Fully aware of China's growing significance and optimism towards its outlook, German sportswear company Adidas became the first multinational corporation in the sports industry to take part in the 36th International Business Leaders' Advisory Council (IBLAC) for the Mayor of Shanghai on Sunday.
"I am honored to attend the Shanghai Mayor's International Business Leaders' Advisory Council and contribute Adidas' ideas in the area of sports and innovation," said Bjoern Gulden, CEO of Adidas during an exclusive interview with China Daily on Saturday in Shanghai.
According to Gulden, as Shanghai is in the progress of building itself into a sports city with global influence, the company is willing to make contributions by raising proposals.
Adidas came up with a suggestion of setting up a unified alliance with stakeholders in public administration, technology, sports and academia to focus on how technology will transform the sports industry.
Adidas also suggested that Shanghai looks to New York, London, Tokyo and Paris to learn about making sports more inclusive and encouraging public participation.
"As the world moves on, China gets more and more powerful, and the market, also now our industry, gets bigger and bigger. My expectation is that we can help Shanghai to be a city of sports and a city of sports innovation," Gulden said.
Calling Shanghai one of his favorite cities all over the world, Gulden said he has been traveling in China for the last 30 years, has seen the development since the beginning of the 1990s and he is very impressed by the development of China.
"For Adidas business, I am extremely positive globally and specifically in China. We are very very optimistic about the mid-term development of the China market. I think it will be one of the fastest growing markets in the world and with a big population that tells you how important it is," Gulden said.
"It is one of the biggest markets and it is one of the fastest growing markets and one of the markets we need to focus the most on," he added.
Operating around 7,500 stores across the country, Adidas' 15 to 18 percent business comes from China market, or about one-fifth of Adidas' total globally.
"We clearly see the chance to open more Adidas stores in what we called future cities. I think in this year we have opened 300 stores in those cities around China already," said Gulden.
Such rapid expansion is backed by the company's strong growth in the country. Adidas has achieved growth in five consecutive quarters in China. In the second quarter, the company reported its revenue grew 9.3 percent year-on-year to reach 822 million euros ($918.2 million).
"Every time when I come to China, I can feel the energy of the market. I am impressed by the creativity of talent here," Gulden.
Themed under "Leading Paradigm Shift, Expanding Open Collaboration, and Deepening the Construction of the Shanghai International Science and Technology Innovation Center in the New Era" this year, the annual meeting is held in Shanghai to gather advice from the executives of top multinational corporations that could help with the city's development. IBLAC was founded in 1989 by then Shanghai mayor Zhu Rongji.
