When companies lose their way

ON ELLIOT Hill’s first day on the job as chief executive of Nike, in October 2024, he gave a presentation to his staff. His opening slide had two things written on it. One was that Nike was a sports company.

Hill, who began his career as an intern at the firm, reckons that it had lost its obsession with sport. Nike had its origins on the running tracks of Oregon in the 1960s; refocusing on athletes, the secret to its prior success, is at the heart of the CEO’s turnaround strategy.

At around the same time as Hill was starting his job, another new chief executive, Brian Niccol of Starbucks, was also resetting the direction of a big, struggling brand.