Insider listened to a recording of the meeting and spoke with four Nike insiders for this story. Nike declined to answer questions or make Lavu available for an interview. The audio and reporting make clear that Nike's plans are wide-ranging, including innovation labs, streamlined tech platforms, and reliable WiFi in stores and its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Nike's tech employee attrition, though, could complicate or delay what Lavu described as Nike's "tech transformation." "I want to set the stage for us to be great as a technology organization," he said. "I'm asking for some grace and patience. I know right now it doesn't seem like things are changing fast enough." Technology at the center During his presentation, Lavu emphasized the importance of the tech team. "Technology is going to be at the center of kind of all the transformation that is going to happen now and in the future of the company," Lavu said at the start of his presentation."And it's actually gonna get more deep-rooted and embedded into everything that we do." Technology will help bridge different divisions in the company, he said. "There's nobody who can actually connect the dots between its product design, planning, supply chain, experiences, other than you all." To support the team, Lavu announced the opening of two new innovation labs, starting with one in Atlanta followed by one in the Bay Area. At the labs, "one of the things that we need to focus on is 3D design," Lavu said. "We wanna create a simple, easy experience for our designers, like a digital experience for our designers both for today and for tomorrow." Nike is considering various ways of bringing digital sneakers to consumers and ways to sell goods in the metaverse, recent patents suggest. To help designers create the 3D sneaker of the future, "we're gonna build a platform, a 3D, immersive design platform," Lavu said. He later said this platform would be "transformational in the industry." 'We just have to simplify' But other platforms would need to go, Lavu said. Nike, like many large companies, operates on various technology platforms. One former technology worker estimated Nike uses thousands of them. Lavu wants to get it down to 85, he said. Doing so will make it easier for Nike's data and programs to communicate. "We just have to simplify," Lavu said. "And so there's gonna be a lot more standardization. And I know sometimes you all might not be thrilled about standardization, but we have to do it. We have to do it for ourselves, for the company." Lavu also outlined a new cybersecurity initiative, including a cyber-defense office in India and in its Oregon headquarters. Other technology rollouts seemed far overdue, including a plan for "great" WiFi in stores and reliable WiFi on the main Nike campus. "As we return back to campus, there'll be some WiFi issues and we need to address that," Lavu said. "The physical infrastructure of our network, in certain cases, is actually antiquated," Lavu said. 'I'm concerned' "So how are we going to get all of this done?" Lavu asked as he wrapped up his presentation. "It's complex, it's a lot of work, and it needs to be stitched across the enterprise, and the people who can do it are on this call, there's nobody else." Which brought Lavu to the subject of attrition. "I'm concerned, I want to leave you all with that. I'm concerned that the attrition is growing," he said. Lavu described Nike as a "great company." He said it's working to make career pathways more clear. It's also working to address concerns about salaries and remote work. He encouraged Nike's technology workers to sing the company's praises to professional contacts. Nike's return-to-office plans have also been a point of contention or cited as a reason for leaving the company for employees who want to continue a flexible work schedule. "We all have an obligation to tell the great stories," he said. "If you love being here, tell the great stories to people that, you know, in the technology world and pull them in."
12 replies (most recent on top)
It’s hilarious that they signed these massive contracting agreements without asking the teams on the ground floor how things are going.
“Yeah… 1 out of every 5 contractors does any work. The rest do nothing if you’re lucky. But mostly they spend their days sabotaging the team’s velocity.
At least they’re cheap though!”
In the same breath he describes cutting costs significantly, offshoring significant amounts of work to India, then wonders why all the good managers & workers have left?
Du----s.
My network here is DEAD. From 100 amazing people, I know of 5 left sprinkled around the company. They each left after +10 years with the company. And they’re all applying to other companies.
If senior leadership cared they would be pulling out all the stops and reversing course.
But they don’t care. And they don’t tell the truth.
Nike ELT is trying to inspire Tech to “do more with less” which is contributing to a toxic environment of finger-pointing and blame as attrition-ravaged teams struggle to maintain the same level of output with 30-40% reduced staff. There is apparently no training for mid-level leaders in “blameless culture,” the concept of resource constraints, or that their job is to protect their teams so they can get their work done rather than agreeing to all the asks, or exposing ICs to reactionary escalations as if those are attributable to individual performance issues rather than a systemic lack of proper resource allocation and clear handoffs between orgs. Tech managers seem befuddled as to why new bugs are constantly being introduced into a wildly complex system while siloed teams are under constant pressure to churn out new features by a deadline (not agile!) with no budget in the schedule for addressing the alarming amount of tech debt.
What company in their right mind would choose Nike Tech as its technology supplier?
really feel sorry for the technology staff that has not left yet.
All true words, but what the top brass is forgetting is that the culture that made the company great left with all the oldtimers at top level that left for a reason. People see right through the fake attitudes these days. Nike has become just another average company and current leadersip is not going to fix that. Time to break out the old campaigns again ,but now for internal use?
https://youtu.be/fAI8eUtwJzo
@1mip, this is me buying you a virtual round of whatever your beverage of choice is. Well stated and spot on in every bullet point. Folks, I am working for the ultimate micromanager and it is in fact holding me back and creating more chaos. She keeps giving me wrong information, gets involved with things she clearly does not understand, “suggests” d-mb solutions, and her only thing is, “I want to make my boss look good.” Well, her boss is an absolute tool too.
Why the increased attrition?
- Pay. Just because it’s Nike doesn’t mean they can underpay and still retain talent.
- Lack of career advancement. Too often hard work gets you nothing but more work. If employees don’t have a reasonable chance of being elevated based on merit they’ll go to a different company that provides those opportunities. If you as a manager don’t have a 3-year career advancement strategy for every employee you manage then you are a poor manager. That describes 80%+ of Nike managers.
- “Equality” at Nike follows the Animal Farm model. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Stop with the charades. Everyone sees thru it.
- Nike has decided to micromanage when and where people work. Many want to work remotely. Let them. Focus on results rather than micromanaging mundane processes like “This is where & when you need to sit while working.” Keep doing what you’re doing Nike and your competitors will fix the problem for you.
- Leadership used to be mostly respected here. I’ve been at Nike since PHK was around and almost everyone respected and trusted him. Today’s company leaders mostly aren’t worthy of the type of respect PHK commanded. To put it nicely.
- Honesty. Leadership frequently spouts platitudes and otherwise says things that nobody actually believes. Like “Working in an open office will increase your collaboration!” Please, just stop. I have far more respect for people who tell me unpleasant truths rather than pleasant sounding lies. Nike too often doesn’t seem to know the difference. Or at least they think I don’t know the difference.
- Actions speak louder than words. Too often Nike’s actions don’t match its supposed values. Here too leadership is arrogant as they wrongly assume that employees aren’t smart enough to see and understand what’s actually happening.
Excessive attrition is almost always indicative of a management and leadership problem. It signals a disconnect between what leadership sees and what employees see and experience. This disconnect has negatively impacted Nike’s culture and caused more people to question the direction in which the company is moving. More important it has caused an increasing number of people to question whether they might be better off taking their skills and talents elsewhere. This trend won’t stop until some substantial changes occur. Changes that I don’t see as very likely.
I retire in less than two years. If I was younger, then right now I would be seriously reconsidering whether Nike would play much more of a role in my career moving forward. I’m not pleased to say that either. I feel bad for the newer generation of employees who will never know what it used to mean to work here.
😂 this guy is a tool!
https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-tech-team-leaked-audio-reveals-tech-talent-drain-ambitions-plans-2022-3
Back in the day, when employees love life and stick was booming, we’d just care that we were supporting athletes and marketing sport - “if you have a body you are an athlete.”
Maybe the attrition is due to much more than remote work (besides the management issue), like trying to sell shoes in the Metaverse. Nike is not a tech company. Or are we ? #FuelBand #SNKRSBots
Gotta start with Why
How about getting rid of the harassers vs keeping and protecting them. People don’t want to work in the office with them again and they manifest a toxic work culture helping drive attrition