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Edit & Amplify

For Impact Ideas | | Tom Suddes

Mark Parker, Nike CEO, has a simple mantra: EDIT & AMPLIFY.

“I’m trying to short list the things that will make the biggest difference; and amplify the innovation agenda. That’s an art and a science.”

Phenomenal cover story in Fast Company on THE WORLD’S MOST CREATIVE CEO.

I love my FAST COMPANY… and I LOVED this article. Parker is an athlete, an artist, a designer… and, oh yeah, a CEO of one of the most iconic brands with $19 Billion in 2010 revenue!

Just a couple of quick nuggets to encourage you to read this article.

  • Parker’s a designer. Gets to hang out with creatives and eccentrics. Attracted to people who are “intense and maybe even obsessed”. (Great line: “Obsessed people make messes. It goes with the territory.” Now I can use this as an excuse for my messes.)

  • Nike BHAG’s!

    Increase sales by more than 40% by 2015.

    Meet a set of equally ambitious sustainability benchmarks.

    Grow earnings at 7% a year.

    Keep 33,000 employees thinking as nimbly as possible.

  • Struggles to mix his right and left brain strengths! “It’s about balance.”

  • Quoting Margaret Wheatley, “The energy in an organization is a product of the RELATIONSHIPS between the PEOPLE! Not about creating an ORG CHART and then putting people into BOXES!” Parker: “I think that is exactly backward.”

So much more about skunkworks, the ‘speed group’, relationships with artists, authenticity, innovation, creating a platform, metrics, corporate responsibility, creative tension.

Say what you want about big, big companies. This article and profile of Parker shares that it’s possible to be creative, innovative and even nimble… no matter how big you are.

*Parker reorganized the company into “small units… a conscious decision to sharpen each piece of the business so we’re not some big fat dumb company.”