At Under Armour we’re very much a “lean forward” company.
Culture’s a really powerful thing. It’s an incredibly important thing in every organization.
I’ve watched culture develop and evolve in our organization.
I started the company at 22, 23 years old, fresh out of the University of Maryland, and not knowing much about organizations. All I knew was being a part of a team. It’s really the same way that I run the organization today. Sales and marketing is like offense, manufacturing and distribution is like defense, finance and IT are like special teams.
What I’ve found is that today our organization is much more like a global futbol team than an American football team, where everybody’s on the field at the same time.
The ones that communicate the best are the ones that are going to win.
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Photo by: DAVID DUROCHIK
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I keep these whiteboards in my office that say things like, “Overpromise and Deliver,” “Walk With a Purpose,” “Dictate the Tempo.” All these sort of personality traits that are really defining of our company.
People ask, “Do you pinch yourself?” “Can you believe how far the company has come?” I always answer that by saying I never knew what was possible or what we could look like as an organization.
When I woke up every day in 1996, 1997 or 1998, with a few thousand or a hundred thousand dollars in sales … I never believed it couldn’t happen.
Too often, we start with what’s not possible, or what can’t happen or here’s the limitations or here’s the glass ceilings. I don’t know who puts those rules in place, but, frankly, I feel like as an organization the largest and probably the thing I’m most proud of our culture, is that none of those are facts or the way that life must be lived.
We didn’t wake up in ’96 and say we’re going to build the next great global athletic brand. What we did is we woke up and we said, “You know what, tomorrow is going to be better than today. And next week is going to be better than last week, and next month is going to be better than this month, and so on.”
That idea of progress over perfection, of having the courage and the guts to frankly progress versus having something be perfect — that is incredibly important and entrepreneurial.
It starts with people. That was always cliché to me, when I heard people say that, when you hear words like people and culture. I didn’t really understand that at 22 or 23 years old, kicking the company off the ground. I’d read it in books and I’d written it down, but I can’t say I truly understood what it meant to have a culture that’s about people, and finding the right people.
Anyone successful would tell you their greatest trait, their greatest quality, is they’re unbelievable at picking teams. They’re unbelievable at picking leaders, they’re unbelievable at picking the people. And not always just the smartest, not the one that would spit out on the other side of the Excel spreadsheet, that went to the right school, that have the right background.
At the end of the day, it has to be a leader thing: “I believe in this person. I’m willing to give them a chance. Their résumé may not be perfect, but you know what, I think they’re perfect for our team and our organization.”
I look at the different selections we’ve made over the years. It’s not a bunch of Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard MBAs that run Under Armour. I’m walking proof that that’s not an actual requirement. Now, it’s preferred if you can get it, but you have to find and pick the right team.
I think what makes that right team is culture. Because as I look back over our 19-year history, of our first 20 people, I’m very proud to say I think that there’s like 12 of my first 20 people [that] are still working for the company today. That’s a big deal.
You love having your lifers. They are amazing because they are the foundation of your culture.
No matter who comes in the organization, we will hopefully always remain humble enough to listen to great ideas that come from the outside, but also be confident enough in the culture, the foundation we have, that we can make others better.
You have to meet somebody on the bridge; you have to meet them halfway. It’s never, “We brought this new person in and they’ve got all the answers.” It’s never, “This new person, we don’t want to hear what your previous experience is. You have to do it the Under Armour way.”
But we do have sayings like, “The only thing that will get you fired at Under Armour is someone who says, ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it.’” That can be the most dangerous thing in any company.
The thing with a company that’s grown as much as ours is three years ago, four years ago, people were making plans to be a billion-dollar company. Now we’re thinking about 4, 5 and 6 [billion] and looking out and saying our sights are on being a $10 billion business.
You must be willing to change. You must have that culture. Change and speed are incredibly important.
