Puma SWOT Analysis & Recommendations

UPDATED ONUPDATED ON JULY 7, 2019 BY NATALIE QUINN

A Puma store in Zweibrücken, Germany. A

SWOT analysis of Puma SE depicts business competitiveness and potential growth,
although new strategies may be needed to address the threats and opportunities in the
athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories industry. (Photo: Public Domain)
Puma SE maintains global success while addressing the internal and external strategic
factors relevant to its business, as discussed in this SWOT analysis. The SWOT
analysis framework determines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
involving the business, providing insights for strategic management decisions in the
sporting goods industry. These factors are evaluated in the formulation of Puma’s
generic strategy for competitive advantage and intensive strategies for growth. Thus,
the SWOT analysis helps inform the company’s leaders in choosing strategies most
suited to the current competitive environment of the international market for athletic
footwear, apparel, and accessories. Puma’s long-term operational effectiveness and
success depends on solving the issues linked to these external and internal strategic
factors. In terms of the external factors, even though the sporting goods industry
environment is not necessarily under the company’s control, this SWOT analysis shows
that strategic planning and management efforts can enhance business success rates,
given such external conditions.

This SWOT analysis of Puma illustrates the importance of aligning business strategies
with the results of an internal analysis (strengths and weaknesses) and an external
analysis (opportunities and threats) of the business. The sporting goods company’s
current strategies and corporate image are manifestations of effective business efforts
to achieve such an alignment. In a way, based on its continuing profitability and
business development, Puma effectively accounts for and strategically addresses the
issues raised in this SWOT analysis.

Puma’s Strengths (Internal Strategic Factors)

 In the SWOT analysis framework, strengths are internal factors that enable Puma’s
business to grow and improve its potential and overall performance. In this case, such
internal strategic factors contribute to the corporation’s ability to directly compete
against other firms, especially large multinational sporting goods companies. Based on
these considerations and the nature of the business and its industry environment, the
following factors are the strengths of Puma:

1. Strong sporting goods brand

2. High product innovation
3. Global supply chain
4. Global distribution and sales network

Puma’s strong sporting goods brand is a major strength that provides the ability to
attract customers to products, including entirely new product lines. In this SWOT
analysis, the brand is an internal factor that helps achieve growth by increasing the
company’s share of the global market for athletic shoes, apparel, accessories, and
equipment. On the other hand, high product innovation is among Puma’s strengths,
considering product development efforts. For example, the corporation continuously
seeks new ways to improve its shoes, such as through the integration of computing
technology. This internal factor is supported through Puma’s corporate structure, which
involves teams dedicated to innovation for product design and development. The global
supply chain is another strengthening internal strategic factor in this SWOT analysis of
the sporting goods business. In relation, Puma’s global distribution and sales network is
a strength that enables extensive access to the international market. These two internal
factors are a result of the company’s strategic efforts to build its business network for a
globally competitive enterprise that exploits regional economic benefits, such as low
labor and material costs in some regions and high selling prices in others. The strengths
in this SWOT analysis are used to drive the business toward reaching Puma’s corporate
vision and mission statements.

Puma’s Weaknesses (Internal Strategic Factors)

The SWOT analysis model includes weaknesses, which limit, hinder, or decrease
Puma’s business development. These internal factors are usually linked to problems in
the sporting goods business, such as in strategic planning, product design, and
business process operations management. Puma has the following weaknesses:

1. Imitability of some products

2. Low level of business diversification

The imitability of product design is a weakness that Puma has in competing in the global
market. In this SWOT analysis, such an internal strategic factor is significant because of
the problem of counterfeiting of sporting goods. For example, counterfeits of products
like Puma-branded shoes and apparel are rampant in countries with weak regulatory
enforcement against counterfeiting. This internal factor is a strategic issue because it
 reduces the company’s potential revenues and damages the sporting goods brand
image. On the other hand, Puma’s focus on sporting goods corresponds to a low level
of business diversification. This weakness makes the company vulnerable to sporting
goods industry-specific downturns and risks. Overall, the weaknesses in this SWOT
analysis of Puma indicate the need for strategies to improve the uniqueness and
inimitability of products, and to reduce vulnerability to market-specific risks.

Opportunities for Puma SE (External Strategic

Factors)
The SWOT analysis framework identifies external factors that facilitate or support
Puma’s growth and improvement. These factors are opportunities that depend on
external variables, such as governmental policies, as well as the growth rate of the
sporting goods market. In this regard, the following opportunities are available to Puma:

1. Growth through strategic partnerships with other firms

2. Growth based on higher sporting goods market penetration in developing economies
3. Growth in other markets or industries via business diversification

Puma has the opportunity to forge new partnerships with other firms, such as sports car
manufacturers. This external strategic factor can help the company improve its product
design through new ideas, especially those from firms that are not in the sporting goods
industry. Growth in developing economies is another opportunity in this SWOT analysis
of Puma. This external factor points to potentially high revenues in developing countries,
if the company successfully implements a higher rate of market penetration to sell its
athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. Higher market penetration may require
adjustments in Puma’s operations management strategies and tactics. Also, there is the
opportunity to grow by diversifying the business, although the company currently
continues to focus on its operations in the sporting goods industry. The opportunities in
this SWOT analysis present an industry environment where Puma can continue to thrive
and expect continuous growth.

Threats Facing Puma (External Strategic Factors)

In the SWOT analysis model, threats are external factors that make business growth
more difficult, such as through strategic barriers against Puma’s multinational market
penetration. These threats present obstacles to growing market share and expanding
the company’s operations in the global sporting goods industry. The following threats
are relevant to Puma’s operations:

1. High competition
2. Imitation of athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories
High competition is among the main threats in this SWOT analysis of Puma SE. For
example, the company is under competitive pressure from large and popular firms
like Nike, Adidas, ASICS, and Under Armour. These competitors can reduce Puma’s
revenues through aggressive marketing strategies and product development. On the
other hand, imitation of sporting goods is another threat relevant to this company
analysis case, pertaining to counterfeiting and its damaging effects on business. This
SWOT analysis shows that Puma faces threats that can reduce business performance,
especially when considering strong competition. The company’s strategic management
must include accurate information about the sporting goods industry environment. A
Porter’s Five Forces analysis of Puma SE can provide more information about the
degree of this competition, as well as the main variables involved in the industry’s
competitive landscape.

Summary & Recommendations – SWOT Analysis of

Puma SE
Puma is in a strong strategic position, as shown in this SWOT analysis. Despite its
weaknesses, the company has the strengths to support overall competitive advantage,
especially against large players like Nike and Adidas. Also, the opportunities and threats
relevant to Puma are indicative of a business environment where the enterprise can
continue growing. However, innovative strategic solutions are critical in ensuring the
sporting goods company’s success. In all of these external and internal strategic
factors, Puma’s corporate culture bolsters organizational capabilities through
appropriate human resource management strategies for developing employees’
knowledge, skills, and abilities. This SWOT analysis emphasizes the need to develop
protective measures against competitors, as well as strategies that could create new
opportunities in the sporting goods industry and beyond. A possible way of addressing
the threat of imitation is to ensure that Puma’s market mix or 4P includes strategies and
tactics that highlight the originality of the company’s products. This recommendation
relates to building the sporting goods corporation’s brand and popularity among target
customers. For strategic management throughout the organization, aside from the
results of this SWOT analysis, additional information about the external strategic factors
can be obtained through other business analysis tools, such as a PESTEL/PESTLE
analysis of Puma SE.

Puma’s Organizational Culture & Its

Characteristics (An Analysis)
UPDATED ONUPDATED ON JULY 7, 2019 BY MIRANDA SHERMAN
 A pair of Puma shoes. Puma SE’s corporate
organizational culture aims to strategically develop the company’s human resources, to
ensure competitiveness in the athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories industry.
(Photo: Public Domain)
Puma SE’s organizational culture is a facet of business efforts to achieve leadership in
the sporting goods industry. The company’s corporate culture influences organizational
development of human resources, including factors such as philosophy, core values,
motivation, and traditions that determine workplace effectiveness in facilitating
competitiveness in the athletic footwear, apparel and accessories market. This
corporate culture promotes business strengths, such as those shown in the SWOT
analysis of Puma SE. These strengths address competition against firms like Nike,
Adidas, ASICS, and Under Armour. Thus, Puma’s organizational culture connects to the
competitive advantages that support business growth and human resource
development. For example, the company’s administration motivates employees through
the corporate culture, to develop work performance that brings the sporting goods
business toward its strategic goals. This makes Puma’s organizational culture an
integral part of strategic management and strategic planning to grow and improve the
multinational business.

Puma’s organizational culture involves behavioral expectations that define how the
company develops its leadership among employees. The sporting goods company’s
leadership focuses on product development and innovation, although other business
areas are also culturally addressed. These cultural traits affect Puma’s operations
management in the area of human resources and job design. Thus, the corporate
culture permeates the organization and influences strategic management in addressing
challenges in the global sporting goods market.

Puma’s Organizational Culture Type and

Characteristics
Puma has an organizational culture of being Forever Faster, according to official
company documents. The cultural emphasis is on enterprise aims of leadership in the
athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories industry. The organizational culture relates
to Puma’s corporate mission and vision statements, which highlight the “Forever Faster”
 mantra. The company’s human resource management focuses on leadership
development for such a business purpose, considering the corporate culture and the
conditions of the sporting goods market. The following are the main characteristics of
Puma’s corporate culture:

1. Learning and growth

2. Diversity and inclusion
3. Wellbeing

Learning and Growth. Puma’s corporate culture prioritizes workers’ learning and
growth. A strategic objective linked to this cultural trait is to continuously improve the
company’s human resources, to support and enhance competitive advantages against
firms like Nike and Adidas. For example, leadership and skills development programs
are integrated in human resource development for innovation required in Puma’s
generic strategy for competitive advantage and intensive strategies for growth. The
sporting goods company has lifelong learning, leadership development, and coaching
programs as implementations of its organizational culture. Puma’s organizational
structure supports this characteristic of the corporate culture. For example, the
company’s organizational design includes a Supervisory Board for employee
representation for legal matters and for human resource development goals linked to
the organizational culture’s aims for enhancing strategic positioning in the sporting
goods industry.

Diversity and Inclusion. Puma SE maintains diversity and inclusion in its

organizational culture. This cultural trait optimizes employee morale based on inclusion
principles, and enhances business competitive advantages by matching workforce
diversity with customers’ diversity in the sporting goods market. In this corporate culture
characteristic, Puma believes that high diversity and inclusion motivates human
resources to consider diverse ideas for improving work performance. Also, this
organizational cultural trait adds to brand image in terms of customers’ perception about
the corporation’s efforts to satisfy stakeholders, relative to other sporting goods firms’
activities. Thus, Puma’s corporate culture benefits the business in terms of branding,
stakeholder management, and human resource development.

Wellbeing. Employees’ wellbeing is integrated in Puma’s corporate culture. For

example, the company has formal and informal policies and programs that address the
multiple facets of workers’ lives, including financial and social needs inside and outside
the sporting goods business. The organizational culture’s social aspect supports
Puma’s corporate social responsibility strategies and stakeholder management efforts.
With regard to employees’ wellbeing, the company’s corporate culture promotes
desirable behaviors in the workplace via high morale, high motivation, and a positive
outlook about business performance in the athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories
market. The following are the four thrusts under the Wellbeing characteristic of Puma’s
organizational culture:
1. Flex – flexible work options for a satisfactory work-life balance
2. Social – Puma employees’ community engagement involving programs to support
environmental protection and health and wellness
3. Finance – competitive compensation packages and other financial benefits for
employees
4. Athlete – facilities, equipment, and programs for employees’ physical exercise and
sports activities

Summary & Recommendations – Puma’s Corporate

Culture
Puma’s organizational culture is about developing human resources to reach maximum
performance. The learning and growth cultural characteristic focuses on developing
employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities to satisfy the sporting goods company’s
needs. The diversity and inclusion, and wellbeing characteristics of the corporate culture
reflect Puma’s strategic objectives of reducing employee turnover, while optimizing
performance through morale and job satisfaction. An advantage of this organizational
culture is that it ensures the adequacy of human resource capabilities, which is a critical
success factor when considering the human resource strategies of competitors like Nike
and Adidas. A possible improvement to Puma’s corporate culture is to increase
emphasis on innovation. This recommendation relates to the industry trend of
increasing integration of advanced technologies in athletic footwear and equipment.

Puma’s Organizational Structure & Its

Characteristics (An Analysis)
UPDATED ONUPDATED ON JULY 7, 2019 BY MIRANDA SHERMAN

A Puma store in Festival Walk in Hong Kong.

Puma SE’s organizational structure supports executive control and strategic decisions
through a strong hierarchy, although strategic responsiveness may be an issue in this
 corporate structure when addressing complex challenges in the global sporting goods
industry. (Photo: Public Domain)
Puma SE’s organizational structure reinforces managerial control of processes
throughout the business. This corporate structure defines the organizational design and
is represented in the organizational chart of the company, pertaining to the structural
system or anatomy of the processes and resources in the sporting goods business. This
corporate structure partially imposes limits on how Puma’s organizational culture is
developed and strengthened, considering that the organizational structural limits may
hinder human resource and organizational development. Nonetheless, the company’s
success as one of the biggest competitors in the international market for athletic
footwear, accessories and apparel indicates how the corporate structure effectively
supports business growth and improvement. Also, considering Puma’s operations
management, the organizational architecture ensures that the business has the right
structural framework or configuration to facilitate operational effectiveness and enable
competitive advantages. Overall, Puma’s organizational structure functions as a
mechanism for the effectiveness of business processes and strategic plan
implementations.

The organizational structure translates strategic management decisions into Puma’s

competitive advantage to address pressures coming from firms like ASICS, Nike,
Adidas, and Under Armour. This competitive environment presents challenges in
growing market share and increasing overall revenues and profits from the sale of
sporting goods. Puma’s corporate structure provides part of the mechanism that
supports strategic growth despite such competition.

Puma’s Organizational Structure Type and

Characteristics
Puma has a unitary or U-form organizational structure. This structural type, also
known as the functional structure type, involves a hierarchical structure where the
organizational headquarters are at the top, and other organizational components
receive and implement top executives’ strategic decisions pertaining to the sporting
goods business operations. Puma’s corporate structure maintains strong vertical lines of
authority and communication, running from the corporate headquarters to the
bottommost level of the organization. The sporting goods company also involves other
organizational structure types as secondary characteristics of the organizational design.
In this structural analysis case, the following characteristics are present in Puma’s
corporate structure:

1. Hierarchy of functional groups (Primary characteristic)

2. Product-based divisions
3. Geographic divisions
 Hierarchy of Functional Groups. This characteristic of Puma’s organizational
structure involves the grouping of employees and business processes on the basis of
similarities in human resource expertise, operational activities, or material resource
utilization. The main advantage of this hierarchical nature is the support for
specialization among personnel, as well as the support for economies of scale through
the organization-wide scope of each functional group in the sporting goods business.
However, disadvantages of this feature of Puma’s corporate structure include the limited
capacity of executive groups in addressing complex strategic problems involving
multiple business areas. For example, simultaneous and different strategic challenges
involving multiple areas of the business may be difficult to solve through a single CEO
or a small executive team at the top of the company’s organizational structure. Still, the
business headquarters make the strategic management decisions for reaching Puma’s
corporate vision and mission statements. The following are among the main functional
groups in Puma’s hierarchical corporate structure:

1. Office of the CEO

2. Finance
3. Sourcing
4. Supervisory Board (Strategy, operations, organization, employee representation)

Product-Based Divisions. Puma’s corporate structure has product-based divisions,

which are groupings based on the types of products that the company has. This
characteristic of the organizational structure allows the business to thrive by supporting
competitive advantages based on factors like the uniqueness and quality of sports
shoes. For example, these divisions support innovation in product design and
development, which are emphasized in Puma’s generic strategy for competitive
advantage and intensive strategies for growth. This means that the company’s
corporate structure capacitates strategic management for business processes that
develop profitable products in the global sporting goods industry. The following product-
based divisions are present in Puma’s organizational structure:

1. Footwear
2. Apparel
3. Accessories

Geographic Divisions. With multinational business operations, Puma has geographic

divisions in its corporate structure. The purpose of these divisions is to enable the
enterprise to use strategic solutions specific to the unique conditions of regional sporting
goods markets. The differences in regional market conditions are accounted for in
Puma’s marketing mix or 4Ps, thus illustrating how the organizational structure links to
marketing strategies. The geographic divisions also allow the corporation to use its
organizational structure to gather valuable sporting goods market information, which is
used in strategic management decisions at the company headquarters in Germany.
Puma’s corporate structure has the following geographic divisions:

1. Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)

2. Americas
3. Asia/Pacific

Puma’s Corporate Structure: Advantages &

Disadvantages, Recommendations
Puma SE’s organizational structure allows specialized strategic decisions, as well as
the corporate headquarters’ full control of business operations, although some issues
remain regarding responsiveness to complex strategic problems facing the business at
the multinational level. An appropriate recommendation is to make the company’s
corporate structure less rigid in terms of its hierarchy, leading to possible evolution into
a matrix-type organizational structure. It is also recommended that Puma’s corporate
structure develop more support for market-based strategies, involving possibly new
groups in the geographic divisions and product-based divisions. To implement these
recommendations, the company needs to acquire more information about the industry
environment and the condition of the global sporting goods market. In this regard,
a SWOT analysis of Puma SE serves as a tool for strategic management, such as in
determining the suitability of the current organizational structure, as well as possible
changes needed to ensure structural appropriateness to current business needs.

Puma’s Generic Strategy, Intensive Growth

Strategies & Competitive Advantage
UPDATED ONUPDATED ON AUGUST 25, 2019 BY CHRISTINE ROWLAND

A Puma shoe. Puma SE’s generic strategy

(Porter’s model) and intensive growth strategies support and utilize competitive
advantages against major competitors in the global athletic footwear, apparel, and
equipment industry. (Photo: Public Domain)
Puma SE’s generic strategy for competitive advantage emphasizes making the
company and its products different from the competition, based on Michael E. Porter’s
model for generic competitive strategies. On the other hand, the company’s intensive
growth strategies focus on gaining a larger share of the international sports shoes,
apparel, and equipment market, based on Igor Ansoff’s Matrix for growth strategies. In
this case, Puma uses its generic strategy and growth strategies in directly competing
against such companies as Nike, Adidas, ASICS, Under Armour, and VF Corporation.
Given the global market’s dynamics, these firms need competitive advantages that
strengthen the attractiveness of their sporting goods among target customers. Through
an appropriate generic strategy, Puma uses its competitive advantages to support the
corporation’s intensive growth strategies. This condition makes the sporting goods
business competitive, continuing in its growth and organizational development with the
competitive position as one of the biggest players in the industry.

The combination of Puma’s generic strategy and intensive growth strategies translates
to strategic management initiatives for maximizing profitability through business
competitive advantages. For example, the company’s strategic plans for business
growth capitalize on competitive advantages based on sporting goods innovation and
design. Puma’s operations management approaches also further strengthen these
competitive advantages, in support of the enterprise’s generic strategy and
corresponding intensive growth strategies, and the strategic position of the business.

Puma’s Generic Strategy for Competitive Advantage

(Porter’s Model)
Puma’s generic strategy is differentiation, broadly applied to business operations in
the global market. Based on Porter’s model, this generic strategy creates competitive
advantage by developing the uniqueness of the business and its products, such as
through innovation in the design of athletic footwear. This generic strategy moves the
business toward attaining Puma’s corporate mission and vision statements. Through
differentiation, the resulting competitive advantage empowers the multinational
company to successfully reach and satisfy its target customers, despite rivalry against
competitors, especially large and aggressive firms that offer comparable sporting goods.
The success of this generic strategy for competitive advantage is partly based on its
alignment with Puma’s intensive strategies for growth. The company also uses focus
strategies for some of its product lines, such as athletic shoes for certain market
segments involving specific types of sports activities. The cost leadership (best cost
provider) generic strategy is not used because Puma’s emphasis is on showcasing its
sporting goods as high quality, innovative, and technologically advanced, entailing
relatively high prices.

An implication of the differentiation generic strategy is the strategic objective of

maintaining Puma’s high investments in product design and innovation. This strategic
objective supports the generic strategy’s requirement of making the business and its
sporting goods unique in order to develop competitive advantage. Puma’s corporate
social responsibility strategy helps build the uniqueness of the company’s corporate
image and product attractiveness. In addition, differentiation leads to the corporate
strategic objective of using radical marketing strategies in reaching customers in the
global market for athletic shoes and accessories. For example, Puma’s marketing mix
or 4P helps strengthen competitive advantage through radical business strategies and
tactics for marketing communications. The company’s intensive growth strategies are
used to achieve such strategic objectives pertinent to the global sports shoes and
equipment industry.

Puma’s Intensive Growth Strategies (Igor Ansoff

Matrix)
Market Penetration (Primary). Puma’s main intensive growth strategy is market
penetration. In the Ansoff Matrix, this intensive strategy for growth focuses on selling
more of the company’s current sports shoes, apparel, and equipment to current
markets. The SWOT analysis of Puma SE outlines the business strengths used to
successfully implement market penetration. This intensive growth strategy depends on
the use of competitive advantages based on the company’s generic strategy, which
implies innovation in the design of sporting goods. A strategic objective based on
market penetration is to grow the business by aggressively marketing Puma’s products.

Product Development (Secondary). Puma’s product development is a secondary

intensive strategy for growing the business. For example, the company integrates
computing technology in its athletic shoes, leading to better products that satisfy
athletes and non-athletes alike. In this regard, this intensive growth strategy pushes for
products’ competitive advantage, thereby contributing to the effectiveness of Puma’s
generic strategy of differentiation. The implementation of product development depends
on the company’s organizational structure, especially with regard to resources used for
innovating sporting goods. For instance, Puma’s corporate structure includes human
resources that are dedicated to innovation in the design of products. Also, the success
of this intensive growth strategy and the corporation’s generic strategy depends on how
cultural factors enable competitive advantages. Puma’s corporate culture provides
support for human resource development necessary in product innovation. A strategic
objective based on product development is to continue increasing investment in
research for new and improved designs of athletic footwear and accessories.

Market Development. Puma’s business performance minimally depends on market

development as an intensive growth strategy. In this case, the Igor Ansoff Matrix
definition of market development entails selling the company’s current sporting goods in
new markets, or offering current sporting goods for new purposes or uses. However,
Puma relies more on market penetration and product development as intensive growth
strategies. Nonetheless, the company occasionally implements market development,
such as in offering certain sports accessories for a market segment’s casual (non-
athletic) use. The generic strategy of differentiation provides the competitive advantage
to ensure this intensive growth strategy’s success. In using market development, a
strategic objective is to determine new possible uses of Puma’s existing products, in
order to create new revenue streams for the business.
Diversification. The growth strategy of diversification is minimally significant in Puma’s
business development. Diversification involves the development of new products in new
industries or markets other than the company’s current ones, which in this case is the
market for athletic footwear, apparel, accessories, and equipment. Puma maintains its
operations within this current market. This market focus means that the diversification
intensive growth strategy has insignificant contribution to the sporting goods
corporation’s growth. Considering that Puma uses the differentiation generic strategy,
the use of diversification would likely involve the same generic strategy to create
competitive advantage in new markets or industries. In implementing this intensive
growth strategy, the company needs to obtain adequate market information to
determine the best approach for developing competitive advantage. A
PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of Puma SE can provide information about the technological
and social trends relevant to business design and product development.

Puma’s Mission Statement and Vision

Statement (An Analysis)
UPDATED ONUPDATED ON JULY 7, 2019 BY CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL

A Puma store in Osaka, Japan. Puma’s

mission statement and vision statement are specific to the company’ strategic aim for
leadership in the sporting goods industry. (Photo: Public Domain)
Puma SE’s corporate mission statement and corporate vision statement are focused on
making the company an industry leader, with emphasis on sustainability. The
corporation’s mission statement establishes what the business does in the sporting
goods industry. In this case, Puma aims for industry leadership in developing and
providing its athletic goods to target customers around the world. On the other hand, the
company’s vision statement determines the overall strategic direction of the enterprise
and its development as a major player in the global athletic shoes and apparel market.
Puma is one of the biggest companies in the industry, directly competing against other
large players, such as Nike, Adidas, ASICS, Under Armour, and VF Corporation, which
impose aggressive competitive pressures in the international industry. Puma’s corporate
vision and mission statements are critical determinants of how the business pursues its
 strategic objectives and follows its strategic plans, despite pressures, risks, and
challenges from large multinational competitors.

Considering their significance in the strategic development of the business, the

corporate mission and vision statements determine Puma’s generic strategy for
competitive advantage and intensive strategies for growth. The sporting goods
company’s competitive advantages are offshoots of strategic management guided by
the mission statement and vision statement. Such a relationship indicates the
importance of carefully crafting these statements, which Puma has done, especially with
regard to its vision statement, given current business conditions, industry trends, and
strategic targets in the years to come.

Puma’s Mission Statement

Puma’s corporate mission is “to be the Fastest Sports Brand in the world.” This
mission statement is encapsulated in the company’s mantra, “Forever Faster,” which
highlights the strategic aim of being ahead of the competition in the sporting goods,
apparel, and accessories industry. In this regard, Puma’s corporate mission statement
has the following main components:

1. Fastest
2. Sports brand
3. Worldwide market reach

Puma states that being the “fastest” is about leadership in trendsetting branding,
product design, product distribution, and organization of operations. In using the word,
“fastest,” the company’s corporate mission emphasizes the ability to immediately
respond to new and emerging trends, in order to ensure the profitability of the firm’s
athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. Business strengths, such as those
identifiable through a SWOT analysis of Puma SE, support this component of the
mission statement. In addition, the “sports brand” component shows that the corporation
aims to maintain its business operations within its current industry, instead of
diversifying or venturing into other industries. Moreover, the corporate mission
statement keeps Puma’s strategies relevant to market demand and industry trends at
the international level. This mission statement is directly reflected in the sporting
equipment company’s vision statement, which have similar components.

Puma’s Vision Statement

Puma’s corporate vision is “to be the most desirable and sustainable Sportlifestyle
company in the world.” This vision statement aligns with “PUMAVision,” which is the
corporation’s main thrust for its sustainability efforts. The following are the components
of Puma’s corporate vision statement:
1. Most desirable
2. Most sustainable
3. Sportlifestyle company
4. Worldwide strategic positioning

Puma’s corporate vision aims for being “the most desirable,” which equates to
leadership in the industry, including desirability among customers, shareholders, and
workers. Along with “most sustainable,” this component of the vision statement indicates
the company’s efforts in satisfying various stakeholder groups. Thus, the corporate
vision statement is directly linked to Puma SE’s corporate social responsibility strategy.
On the other hand, the “Sportlifestyle company” component is a reflection of the mission
statement’s “sports brand” component, in that both of these statements focus business
operations on the corporation’s current industry. This focus defines the development
of Puma’s organizational structure and its support for business operations. Furthermore,
the vision statement establishes the company’s goal for a global reach in the sporting
goods market. This factor partly depends on the effectiveness of Puma SE’s marketing
mix or 4Ps in reaching target customers. Considering these components, the vision
statement strongly aligns with the athletic footwear company’s mission statement.

Summary & Recommendations – Puma’s Corporate

Mission & Corporate Vision
Corporate Mission Statement. Puma’s mission statement is concise and specific to
the nature and purpose of the business being in the sporting goods industry. However,
some of the ideals of writing corporate mission statements are not satisfied in this case.
For example, the statement only implies what Puma means when it says “fastest.” Also,
the mission statement provides limited information about what the company does, such
as the design and development of sports equipment, apparel, and accessories. Thus, a
recommendation is to expand the corporate mission statement to make it less vague,
and more specific to Puma’s business operations. It is notable that Puma SE’s
organizational culture influences the human resource support for the achievement of
this mission statement. Thus, it is also recommended that the company ensure that its
culture is aligned with the strategic goals espoused in the mission statement,
considering the athletic shoes, apparel, and equipment market environment.

Corporate Vision Statement. Puma’s vision statement is inspiring, future-oriented, and

broadly applicable to all areas of the business. In this regard, the conventions on writing
ideal corporate vision statements are satisfied. However, to enhance the vision
statement, Puma can include some details about the manner of achieving this vision
and related long-term strategic goals. In determining such manner, a Porter’s Five
Forces analysis of Puma SE can help identify the most significant competitive pressures
that affect strategic management and formulation. Also, considering the vision
statement’s emphasis on sustainability, it is necessary to inform about how the
company’s strategic management could use emerging trends in the sporting goods
industry. A PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of Puma SE can evaluate these trends,
especially ecological trends relevant to the business and its vision statement.