BUSINESS STRATEGY
PUMA AG
[pic]
1) What is your opinion of the job that Puma’s management has done since CEO Jochen Zeitz took over? Is the company in good shape and in a good market position? Would Puma management agree with your assessment? How does your characterization of where Puma is and how well it is doing compare with message and image that Puma management is trying to get across?
Before the arrival of Jochen Zeitz as CEO, the image and the value of Puma were compromised by Rudi Dassler’s son and his management style. Puma sold “dirty cheap” and as soon as Nike and Reebok entered the European market new collections failed.
In 1986 the Dassler family had to sell most of its shares and Puma became public. Its financial situation was as obvious as a search for a leader. In 1993, Jochen Zeitz became the youngest chairman of a publicly traded company in the German history. The restructuring phase led to record earnings of 37 million euros in 1997. A record made possible with the introduction of profit centers identifying and adjusting profit margins; a decrease in working capital and accounts receivable, an outsourced production to Asia and Turkey.
The company has now a better international control, and regional differences can be handled more efficiently due to the location of the three different management headquarters (Germany, USA, and China) and the cultural diversity within the management team (vs. Nike and Reebok where only one culture dominates).
| |1999 |2000 |2001 |2002 |
|Net |373 |462 |598 |910 |
|Sales | | | | |
|Gross |142 |176 |251 |397 |
|Profit | | | | |...