

  • Bjørn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, gave his cellphone number to 60,000 employees
  • Gulden is pushing staff to break rules and ignore consultants
  • Adidas faced morale issues after the collapse of its Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West

When Bjørn Gulden took over as CEO of Adidas, he faced a company with low morale and transparency issues. To address this, Gulden gave his cellphone number to 60,000 employees, encouraging them to reach out directly. He also pushed staff to break rules and ignore consultants, in an effort to foster innovation and creativity. This move came after the collapse of Adidas’ Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West, which had a negative impact on employee morale. Gulden’s unconventional approach aims to boost morale and create a more transparent and innovative culture at Adidas.

Public Companies: Adidas (ADS)
Private Companies:
Key People: Bjørn Gulden (CEO)


Factuality Level: 7
Justification: The article provides some specific information about the challenges faced by Adidas and the morale of its employees. However, it lacks additional details and evidence to support the claims made by Bjørn Gulden. The mention of the collapse of the Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West is relevant but could benefit from more context.

Noise Level: 3
Justification: The article contains some irrelevant information about the collapse of Adidas’ Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West and employee complaints about transparency, which is not directly related to the overall topic of the article. However, the rest of the information seems to be on topic and relevant to the subject of Bjørn Gulden taking over Adidas.

Financial Relevance: Yes
Financial Markets Impacted: Adidas

Presence of Extreme Event: No
Nature of Extreme Event: No
Impact Rating of the Extreme Event: No
Justification: The article pertains to Adidas, a financial company, and discusses the challenges it faced with the collapse of its Yeezy collaboration and employee complaints about transparency. However, there is no mention of any extreme event or its impact.

Reported publicly: www.wsj.com