NIKE CFO and Executive Vice President Andy Campion, one of the company’s leading visionaries, holds the title of ‘Double Bruin’. He earned his MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 2003, and a BA in Economics in 1993. He also received a JD/Master’s degree in taxation law from the University of San Diego.
The NIKE brand has been part of our cultural landscape for as long as many of us can remember. Since the company’s founding as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1971, it has evolved into one of the most powerful market forces in the world, synthesizing the cultures of sports, business and entertainment.
Andy Campion has risen to the top by virtue of a unique set of leadership skills. His previous work for The Walt Disney Company, where his roles included strategic planning, and mergers and acquisitions, was the springboard of Campion’s career.
He joined NIKE in 2007 as Vice President of Global Planning and Development, where he led strategic and financial planning efforts. In 2010 he advanced to the position of brand CFO, where he has overseen consistent growth of the ever expanding ‘Swoosh’ empire.
Andy Campion
Over the next four years, Campion’s responsibilities expanded to include strategic and financial planning. He earned the title of SVP in 2014.
Campion credits his education at Anderson with bestowing him with many of the principles that he has carried over the course of his advancement. In a recent talk with Dean Judy Olian of UCLA Anderson, Campion discussed how the fundamentals that he learned during his studies have given him the tools to lead one of history’s most successful businesses.
Early in his tenure as CFO, he said,
“I want to create a new long-term financial model that delivers sustainable profitable growth, more strategically bringing our category offense plan into our major markets.”
While this may sound like the standard stuff of a chief financial officer, Campion’s philosophy embodies a much more holistic view of the ways in which teams achieve success.
“If you’re going to be a leader, you have to know where you’re going so that others will follow”, he said during his talk with Dean Olian. Leaders are not born, he believes, contrary to conventional wisdom. One acquires the strength to manage teams through creating strong personal connections that embolden each individual.
Campion notes that many people emerging from business school will find that of the options available to them in the job market, many of the available positions are that of an analyst. Exploring this trend, Campion explains that accurate analysis is only a part of the puzzle that makes an organizations’ teams succeed.
“Truly innovative ideas are not conceived on a spreadsheet,” he said. Those with a vision to advance must possess the ability to see that the success of a company lies beyond numbers. True innovation, he acknowledges, emerges from understanding the subtle complexities inherent in any strategic plan.
Campion credits a great deal of his, and NIKE’s, success upon an emphasis on relationships. One of the major tips he offers to aspiring b-school students is, “You learn how to be a learner from others. When people share experiences, [leveraging] those lessons … will help develop the intuition required to innovate.”
Applying the framework that one learns in business school to ideas hatched with intuition and creativity leads to great success, Campion believes. One of the most valuable lessons he has learned is the difference between a mission statement and an intention. “Market share… [and] metrics, are buzzwords” he notes, not intentions.
Campion points out that great leaders must be optimists; there is nothing that hampers creativity like pessimism. His focus on collaboration and teamwork is summed up by his belief that “the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back”.
NIKE’s iconic staying power is derived from its intention to appeal to its customers as individuals. Anyone who has seen a NIKE ad can attest to the emotional connection that defines the brand. With 60,000 employees globally, the company is truly a testament to the strength of this philosophy.