TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
ACTIVITY
TOPIC- Activity on Strategic Training and Development Process
SUBMITTED BY
NAME- SUBHAM AICH
REGISTRATION NUMBER- 20BBA0147
COURSE- TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
COURSE CODE- BMT2011
SLOT- B2
SEMESTER- FALL SEMESTER (2021-2022)
1. Select an Organization - ADIDAS
Adidas AG; stylized as Adidas since 1949 is a German multinational corporation, founded
and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, that designs and manufactures shoes,
clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe.
Dassler assisted in the development of spiked running shoes (spikes) for multiple athletic
events. To enhance the quality of spiked athletic footwear, he transitioned from a previous
model of heavy metal spikes to utilising canvas and rubber.
2. Identify its Business Strategy.
“An outline of the actions and decisions a firm plans to take to achieve its goals and
objectives,” according to the definition of business strategy.
The mission, vision, goals, and core values of an organization's business plan are all
connected with these components, and the strategy is established and designed to achieve
them.
“OWN THE GAME”
Our strategy, ‘Own the Game,' will guide us through to 2025 and is based on sport. Adidas'
past, present, and future are all about sport. Our employees bring ‘Own the Game' to life,
putting the consumer at the heart of all we do. Our strategic goals include developing brand
reputation, improving the consumer experience, and pushing the sustainability boundaries.
Our strategy's execution is supported by an innovative mind-set in all aspects of our business,
as well as our digital transformation.
‘Own the Game' is all about our customers. Through their preferences and behaviours,
consumers influence structural trends in our industry. They want to live active and healthy
lifestyles, and they want to combine sport and lifestyle. They are digital by default and
committed to sustainability. ‘Own the Game' will be able to overcome those consumer-driven
opportunities while also creating out new ones for them. As we continue to actively
implement our goal of ‘through sport, we have the power to impact lives,' ‘Own the Game'
will not only have generated over proportional growth for adidas, but will also have deepened
relationships with our consumers by 2025.
OUR PEOPLE
We will empower our employees to actually control the game in order to successfully execute
our five-year strategy. Our employees bring ‘Own the Game' to life, putting the consumer at
the heart of all we do. It's all about cultivating a culture and atmosphere in which our
employees can regularly succeed, feel valued, and love going to work.
The adidas People Promise was created to make it clear what we stand for as a company. The
adidas People Promise will guide us as we work to achieve our vision of being the best sports
brand in the world and to live our purpose of changing lives through sport. You will also see
our attitude of ‘Impossible is Nothing’ reflected in our People promise.
In addition to that, the people part of our strategy is built on 3 pillars:
Leadership: We will develop leaders to own the game and act as role models empowering all
people to realize their possibilities.
Betterment : We believe in a mind-set of continuous learning and improvement and are
committed to providing relevant learning opportunities to up skill and reskill for the future.
Performance: We build the best teams that play to win, recognizing and rewarding both
individual and team performances.
SUSTAINABILITY
Our commitment to sustainability is comprehensive and has been deeply embedded in our
corporate practices for more than two decades. It derives from our mission statement, which
states, "Through sport, we have the potential to alter lives." We will shift from strong stand-
alone efforts to a scalable and complete sustainability strategy as we continue to pioneer in
sustainability.
What we offer: Nine out of ten of our products will be sustainably produced by 2025. We'll
do this by expanding and innovating our 3-loops, which are produced from recycled
materials, made to be remade, or made using natural and renewable resources. We define
things as sustainable when they outperform conventional products in terms of environmental
benefits due to the materials used or the manufacturing technology used.
What we do: As we aim to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, we are committed to
decreasing the CO2 footprint of our product offerings. We'll do it by implementing zero-
carbon initiatives inside our own operations and supporting environmental programmes
across our whole value chain in close collaboration.
What we say: We will be outspoken about our attempts to develop low-impact products that
are designed to be recycled. We will also simplify our labelling strategy and expand our
product take back program that helps our customers make more sustainable choices.
Corporate Strategy – Creating the New
Adidas' goal is to be the top sports brand on the globe. Being the best requires creating world-
class products and providing excellent customer service. “Creating the new” is the name of
the company's new strategic business plan. Adidas' objective to drive top and bottom growth
by considerably enhancing brand attractiveness is at the heart of this strategy. As a result, the
focus is on how brands connect with and engage with their customers. However, in order to
realise its new business strategy, the brand has also prioritised the development of a
performance culture.
• Speed
Customers are at the heart of Adidas' brand desirability. Customers are at the heart of what it
does, and it concentrates on saving them as efficiently as possible. This, however, means
accelerating things so that customers may find fresh and desired products when and when
they want them, as well as a superior shopping experience. This necessitates Adidas' ability
to predict and respond quickly to consumer demand. By speeding things up and being quick
to respond to customer demand, it will be able to grow faster. The Speed project is created on
three pillars: never being out of stock, planned responsiveness, and in-season creation.
• Cities
World’s biggest cities contribute to the largest part of the world’s GDP. It is why Adidas has
focused specifically on major cities. It started from London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris,
Shanghai and Tokyo. It aims to create an end to end ecosystem connecting consumers with
relevant products. These key cities also provide platforms for the activation of ADIDAS
brands.
Open Source
The focus of ‘Open Source’ is to let consumers enjoy higher participation in the products
Adidas makes. This part is about learning and sharing and inciting conversations between the
brand, external experts and consumers.
✓ Creative collaboration focuses on increased partnership between the brand and outside
creative thinkers.
✓ Athlete collaboration focuses on partnering with athletes so that the two can shape the
future of sports together.
✓ Partner collaboration on the other hand focuses on sharing resources and expertise
with the best in other fields.
Investment in Digital
Many things in the business world are changing as a result of digital technology, and there is
a strong reason for every brand to develop and implement a digital strategy. Brands can also
use digital to better manage their supply chains, distribution networks, and in-store
experiences. Adidas has also made investments in digital technologies in order to increase
production. Adidas established the digital leadership team in 2017, with the mission of
launching digital projects across the firm and assisting various functions with digital
decision-making. It also added new features and technologies to its e-commerce channels in
2017, allowing customers to have a better online buying experience.
The Adidas app was also released in 2017. Its e-commerce channels are also the fastest
growing of all its sales channels, expanding by 57% in 2017. To increase the impact of digital
across the board, the company is forming new collaborations. Apart from that, Adidas and
Siemens formed a partnership with the goal of reducing the time it takes to bring a product to
market.
Effective management of the supply chain
Without an efficient supply chain, a huge and complicated global network cannot function.
The efficiency of a company's manufacturing system determines the brand's overall efficacy.
Adidas has done an excellent job with its supply chain management. Its global operations
channel manages supplier relationships and collaborates with important supply chain partners
to improve production processes. The Global operations function is delivering against their
strategic focuses that are:
• To make Adidas the first true fast sports company which involves speeding things up.
• Creation of a seamless consumer experience that has the customer at the centre.
• Transforming the manufacturing process.
While Adidas has about 800 suppliers, the Global Operations division works with 296 of
them, with 109 of them being strategic supply partners that have collaborated with the brand
for over ten years. A big portion of its suppliers are based in Asia, which helps to reduce
manufacturing costs because raw materials and labour are less expensive there. In 2017, Asia
accounted for 97 percent of Adidas' footwear output. China is the company's largest apparel
supplier, followed by Cambodia and Vietnam.
3. Decide the Strategic and Training initiatives
Strategic training is defined as "a type of training that gives employees with the tools and
information they need to execute their responsibilities successfully, in accordance with a
company's strategic planning, values, and goals."
Strategic training initiatives has the following objectives:
➢ Contribute to the diversity of a learning portfolio
➢ Improve customer satisfaction
➢ Accelerate the pace of employee learning
Adidas has its own training academy, with over 350 physical academies, and offers a 1-2
month training programme to its employees. These initiatives focus on giving employees
with possibilities for growth, access, and non-retail training. They also provide developing
programmes for current employees who want to advance their careers in the company.
Adidas can use the following training approaches-
▪ Results-oriented program design
This approach focuses on satisfying the skills, knowledge and abilities required for the job
and is aimed more towards employees in sales positions and warehousing
▪ Process-oriented program design
This approach focuses on the process and procedures in Adidas, as well as the standard of
operation, and is aimed more towards employees in inventory and supply chain management
positions
▪ Discussion Method Strategy
Adidas employees can talk to upper management regarding technological innovation and
better use of technology. When Adidas began working technologically in 2017, they
significantly enhanced their performance. To be one of the finest sports brands in the world,
technological innovation and advancement are essential.
▪ Seminars and Conferences Strategy
One of their company strategies that they are looking forward to in the coming years is
sustainability. As a result, in order to be sustainable, they must manufacture their products in
an environmentally responsible manner. The Adidas Company needs to plan seminars and
conferences with high-level environmentalists who have experience and knowledge of
environmental issues. Adidas uses plastic to make its items, so environmental preservation
and sustainability are important to the corporation. As a result, Adidas has an opportunity to
sustainably train its employees in order to lower product costs and become the most
sustainable sports apparel producer.
Training Activities-
➢ Case Study
It provides opportunity for employees to know various situations that a companies of sports
industry can face during any business cycle and the steps to overcome those situations and
especially the learning of the situation is very crucial for the employees.
Incidents that have previously taken place in Adidas are recreated for the trainees and they
are assessed on their skills and knowledge of handling the issues and resolving them. Other
trainees will be able to see and learn from each other. Discussions among the trainers and
trainees will then take place based on these training sessions.
➢ Learning Campus
Adidas provide all employees with access to the Learning Campus via a-LIVE, where they
can take advantage of learning possibilities in a virtual setting at any time. In addition, they
provide in-person learning opportunities.
➢ Social Media
Adidas can come up with various content in social media platforms to promote their products
on a regular basis. For that to happen, they need to train employees who are related to
innovation, digital department to find a space for outperforming its competitors.
➢ Feedback Oriented Training
A feedback system ensures that emerging approaches are better facilitated. Feedback
Oriented Training guarantees that what hasn’t worked in the past is identified, as well as any
Potential gaps that may be identified and addressed in future programmes.
➢ Management-specific activities
Management-specific activities are exactly what they sound like: employee training adapted
to the individual of managers. Simulations, brainstorming sessions, team-building exercises,
role-playing, and targeted eLearning on management best practises are just a few examples.
While management training can encompass a wide range of topics, it's critical to address your
managers' unique needs in addition to those of the rest of your workforce. This guarantees
that they have the necessary foundation to support the rest of their team.
4. Develop the Training Plan
Business-embedded Model
The functional training approach, in general, aligns the business strategy with the objectives
and requirements identified by the organisation in order to achieve the desired outcomes.
Strategic direction, product design, structural versatility, product delivery, and accountability
for results are among the model's competencies. The model is entirely customer-focused,
with both trainees and managers are treated as customers.
A business-embedded model is characterized by five competencies:
o Strategic direction: training and development is based on/focus and goal of the
organization
o Product design: improving product design to appeal to customers
o Structural versatility: rearranging organizational structure to avoid
stagnation/leveraging resources
o Product delivery: reaching out to and approaching customers
o Accountability for results: evaluating success and identifying mistakes to rectify
improve in the future
The four-step process of developing a strategic training plan is as follows:
Step 1: Analyse Established Goals
✓ Adidas' main goal is to win the hearts of its customers by providing high-quality
products at a fast pace. They are more concerned with meeting the demands of their
clients, as they are their first priority. To win customers' hearts, Adidas has expanded
their retail shops and launched e-commerce to reach the broadest possible audience.
✓ Employees must be communicative, neat, have strong work ethics, listening abilities,
be able to make simple calculations, dress well, have outstanding product knowledge,
be able to handle and dissipate issues, and present solutions that assure client
satisfaction in order to achieve their ultimate aim.
✓ Proper training and development initiative can reduce the employee turnover rate as
training boosts morale and enhances the abilities of the employees, leading to overall
job satisfaction and thus employee retention.
✓ Training are provided to employees to bridge the competency gaps that the employees
possess.
Step 2: Develop Training Strategies
✓ After analysing an organization's expansion requirements and identifying and
addressing competency deficiencies, training and development activities take place.
✓ Adidas should employ both on-the-job and off-the-job training activities because their
focus is on a number of crucial areas, including attracting huge numbers of customers,
preserving environmental sustainability, staying technologically current, and
improving the supply chain.
✓ Training in these important areas will enable them to lower manufacturing costs and
increase profits.
Step 3: Integrate Training Initiatives/activities into Strategic Plans
✓ The overall training goal is integrated with the organization's strategic plan's existing
goal of reaching out to customers in the most efficient and cost-effective manner
possible, as well as improving customer satisfaction.
✓ The achievement of the training goals can be measured using Key Performance
Indicators (KPI)/benchmarks, which will allow trainers to assess the effectiveness of
the training programme.
Step 4: Evaluate Training Goal Accomplishments
✓ Training and strategic goals are achieved when the company's performance increases,
which can be accomplished through adequate employee training and measurement
using performance evaluation measures.
✓ Based on the evaluations, training should be classified based on customer feedback or
an analysis of the areas where the company still has competency gaps.
5. Identify the metrics/models to evaluate the training
The process of obtaining feedback on the effectiveness of a training programme is known as
training evaluation. The “training effectiveness assessment method” is another name for this.
The quality of the training programme, the trainer's competency, job performance, employee
skills and attitudes, and the training's return on investment are all things that may be
measured through training assessment.
Levels of Conducting Training Evaluation-
o Pre-Training Evaluation: This assessment takes place at the start of the training. The
goal of this assessment is to learn about the participants' expectations for the training.
This evaluation helps firms to make changes to their training strategy, schedule,
training manual, and other factors in order to improve the success of their training
programmes.
o Intermediate Training Evaluation: The ultimate goal of training evaluation
techniques is to make training sessions more productive. Intermediate training
evaluation approaches can assist businesses in determining the scope of an effective
training program's implementation. It is accomplished mostly through the collection
of verbal data from training participants.
o Post-Training Evaluation: For post-training evaluation, some criteria are used for
the evaluation of the training, those are- Reaction, Learning, Behaviour, and Results
(RLBR).
Training performance evaluation models-
Kirkpatrick’s Four-level Training Evaluation Model
This model is more of a qualitative approach for performance evaluation. The 4-level
approach of this most successful training evaluation model helps organizations to measure the
effectiveness of a training program.
Level-1: Reaction
This model takes a more qualitative approach to evaluating performance. This most
successful training evaluation model's 4-level approach aids businesses in determining the
effectiveness of a training programme.
Level-2: Learning
A training assessment form or training evaluation questionnaire is used to assess the trainee's
reaction to the overall training programme at this level. Following the training programme, a
survey is done. This stage allows for the identification of employees' training learning
experiences..
Level-3: Behaviour
This level aims to evaluate or identify the participants' behavioural changes once they have
completed the course. This training evaluation is carried out after the trainees have completed
the training programme by observing their workplace behaviour and comparing it to their
pre-training behaviour.
Level-4: Results
This is the final level of this training evaluation module, which measures and evaluates the
training results in relation to the ultimate training objectives. This is a type of post-training
review that looks at topics like productivity, quality of work, employee morale, efficiency,
and customer satisfaction, among other things.
The Phillips ROI Model
The Phillips ROI model is one of the methods for training evaluation that evaluates the return
on investment (ROI) of a training program. This model is an extension of Kirkpatrick’s Four-
level Training Evaluation Model. It is a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative approach
of evaluation.
(a) Pre-training data collection
Pre-training is considered here as baseline data for comparing metrics before and after the
training.
(b) Post-training data collection
Post-training data is collected from different sources such as performance charts, immediate
supervisors, Team or peer groups, etc.
(c) Segregation of training effects
Identify all key factors that have been increased due to the training program and contributing
to performance improvement.
(d) Convert data to monetary value
Now take action to convert data into monetary values for completing a comparison of it with
overall training costs.
(e) Calculate of Return
The below formula is used to calculate the return on investment (ROI).
ROI (%) = (Net Training Benefits/Total Training Cost) * 100
ROI will be positive if net training benefits exceed the total training cost. On the other hand,
negative ROI comes when the total training cost is higher than net training benefits.
Metric for Training Evaluation
Balanced Scorecard
The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic management performance indicator that is used
to identify and enhance various internal company functions and the external outcomes that
arise from them.The four main perspectives of a balance scorecard are:
• Customer
• Internal factors
• Innovation and Learning
• Financial aspect
Adidas can also use questionnaire to ones performance by distributing the questionnaire to all
employees.
