Reebok 2013 Annual Report Download - page 72

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adidas Group
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2013 Annual Report
Group Management Report – Our Group
68
2013
Group Strategy
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02.3
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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
company and our shareholders. To achieve this goal, we have made strategic choices and will prioritise
our investments under 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. 118. 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 opera-
tions, we pursue in particular the avenues for growth which we expect
to be most value-enhancing, with particular emphasis on improving
brand strength and Group profitability. In addition, rigorously managing
working capital and optimising our capital structure remain key prior-
ities 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. 58.
Diverse brand portfolio
Consumers want choice. Whether it is the athlete looking for the best
possible equipment, or the lifestyle 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 compe-
tencies, 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. 77.
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 profit-
ability 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.
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.