首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
It was a moment most business executives would pause to savor: late last year, German sporting goods pioneer Adidas learned that
It was a moment most business executives would pause to savor: late last year, German sporting goods pioneer Adidas learned that
admin
2012-01-20
102
问题
It was a moment most business executives would pause to savor: late last year, German sporting goods pioneer Adidas learned that after years of declining market share, the company had sprinted past U.S. Reebok International to take second place behind Nike in the race for worldwide sales. But Robert Louis Dreyfus, the rumpled Frenchman who now runs Adidas, didn’t even stop for one of his trademark Havana cigars in celebration, worried that the company would grow complacent. Instead, he and a group of friends bought French soccer club Olympique de Marseille. "Now that’s something I have dreamed about since I was a kid," Louis Dreyfus says with an adolescent grin.
66.____________
With sales in the first three quarters of 1996 at $ 2.5 billion, up a blistering 30.7% over 1995, it’s hard to recall the dismal shape Adidas was in when Louis Dreyfus took over as chairman in April 1993. Founded in 1920 by Adi Dassler, the inventor of the first shoes designed especially for sports, the company enjoyed a near monopoly in athletic shoes until an upstart called Nike appeared in the 1970s and rode the running fad to riches. By the early 1990s Adidas had come under the control of French businessman Bernard Tapie, who was later jailed for bribing three French soccer players. Although the company tried to spruce up its staid image with a team of American designers, Adidas lost more than $100 milli on in 1992,prompting the French banks that had acquired control of the company from Tapie to begin a desperate search for a new owner.
67.____________
The poker-loving Louis Dreyfus knew he had been dealt a winning hand. Following the lead set by Nike in the 1970s, he moved production to low wage factories in China, Indonesia and Thailand and sold Adidas’ European factories for a token one Deutsche mark apiece. He hired Peter Moore, a former product designer at Nike, as creative director, and set up studios in Germany for the European market and in Portland, Oregon, for the US. He then risked everything by doubling his advertising budget. "We went from a manufacturing company to a marketing company," says Louis Dreyfes. "It didn’t take a genius — you just had to look at what Nike and Reebok were doing. It was easier for someone coming from the outside, with no baggage, to do it, than for somebody from inside the company."
"The marketing at Adidas is very, very good right now," says Eugenio Di Maria, editor of Sporting Good Intelligence, "an industry newsletter perceives Adidas as a very young brand. The company is particularly strong in apparel, much stronger than Nike and Reebok. "
Although 90% of Adidas products for wear are on the street instead of sports fields, Louis Dreyfus felt the previous management had lost sight of Adidas’ roots as a sporting goods company. After all, Adi Dassler invented the screw-in stud for the soccer shoe and shod American champion Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. So he sold off or folded other non-core brands that Adidas had developed, including Le Coq Sportif, Arena and Pony. Europe is still the company’s largest market because Adidas dominates the apparel industry and thanks to soccer’s massive popularity there. Louis Dreyfus is quick to share credit for the turnaround with a small group of friends who bought the company with him in 1993. One of those fellow investors is a former IMS colleague, Christian Tourres, now sales director at Adidas. "We’re pretty complementary because I’m a bit of a dreamer, so it’s good to have somebody knocking on your head to remind you there’s a budget," says Louis Dreyfus.
Commuting to the firm’s headquarters in the Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach from his lakeside house outside Zurich, Louis Dreyfus also transformed Adidas from a stodgy German company into a business with a global outlook. Appalled on his first day at work that the chief executive had to sign a salesman’s travel voucher for $ 300, he slashed the company’s bureaucracy, adopted American accounting rules and brought in international management talent. The company’s chief financial officer is an Australian and the international marketing manager is a Swede. English is the official language of the head office and no Germans remain on the managing board of the company, now whittled down to just himself and a few trusted aides. "It was clear we needed decentralization and financial controls," recalls LouisDreyfus, "With German accounting rules, I never knew if I was making money or losing."
"He gives you a lot of freedom," says Michael Michalsky, a 29-year-old German who heads the company’s apparel design team. "He has never interfered with a decision and never complained. He’s incredibly easy to work for."
70.____________
The challenge for Louis Dreyfus is to keep sales growing in a notoriously trend-driven business. In contrast to the boom at Adidas, for example, Reebok reported a 3% line in sales in the third quarter. Last fall Adidas rolled out a new line of shoes called "Feet You Wear" which are supposed to fit more comfortably than conventional sneakers by matching the natural contour of the foot. The first 500,000 sold out. Adidas is an official sponsor of the World Cup, to be held next June in France, which the company hopes to turn to a marketing bonanza that will build on the strength of soccer worldwide. But Reebok also has introduced a new line called DMX Series 2000 and competition is expected to be tough come spring.
[A] Just as the transition was taking place, Adidas had a run of good luck. The fickle fashion trendsetters decided in early 1993 that they wanted the "retro look", and the three-stripes Adidas logo, which had been overtaken by Nike swoop, was suddenly hot again. Models such as Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer and a score of rock idols sported Adidas gear on television, in films and music videos, giving the company a free publicity bonanza. Demand for Adidas products soared.
[B] Louis Dreyfus, scion of a prominent French trading dynasty with an MBA from Harvard, earned a reputation as a doctor to sick companies after turning around London-based market research firm IMS — a feat that brought him more than $10 million when the company was eventually sold. He later served as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, then the world’s largest ad agency, which called him in when rapid growth sent profits into a tailspin. With no other company or entrepreneur willing to gamble on Adidas, Louis Dreyfus got an incredible bargain from the banks: he and a group of friends from his days at IMS contributed just $10,000 each in cash and signed up for $100 million in loans for 15% of the company, with an option to buy the remainder at a fixed price 18 months later.
[C] In another break with the traditional German workplace, Louis Dreyfus made corporate life almost gratingly informal: employees ostentatiously called him "Rowbear" as he strides down the corridors, and bankers are still amazed when counterparts from Adidas show up for negotiations wearing sweatshirts and sneakers.
[D] The company’s payroll, which had reached a hight of 14,600 in 1986, was pared back to just 4,600 in 1994. (It has since grown to over 6,000.)
[E] A sports addict who claims he hasn’t missed attending a soccer World Cup final since the 1970s or the Olympic Games since 1968, the 50-year-old Louis Dreyfus now is eminently well placed to live out many of his boyhood fantasies. Not only has he turned Adidas into a global company with market capitalization ors 4 billion (he owns stock worth $ 250 million), but he also has endorsement contracts with a host of sports heroes from tennis great Steffi Graf to track’s Donovan Bailey, and considers it part of the job to watch his star athletes perform on the field, "There are very few chances in life to have such fun," he says.
[F] After reducing losses in 1993, Adidas turned a profit in 1994 and has continued to surge: net income for the first three quarters in 1996 was a record $ 214 million, up 29% from the previous year. Louis Dreyfus and his friends made vast personal fortunes when the company went public in 1995. The original investors still own 26% of the stock, which sold for $ 46 a share when trading has doubled to $ 90.
选项
答案
F
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/T6Xd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
CellPhones:HangUporKeepTalking?Millionsofpeopleareusingcellphonestoday.Inmanyplacesitisactuallyconsider
SpoiltforChoiceChoice,wearegiventobelieve,isaright.Indailylife,peoplehavecometoexpectendlesssituations
TheSlowingEconomyWhenitcomestotheslowingeconomy,EllenSperoisn’tbitinghernailsjustyet.Butthe47-year-oldm
Howtechnologypushesdownprice1.Priceshavefalleninthefoodbusinessbecauseofadvancesinfoodproductionanddistri
Howtechnologypushesdownprice1.Priceshavefalleninthefoodbusinessbecauseofadvancesinfoodproductionanddistri
AImportanceofClassroomLearningBTelevision--ARichSourceofInformationCAdvertisementsasImportantMessagesfromt
MakingaLossIstheHeightofFashionGiventhatagoodyearinthehautecouture(高级定制女装)businessisonewhereyouloseeve
MakingaLossIstheHeightofFashionGiventhatagoodyearinthehautecouture(高级定制女装)businessisonewhereyouloseeve
HowoldistheearliestsurvivingexamplesofChineseprinting?
随机试题
卫生服务的需要主要取决于消费者的
A、川木通B、秦皮C、石菖蒲D、苦参E、百部饮片切面显“针眼”的药材为
下列关于中国刑法适用范围的说法哪些是正确的?()
《建筑内部装修设计防火规范》关于民用建筑的规定,说法正确的有( )。
根据下面材料,回答下列题目:张自强在第一年年初购买了1000份共同基金。第一年年初共同基金的价值为50元/份,第一年年末为58元/份,第二年年末为66元/份,他在第一年、第二年年末获得当期收益均为6元/份。张自强在第一年年末追加投资,又购买了1000份共
为应对国际金融危机,我国政府决定从2008年第4季度开始实施积极的财政政策和适度宽松的货币政策,用两年多时间增加4万亿元投资,带动生产和就业规模扩大。这表明政府购买性支出()。
材料三:阅读下面的短文。完成71—75题。织袜机是英国牧师李.维利亚1593年发明的。关于这项发明还有一段有趣的插曲。当年这位发明家为了向织袜女工梅丽求婚,苦思冥想,别出心裁地发明了能帮助梅丽摆脱繁重劳动的织袜机,并以此作为奉献给心上人的结婚礼物
某市公安局在侦办一起“套路贷”案件时,该市公安局长提出,因为案涉及人数众多、时间跨度较长、涉嫌罪名较多,所以要求公安机关要强化证据意识,综合材料所体现的案件事实必须有相应的客观证据予以支持;建议公安机关在侦办时,应该以时间为主线进行取证;在提请逮捕时以罪名
古代许多人既有“名”又有“字”,表字和本名的意义有联系。下列古代名人的表字和本名意义相近、互为辅助的是:
在水槽里,装有浓度为13%的食盐水2000克,往这个水槽里倒入重600克和300克的A、B两种食盐水,水槽里食盐水的浓度变为10%。已知B种食盐水的浓度是A种食盐水的浓度的2倍。求A种食盐水的浓度是百分之几?
最新回复
(
0
)