By Paul Feinberg
One of the few things that could get you fired at Under Armour, company founder and CEO Kevin Plank told a UCLA Anderson audience this week, is this statement, which betrays a recalcitrant mindset: “That’s the way we’ve always done it.”
Companies like his must anticipate and adapt to the accelerating shifts of the marketplace, Plank said during his on-stage conversation with Dean Judy Olian in the latest edition of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series. Other recent speakers have included Nestle Executive Vice President Chris Johnson (’88) and United Therapeutics Chairman Martine Rothblatt (JD/MBA ’81).
“Business is a journey…(with) so many different chapters,” Plank told an enthusiastic crowd in Korn Hall. For example, he said, in its first five years, Under Armour’s revenues soared from $17,000 to $5 million. “We crossed a billion in 2010 and last year, $5 billion. Each chapter is incredibly different….(but) change is inevitable.
“Are you in front of the change you have to accept?” he asked.
Plank’s appearance was his second before an Anderson crowd in seven months.
In October, the Under Armour executive was honored as the 2017 recipient of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award in a ceremony in Pauley Pavilion. Plank and his company also have a close relationship with the broader UCLA campus: Last July, Under Armour and UCLA announced a 15-year, $280 million shoe and apparel sponsorship, the largest such deal in collegiate athletics.
The rise of Under Armour began 13 years ago when Plank, then a college football player at the University of Maryland, identified the need for more comfortable T-shirts than the all-cotton versions the Terrapin players were wearing at the time. Quickly becoming an industry leader in competition with Nike and Adidas necessitated an ability to adapt, thus Plank’s insistence that evolution is essential. “One thing you always have to embrace is change,” he said, “and in order for the company to change, leadership has to, too.”
“As entrepreneurs, we attack that problem and do whatever it takes. We stay until it’s fixed,” he said, referencing the early days of the company, when his leadership approach was more personally hands-on. “But in a larger company, you have to rely on the structure and the process you put in place.”
Plank related a story about an Under Armour product that fell behind schedule, potentially costing the company a million dollars. The delay, he found out, was owing to what he thought was an innocous comment he had made about the product’s design and the changes that ensued as a result. “I have to be careful and make sure (the team) is not just trying to please me. They have to please the business and do the right thing for the consumer.”
Plank emphasized the company’s relationship with UCLA and the importance of having a presence on the West Coast and in Los Angeles in particular. He acknowledged the benefits of an association with a school that has won 115 national championships, the iconic wisdom of Coach Wooden and the diversity of the campus, noting that the breadth of UCLA’s diversity made the relationship a “global opportunity.”
UA’s commitment to diversity, broadly defined, came up several times during the discussion, which took place on the first day of Anderson’s LGBTQ Awareness Week) During the audience participation segment, Kyle Bernier (’18), co-president of Out@Anderson, queried Plank specifically about Under Armour’s support of the LGBTQ community.
“I appreciate that question and appreciate your leadership,” said Plank. “We hear that voice in a loud way.” He described some of the company’s efforts, including “pride packs” of apparel and supportive “culture clubs” that exist within the company. “It hits us all so personally,” Plank said, “and you’ll see more from us on this front.”
Plank also talked about Under Armour’s “Lighthouse” innovation center, emphasizing the need for the company to become more efficient at a time when it takes a year and a half to bring a new product to market. “How do we shrink the innovation process?” he asked. “We’ve got to be faster than 18 months. Innovation is everything.”
Read about Kevin Plank’s John Wooden Global Leadership Award.
Read an exclusive UCLA Anderson interview with Kevin Plank discussing leadership.
Change is rarely easy, even when it's beneficial. Under Armour has certainly gone through a lot of change over the years, much of it positive. And that only happens if the leadership team is willing to take risks.
Posted by: Blakely Scott Moore | 05/06/2018 at 01:00 PM