Term paper on Adidas

Introduction

In contemporary times, many businesses have a dominant position in their respective areas. This dominance may be due to a number of reasons such as product expertise, consumer preference, product base etc. Maintaining this dominance and retaining the market share is important for every business. In order to make sound decisions, a careful analysis f the business should be made. This is important to understand all the key areas of the business, and identify the strengths to further flourish the business. It is also important to identify the weaknesses to overcome them. Adidas is one such business, which has grown over the years to gain dominance ion its category. In order to understand the forces driving the business, and finding ways to further improve it, it is imperial that a careful analysis of the history, organization structure, key personnel, mission, product base, and advertising is made. A detailed overview of these key areas is made in this paper.

History of Adidas

The history of Adidas dates back to 1920 when two brothers Adolf Dassler and Rudolf Dassler founded their own company with the name of 'Dassler brothers shoe factory.' They opened this factory in Herzogenaurach, Germany in the year 1924. The first product that they launched ion the market was a pair of shoes in 19265. They named those shoes 'the waitzer' after the name of the then coach of the German athlete's team. Their business flourished until 1929 but then suffered a setback after the great depression leading to the economic crisis worldwide. However, the era during 1933-1936 of great importance for them as they received support from the Nazi regime. As sports were considered as an import metric to gain popularity and was also considered a symbol of victory, this support from the political party enabled them to revive their business (Smit, 2006).

A breakthrough, which the business experienced, was in 1936 when the company endorsed the Olympic gold winner to wear it outstanding sports shoes. After this, Adolf began to negotiate with sports companies who have already taken part in sports events whereas by the year 1938, Adi managed top expand the company's product line to add a variety of 30 different products. Finally, after the end of the second worked war, the brother came at a consensus that they would divide the company and a business of their own. Rudolf took over the Puma business, whereas Adi began his own company Adidas (Adidas, 2007).

Organization structure

Adidas is a wide spread company, with its operation scattered around the globe. The company is known as Adidas-Salomon and has it's headquarter in a small town in Germany, known as Herzogenaurach. The main function of this headquarter is to manage the supporting functions. These functions include marketing, sales, research and development, and are responsible to handle the functions of a limited area. This area includes the regions of Africa, Asia and Europe only. The region of American is monitored by the American division, known as Adidas America. This division ...