Keynote Speech: Taking The Lean Journey At Nike, Roland Paanakker, Vice President of Lean Business Solutions and Chief Information Officer, Nike
Nike’s Lean Business Solutions group embodies the business technology (BT) transformation. Nike’s corporate focus on categories and shared operating models across all brands requires unprecedented change in business processes, information needs, and enabling solutions. These changes require both a strong BT foundation and a focus on building for the future. Roland Paanakker is responsible for IT at Nike, and as his title indicates, he’s also responsible for continuous improvement and innovation at the company. He will discuss his company’s Lean journey, how it transcends IT and business boundaries, and how his group embodies Lean Thinking in its solution delivery.
During his presentation, you’ll also hear how he builds for the future with an emphasis on three tenets of BT:
- Driving process and technology architectures from business strategies.
- Enabling end-to-end information quality in key business processes.
- Creating a simpler next-generation technology infrastructure and ensuring flexible solutions.
After a cool video from the perspective of a football player (think FIFA) on the field, training and on the town, Paanakker checked the audience for Nike product ownership (we failed on the Nike Plus), and is now telling us 8 things about Nike.
8 Things about Nike
- We love Sports
- We are Global
- We are a strong portfolio of Strong Brands
- We lead with Innovative Product & Services
- We connect with Consumers
- We ignite & manage the Marketplace
- We operate with Excellence
- We are a Growth Company
Vision for Nike’s Lean Business Solutions organizations: Solutions to Ignite Growth and Deliver Value – Always. Amplify business connection, accelerate opportunity and enable the benefits. Paanakker: it’s not about projects, it’s about value.
Amplify business connection: Global Process & Technology Leaders. Creating environments for collaboration, planning and accountability. Right-sizing solutions.
The portfolio of work for the LBS organization: Deciding on the Right Solution for the Business Challenge. A solution could be as small as consultative dialog, or as large as a systems implementation. Not all solutions require technology. Critical to prepare the business for change. Each solution is gauged for sustainability, factoring in corporate responsibility. Sustainability is designed in.
Accelerate Opportunity: Portfolio Managing & Strategic Alignment: Planning with an end in mind. Prioritzation, quantification, measurement, incentives, and monitoring/feedback.
Enable the benefits: Three practices in use, coordinated throughout Nike: Lean, program management and change management.
5 Pillars to realize vision
- Be easy to work with
- Align with Inc. Strategies
- Game-changing programs
- Deliver global and local
- Holistic Portfolio & Funding
Building for the future, Paanakker calls out the importance of a holistic information strategy. Data quality. Business analytics. To make people thrive, they are a learning organization. In the Lean practice, they apply agile solutions and continuous improvement and innovation.
Nike’s Lean Approach: Start with mutual Trust & Respect. LBS as a function, ensures balance between solution provisioning and opportunity creation. Nike’s approach is built from work in manufacturing, the Toyata Way, but has been tailored for use outside of manufacturing business.
Paanakker quickly went through some detail on the Lean practice. Points that jumped out: (a) it’s not just about removing waste (efficiency), it’s also about quality, time and line of sight to strategic goals and (b) drive business intelligence through quality data.
LBS vision has a tagline: we create opportunities beyond horizons.
Editorial comment: You might be thinking, wow lots of marketing speak from a CIO. Yes. But, that’s important. If you can’t sell your success, you’ll never be able to sell your ideas.
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