Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank Explains the Importance of Teamwork
The Under Armour establisher and Chief executive Kevin Plank calls his company workers as teammates. This is not something new since the company’s establishment was entrenched on Plank’s time as a member of the University of Maryland football team. The initial idea of what would develop to be one of the leading sports apparel brands in the world came in the team’s changing room. While in the locker room Plank noticed how the cotton undergarments which were worn by the players soaked with sweat. They took time to dry; therefore changing them was burdensome.
Upon graduation, Kevin Plank started assembling the team that would help him in his startup. He began his operations from his grandmother’s basement before acquiring a store. The initial days of Under Armour included casual cooperation with some of the Plank’s ex-teammates. They tried the samples and eventually embarked on verbal marketing about the groundbreaking products. Under Armour was just a changing room story before developing to become a national brand.
The entire idea of teamwork and teammates was extremely rooted in Kevin Plank’s approach of coming up with a prosperous captivating business. Having grown up as a player at the University and teaming up with people from different background, Plank was already set to have a team-like business philosophy. It is evident that to Kevin Plank, drawing and holding great talent is equal with creating a great team. This is the perpetual, basic business philosophy that is designed and sustained that will guide the operations and development of the business.
For the two decades of managing Under Armour, Kevin Plank realized that what worked when he was starting the company is very different from what works for it today. Much of that change is embedded in his understanding that expecting a team always to maintain the speed of operating a company is not realistic. The team is not like a system that can operate competently for a long time. It took Plank some time to realize this. According to Plank, most of the challenges around this process rotates around basically intensifying the perception of who should be in the team and how the teammates are likely to interact with one another.