Nike By You merchandising organization: rebuilding a function after its support was cut

What it is

Khounlavong took the global merchandising seat for NIKEiD in July 2017. His year-end review describes what he found. The support organization downstream had been eliminated. His contacts went from 5 people to upwards of 45. Nine category partners sat on top of that: Running, Sportswear, Women's, Basketball, Global Football, Training, Cleated, Skateboarding and Young Athletes. Leadership layers above him were added, vacated or on sabbatical during the year.

The same team also carried the product for the new Nike+ member shop. His functional summary of November 2017 states that the team was working in two roles, customization and membership, and that this was not sustainable.

He wrote that the platform had not been properly funded since 2008.

What Khounlavong did

• Measured the load. His organization deck of December 13, 2017 counts 18.5 hours of recurring meetings a week, 46% of the week, and marks the Nike Direct meetings he could not attend because they overlapped.
• Named six challenges for the function: identity, tools, dual roles, communication, infrastructure, and the need to build and drive a merchandising strategy.
• Wrote the role map. For each partner function he set out what merchandising was responsible for: brand marketing, product creation, design, manufacturing and operations, development, the categories, Nike Direct merchandising and the geographies.
• Split 27 tasks between a director, a manager and an associate.
• Recommended two hires. One was a manager with analytical, communication and merchandising experience to hold the relationships with key partners. One was an associate with close attention to detail to bridge the communication gap across functions, geographies and categories.
• Defined the manager's job. The job description in his files, dated January 2018, weights each duty. The manager would own five categories and the launch calendar, and report to his seat.
• Asked leadership for more global resources, and for a lead in each geography, in his quarterly functional summary.
• Set a simple rule for the team: be easy to do business with.
• Started a monthly Lunch and Learn series across business functions.

Results

• He hired and brought on a manager and an associate, recorded in his list of fiscal 2018 accomplishments.
• His year-end review states that merchandising gained leadership, visibility and accountability during the year, and became part of the key gates and meetings of the customization business.
• The business finished fiscal 2018 at $181M, 15% over budget, with excess materials down 34%, a $2M reduction.
• A job description for his own seat was written in July 2018 at the senior director level. It gives 20% of the role to culture and talent.

At a glance