When Herbert Hainer talks about his date of birth, he doesn’t just name a day, month and year. After all, 3 July 1954 was “the day before the soccer World Cup final in Bern”, as Hainer adds emphatically. That was when Germany’s national team scored a 3:2 win against what appeared to be an invincible star line-up from Hungary. The victory was twofold: it made Germany world champions for the first time, and it kicked the country out of the post-war depression. But Hainer’s affinity to football comes not only from the proximity of his birth to the “miracle of Bern”. As a keen amateur footballer young Hainer booted the ball around for the local TSV team in his home town of Dingolfing in Lower Bavaria and later even made it into the third German league with SV Landshut. He would have loved to have been a striker in one of the big, successful professional clubs, but his soccer-playing skills weren’t quite up to that. So Herbert Hainer used his talent – pretty well, in fact – to become chief executive of Adidas, the world’s second largest producer of sports goods. Hainer reckons the company “has soccer in its genes”. Not surprisingly, the characteristic logo from Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg went into the offensive and led the field during the 2006 World Cup competition in Germany. Whilst Nike and Puma concentrated more on equipping individual teams, Adidas was omnipresent as a main sponsor, licence holder and official supplier for the whole tournament. Hainer saw the world cup as “the chance of a century for our company”, and Adidas wholeheartedly embraced it. This year’s turnover from soccer products alone is expected to increase from 900 million to 1.2 billion euros. On top of this, Adidas will be the main sponsor and official supplier of the 2008 Olympic Games and the next two World Cup competitions in 2010 and 2014. During the 2006 World Cup in Berlin Hainer sealed similar exclusive contracts with representatives of the European Football Association (UEFA) for the 2008 European Cup in Austria and Switzerland.

Being up front, being the best – these are the things that motivate Hainer. Since he became head of Adidas the company, by far Europe’s largest and – following Nike – the world’s second largest sports goods manufacturer, has presented very impressive, successful figures. The share price is on the increase with one record year after another. In 2005 Adidas notched up a net profit of 383 million euros, the highest in the company’s history. And this year’s profit is expected to be around 500 million euros. Last year the company hit the headlines with a spectacular takeover: Adidas bought its American competitor Reebok for 3.2 billion euros. Under Hainer’s leadership the fusion is catapulting the company’s total turnover for 2006 to around ten billion euros. This means Adidas is now hot on the heels of the seemingly indomitable rival and market leader Nike with its turnover of around twelve billion euros.

If Adidas manages to get Reebok back into profitable shape, it would be Herbert Hainer’s masterstroke. He personally initiated the deal while drinking a coffee during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens with Paul Fireman who was head of Reebok at the time. Things then moved fairly quickly. Hainer is well-known for his preference for fast pace, while patience is not exactly his personal trademark. He can’t bear standstills, and he’s always on the move, both in business and in his private life. He’s married, has two grown daughters, regularly goes jogging, plays tennis and golf, and in the winter it’s not unusual for Adidas employees to find their boss doing weight training in the company’s fitness centre in Herzogenaurach on a Sunday morning. He’s absolutely fit, without an ounce of fat, relaxed and friendly with the people he meets. On the other hand, Hainer leaves no doubt about who’s in charge. In the company he’s reputed not only for his easygoing attitude but mainly for his direct and open style of communication. Apart from this, nobody at the company would dare to turn up in Puma shoes or Nike T-shirts. In Herzogenaurach the impression Hainer puts across is definitely down-to-earth. The headquarters, officially known as the World of Sports, is located on the edge of the town with its population of 23,000, and occupies what was once a military barracks complex. The official language used on site is English. Adidas has invested over 100 million euros in the complex over the years. This is the company’s control centre from which Hainer directs 26,000 employees worldwide and with whom he battles for supremacy in the global business of sports articles.

When you see him at a public appearance dressed in the trade’s typical casual look, almost always without a tie, but with shoes from the Adidas collection by Japanese star designer Yoshi Yamamoto, it’s hard to imagine Herbert Hainer as a manager in a line of business than has nothing to do with sport. “To me, sport is passion and emotion,” says Hainer. He’s not one of your spectacular big-time managers, he’s not a visionary, nor is he full of talk. Deep down he’s always been a footballer. Someone that works hard on the pitch, is always moving at high speed and is obsessed with the idea of scoring.

Uwe Rizer