THESE VITAL SPEECHES

12
CICERO SPEECHWRITING AWARDS
who just happens to be an expert in
HR. And she and her staff, her organization
and—I’d say—our profession
are better for it.
Now, like any good manager, Shara
gives the credit to her team but today
I’d like to acknowledge her. Ladies
and gentleman, Shara Gamble. [AP-
PLAUSE]
We’re proud to count Shara as one
of the nearly 50,000 HR professionals
who have achieved the new SHRM
certification and taken the SHRM
Competency Model to heart. We
extensively researched and carefully designed
this Competency Model to take
HR to that next level. To move our
profession further into business leadership
... one HR professional, one HR
team, one organization at a time.
Just imagine if the more than
15,000 of us here at this conference left
with the same charge: To lead the business
of our organizations. I guarantee
you our careers, our organizations, and
our profession will thrive.
HR Colleagues: This is the Decade
of Human Capital. It’s a time when
the most pressing issues facing organizations
are talent management issues.
When leaders and others in business
are coming to understand what we
know: that great organizations are led
by great HR.
We now have an opportunity to
move our profession from where
we are to where business needs us to
be ... where we want to be ... where
we must be. So what are we going to
do about it?
I firmly believe that if we accept this
leadership challenge, there will be no
debate about which profession leads
organizations. There will be no debate
about the need to bring HR into every
business decision. And more organizations
will live up to their claims that
people are their “greatest asset.”
As SHRM President and CEO, I
want nothing more than to see the
HR profession take its rightful place
leading the world of business. It’s time
... our time.
And there’s no better place to get
started ... than right here in Las Vegas ...
together, at the biggest and best gathering
of HR professionals in the world.
Thank you, and have a great conference.
WINNER: COMMERCE & RETAIL, ANALYST CALL/INVESTOR
MEETING
“The Power of Serving Athletes Completely”
By Seth Freedland for Trevor Edwards,
President, Nike Brand
Good morning! Welcome to Nike.
It’s great to be here to talk with
you about Nike’s deep connection with
consumers, and how we will continue
to drive sustainable, profitable growth
for the Nike Brand.
I feel so lucky to work in sports.
Sports have the power to inspire, to
unite and to move people in a way that
little else does.
Today, that power of sport has never
been stronger.
We all know there’s a global shift
toward fitness, but that cultural shift
runs deeper than some may think.
People all over the world are being
personally inspired by sport every day.
A young boy in Chicago sees a
Cristiano free kick on YouTube for the
first time.
A girl in Beijing watches her first
LeBron fast break.
And they feel something.
The next day, they pick up a ball
for the first time—and they become
athletes, and stay athletes for their
entire life.
At Nike, nothing energizes us more
than athletes. We have a singular focus
of serving the athlete in everything
we do. That is the power of the Nike
Brand.
And by serving the needs of athletes,
we drive growth in our business.
We have a saying at Nike: “The
Consumer Decides.” It’s a simple
thought, but it fuels our thinking every
single day.
Today, we continue to see tectonic
shifts in the consumer landscape. These
shifts continue to reshape the marketplace
and the relationships consumers
have with brands.
And the result? Consumers are
clearly in charge, and youth are more
demanding today than ever before.
They want what they want when they
want it, and do what they do when they
Delivered at Nike World Headquarters,
Beaverton, Ore., Oct. 15, 2015
decide. They get something amazing
one day, and they immediately expect
it across their entire life experience.
The world is changing: It’s faster
paced, more connected, more personal.
Everything is expected on-demand.
Now, our athletes have always been
demanding. They expect us to deliver
amazing performance products for
their ultimate moment of achieving
their highest potential.
This mentality of serving the best
athletes uncompromised was there at
the founding of this company. At its
core, it was about relationships—and a
desire to serve them.
Today we continue to focus on
building relationships by serving athletes
to deliver on our brand proposition.
Our brand is a promise:
• It’s a promise to innovate.
• It’s a promise to connect.
• And it’s a promise to serve.
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