Sporting chance

For some, it may have looked like a step down. Ralph Kotterer was leading Adidas in the huge region of Central Europe, which includes the sporting goods giant’s home market of Germany, before he put his hand up to become Managing Director of the group’s Southeast Asia region. This division, headquartered in Singapore, has a significantly lower volume of trade than his previous role, but Kotterer says other factors have him extremely excited about the new position.

“There was quite a debate why someone running such ‘an elephant’ would want to come to this part of the world – the business volume being so much smaller,” he tells HRM. “But the reason is easy. I think this is where things will happen.”

He says there may be more business in Europe, but there is much more growth in Asia. And even more importantly, there is much more potential for growth. “To me, the next generation, maybe even the next century, will be an Asian one,” he says. “And I honestly want to be part of it.”

He says the huge potential of Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular, suits his ambitious and empowering leadership style. “In this part of the world you can still make things happen; you can still shape things,” he says. “That’s what I’m good at – it’s what makes me tick and get up in the morning.”

Having arrived on January 2 this year, Kotterer has just completed a three-month review of the local operations. He says the first and most important aspect of the role is to bring a stabilising influence to the organisation. As the fourth Managing Director in less than 30 months, that job cannot be understated. “We need a lot more consistency and stability in this organisation and it all starts with the guy at the helm.”

But one of the key ways to bring about that continuity is to have long term plans and see them through. Like any good sports captain, that’s exactly what he intends to do.

Positivity and passion

Kotterer plans to take a strong interest in the group’s local recruitment strategies. In order to build a strong, united and committed team, he looks to meet a majority of the professional hires before they officially sign on, ensuring that only the most positive attitudes and team players make the cut.

“I meet all first line, all second line, and all critical function hires myself,” he says. “While we have precise job descriptions and competency profiles for every job that we have – and these are being checked meticulously – I want to make sure that we have the right spirit for each and everybody that joins us.”

Kotterer places a lot of stock in the passion and enthusiasm that the best new hires bring, saying it can sometimes be more important than functional competency. “You hire for EQ (personality), you train for IQ (intelligence),” he quotes the common refrain. “It’s much easier to fill gaps on the IQ side of things. If someone’s missing a certain professional competency, we can train them. But if the person misses the right attitude, is not committed or engaged, there’s nothing anyone can do.”

Kotterer says he has become adept at sizing potential hires up in that first short meeting, and recognising that all-important passion for both sport and work. “After 15 minutes, people will know whether they really want to sign that contract, and I will know if I want them to sign.”

Diversity also plays an important part in Kotterer’s ideal “Dream Team”, as it does for the entire Adidas organisation. He says this value, particularly in Asia, must be seen at the very top of the organisation if it is to have any effect down the line. “It’s very important for us as a global company but to me it’s particularly important in Southeast Asia,” he says. He’s therefore pleased that his senior management team offers a strong example of this. Of the eight team members, included Kotterer (from Germany), the team boasts eight different nationalities.

“The more diverse, the better it is,” he says. “The sum of us all is larger than the individuals (involved).”

A sporting culture

Once in place, Adidas staff can look forward to competitive salaries – but nothing that Kotterer would consider “over the top”. He says that’s even the case in the current competitive talent market, where headhunters delight in offering star performers inducements to switch sides.

“What is more difficult in this part of the world is retaining talent,” Kotterer admits. “There’s a lot of poaching going on.” But rather than increasing compensation and bonus payments, he aims to improve retention by making Adidas an attractive and exciting place to work. Leveraging on the organisation’s strong sporting brand, he aims to create strong reasons for those game-changing players to stay on board, even if it means a slightly lower wage.

“I don’t believe in paying top notch money,” he says. “I don’t think we need to do that because we are working in a very attractive industry and we are one of the most attractive companies to work for in that industry.” With a part to play in some of the world’s most important sporting events and spectaculars, including this year’s World Cup in South Africa, Adidas is able to offer some unique rewards to its best team members. This includes tickets to Cape Town for some of the action this June.

It all goes toward building a star team, rather than a team of stars. Once again, the organisation’s sporting base helps to build the internal culture. “We are running the company based on a very strong team culture,” Kotterer says. “Our values are rooted in sport – we want passionate, proud, committed, and engaged people.”

Performance counts

Like any good sporting team, training, performance, and talent management are all vital functions for Adidas in Southeast Asia. Kotterer says these are all interlinked with rolling five-year plans for the organisations, its geographical units, and each function within them.

“It all starts with what we want to achieve as a company,” he says. “We want to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry.”

From there, individual targets are set for each organisation, each functional area, and finally, each individual. This forms a “KPI Tree” that is rigorously checked to ensure all team members are working to that one undisputed goal.

Kotterer says staff need regular, honest and constructive feedback if they are to successfully complete their part of the overall plan. That means having some very open, and sometimes tough, communication up and down the line. “One of the values that are very high on my priority list is performance,” he says. “We provide targets and have very clear expectations (of all staff).”

That’s the first part of a “rigorous” performance management system in place throughout Adidas. Kotterer says staff are subject to constant checks against their KPIs, for the good of both the organisation and the individual concerned.

“It’s an absolute must for the stars, and a must for the solid performers,” he says. “But it’s also a must-do for the 10% to 15% of underperformers that every organisation has.”

Kotterer admits that this is always the “tough” part. “Nobody wants to but only if you have those talks can you be fair to the rest of the organisation. Somebody has to stand in for everybody who is underperforming.”

Ready for the challenge

It’s early days, but Kotterer says he’s ready and enthusiastic for the challenge of building the Adidas organisation in Southeast Asia. It’s his 25th year with the company; and his fourth assignment outside of its Germany headquarters. But of all of his challenges and achievements there, and in Hong Kong, Russia and Dubai, he says this current role will be his most important assignment.

He looks forward to making Asia “Three-Stripe territory”.