Pros
If you enjoy going to the gym at lunch time, getting maternity and paternity leave and not work after 6p, that’s for you. If you are an intern or a first time job, that’s fantastic because it is like a summer camp. If you are a performance driven, result driven individual with a strong vision, they will crush you.
Cons
The company is located in a small village in the middle of Germany. Most employees have been working there forever and don’t realize that they sell products to a global audience. They can’t think globally. They don’t value external perspective. It’s a very old German company obsessed with rules over results, very hierarchical, where employees have to ask permission for everything. People are under stress because they can’t own any decisions and are screamed at or hit on the hands for personal initiatives. They behave like sheeps for fear of not following the rules. People become VPs or Senior Directors without any credentials and are very poor leaders. Diversity is non-existent (C suite except for HR is male only with C people who have been 20 years with the company). If you strip off the sports, it’s an old musty company with a lot of employees who are losing their confidence in themselves because they have been there too long. Also for a company who just moved their digital capability two years ago, they are not very open to using new external technology tools. As a manager today, I wouldn’t hire anyone coming from adidas who stayed more than one year!