Join the Red Ball Movement

I knew adidas had a culture built around sport and living the brand but I never realized how deep this passion ran. It's pervasive everywhere you turn at adidas. At lunchtime the halls are empty and the building becomes quiet. The steets, the fields, the courts, the fitness center, the trails are teaming with adidas employees though. One guy on my team runs six miles at lunch, showers, eats and is back at his desk within an hour. One girl bikes 28 miles into work and often swims or jogs after work. These aren't the exceptions either, they are the norm. The organization stands for team, for healthy lifestyle and for helping people win. We even look at how sport can assisant in humanitarian efforts.

So what do you ask is the Red Ball Movement? This is a movement supported by the Adi Dassler Fund to support the international humanitarian organization Right to Play. The Adi Dassler Fund was founded to support organizations that connect children with coaches who teach life values in addition to sport. When you purchase a red mini ball you will be able to support the Right To Play organization. They are cool little red soccer balls--I bought two of them for my kids and they loved them.

If you want to support the organization go to any adidas retail store and you can't miss them!

Required Transportation

Scooters are pretty much required transportation living in Portland, Oregon. I've wanted one for a while and I finally broke down last weekend and couldn't resist anymore. I bought a Buddy (I know, I know...not the most masculine sounding vehicle) which is manufactured by Genuine Scooter. Genuine Scooter also manufactures the classic Stella pictured below.



So I gave away a Vespa a few years back for a contest I put together at work. The guys at Vespa Portland let me borrow a scooter to keep in our lobby until we had the giveaway. They also let us put up one of their retro vinyl banners. They had since moved their shop to 23rd and I happened to be walking down the street last weekend and all of their shiny new scooters caught my eye. This guy named Justin works there on the weekend which is the guy that loaned me the scooter for our giveaway. The dude knows his stuff about scooters and after talking with him it was clear that I needed at least 125cc's. This thing goes 60 mph and gets over 100 mpg. It is a sweet ride! So now I work a few miles from home and I can ride my bike, jog or take my scooter into work...or I can take my scooter over the St. John's bridge and ride through Forest Park. I'm also thinking there needs to be an equivalent of Sturgis for scooters. Stay tuned for that one!



P.S. You can find Vespa Portland at www.vespaportland.com and they are located on 808 NW 23rd Ave.

Sourcing Strategist Job @ Waggener Edstrom

I told my friends at Waggener Edstrom that I would support them by posting my replacement position on my blog. This is actually a very cool role and I would be happy to share more with anybody who is interested. Feel free to click on the link to learn more about the position.

My Bio 3.0

I finally found time to create a new bio for my LinkedIn profile. I was sick of writing my bio in the standard chronological format so I took a bit of a different approach. Let me know what you think...

My Bio 3.0

Current Gig: Recruiting Programs Manager, adidas North America
Mission: Build a world-class talent acquisition program
Years: Less than 1 year

If you threw some adidas originals on Doc Holiday, asked him to give up dentistry and take on recruiting and took his pistol from him and gave him the internet then you have the role of talent acquisition in the 21st Century.

Doc Holiday ventured into the wild frontiers and to survive he needed to understand the landscape he was in, had to have strong relationships, a reputation or a brand and then an ability to act on it. This made him a legend. Equally important for doc was the incredible stories that generated out of his Wild West days that have transcended cultures and times.

Talent acquisition is the wild west of the 21st Century. Think about it. You have the internet which is really like the gold rush days. Everybody is out there looking for their plot on the internet with the desire to build something great. Everybody is racing for this. You are either a bystander or you are in the game. Doc was in the game. Then you have the villains. These are all of those competitors out there looking at how they can build it better, faster, smarter. You have the struggle of staying in a top position; the landscape is constantly changing and information flows from every direction. You have to get smart about what’s relevant and what is not. This also happened during the gold rush days. Reports were coming in from all over but choosing which direction was critical. With limited supplies, harsh conditions and hostile territories you couldn’t afford to be wrong. And if you play all your cards right you make it through the struggle, defeat the villains and make your indelible mark in digital history. Welcome to my frontier—the Wild Digital West.

At adidas I am tasked with building a world class talent acquisition function, a kicking talent brand, Web 2.0 recruitment strategy and whatever and wherever else the twists, turns, clicks and crashes of the Wild Digital West takes me. The thing that Doc did not have was a pair of kick’n adidas originals which I personally believe are a necessity in the Wild Digital West.

Yes, I know, this is an odd bio but I’m not sure how else to explain what talent acquisition strategists do. We go where the wagon trail ends…or shall I say we go where the fiber optics start to fray!

Prior to adidas I spent almost seven years at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. Waggener Edstrom is a global PR agency focused on innovation with clients such as Microsoft, AMD, T-Mobile, GE Healthcare and Amazon.

My role at Waggener Edstrom was to develop and implement integrated strategies to attract key talent. I served as a digital “trend spotter” for the agency’s staffing function as well as played a key role in advancing our talent relationship capabilities with CRM and Web 2.0/social networking strategies. Prior to this I lead recruiting for the Microsoft PR team. Over the six and a half years at Waggener Edstrom I have recruited for just about every business unit within North America as well as spent a small stint of time recruiting for our UK team.

I spent the first two years of my career on the agency side. The volume and intensity of agency recruitment laid the foundation for where I am today.

The Wild Digital West isn’t always a friendly place or easy to navigate but it’s a whole new frontier to explore. Maybe it’s the last great one in our lifetime. To embrace it you must accept it for what it is. As the Doc said in Tombstone, “There is no normal life, there's just life, ya live it.”