Reebok 2012 Annual Report Download - page 90

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adidas Group
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2012 Annual Report
Group Management Report – Our Group
68
2012
Group Strategy
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02.1
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Group Strategy
The adidas Group strives to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with brands built
upon a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. Inspired by our heritage, we know that a profound
understanding of the consumer and customer is essential to achieving this goal. To anticipate and
respond to their needs, we continuously strive to create a culture of innovation, challenging ourselves
to break with convention and embrace change. By harnessing this culture, we push the boundaries
of products, services and processes to strengthen our competitiveness and maximise the Group’s
operational and financial performance. This, in turn, will drive long-term value creation for our
shareholders. To achieve this goal, we have made strategic choices and will prioritise our investments
under our six key strategic pillars.
Creating long-term shareholder value
Creating long-term value for our shareholders through significant
operating cash flow generation drives our overall decision-making
process
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SEE INTERNAL GROUP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, P. 124. Therefore,
we are focused on rigorously managing those factors under our
control, making strategic choices that will drive sustainable revenue
and earnings growth, and ultimately operating cash flow. Across our
operations, we pursue in particular the avenues for growth which
we expect to be most value-enhancing, with particular emphasis on
improving Group profitability. In addition, rigorously managing working
capital and optimising our capital structure remain key priorities
for us. Furthermore, we are committed to increasing returns to
shareholders with above-industry-average share price performance and
dividends
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SEE OUR SHARE, P. 60.
Diverse brand portfolio
Consumers want choice. Whether it is the athlete looking for the best
possible equipment, or the casual consumer searching for the next
fashion trend, we are inspired to develop and create experiences that
engage consumers in long-lasting relationships with our brands. To
maximise our consumer reach, we have embraced a multi-brand
strategy. This approach allows us to tackle opportunities from several
perspectives, as both a mass and a niche player, providing distinct
and relevant products to a wide spectrum of consumers. In this way,
each brand is able to keep a unique identity and focus on its core
competencies, while simultaneously providing our Group with a broad
product offering, increasing our leverage in the marketplace
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SEE
GLOBAL BRANDS STRATEGY, P. 78.
Investments focused on highest-potential
markets and channels
As a Group, we target leading market positions in all markets in which
we compete. However, we have prioritised our investments based
on those markets which offer the best medium- to long-term growth
and profitability opportunities. In this respect, we place considerable
emphasis on expanding our activities in the emerging markets,
particularly China and Russia/CIS, as well as building our market share
in underpenetrated markets for the Group, such as the USA
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SEE
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS AND OUTLOOK, P. 157.
No matter in which market we operate, we recognise that consumer
buying behaviour and the retail landscape are unique. Therefore, to fully
exploit market opportunities, we tailor our distribution strategy to present
our brands to the consumer in the most impactful way. This is achieved
by following a distinctive but coordinated channel approach. To this end,
we strive to provide our customers with superior service to secure prime
shelf space for our brands, while continuing our commitment to building
strategic competency in own retail and e-commerce
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SEE GLOBAL SALES
STRATEGY, P. 72.
Creating a flexible supply chain
Speed and agility are key to outpacing the competition. We are committed
to meeting the full range of customer and consumer needs by ensuring
constant product availability in the correct size and colour, providing
game-changing technical innovations and also the latest high-end
fashion products to the highest quality standards.