Hook
For On, continuity isn’t just a plan—it’s a performance act. The Swiss sportswear wunderkind just redesigns its leadership to keep breaking records, not by chasing novelty alone but by hard-wiring founder vision into every decision, from product racks to global logistics.
Introduction
On Holding’s latest organizational shake-up is less about flashy titles and more about translating entrepreneurial speed into scalable growth. Co-founders David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti step into the Co-CEO role while Scott Maguire ascends to President & COO, and Martin Hoffmann exits after 13 years of steering the financial ship. The move signals a deliberate attempt to fuse the company’s founder-driven DNA with an execution engine capable of sustaining a multi-billion-dollar trajectory.
The founders’ grip on growth, sharpened by 2025’s record performance, is the throughline. On’s CloudTec and LightSpray innovations aren’t just products; they’re the brand’s currency for competitive advantage. The question now is whether this new leadership architecture will accelerate practical outcomes without dulling the edge of founder vision.
Unified Vision, Operational Core
What makes this shift compelling is the explicit attempt to align strategic intent with day-to-day execution. By appointing the co-founders as Co-CEOs and keeping Olivier Bernhard as an Executive Board member overseeing product and athlete engagement, On is signaling that strategy and product discipline will remain indivisible. Personally, I think this is a rare acknowledgment that cultural cohesion—founders’ instincts—must travel hand-in-hand with supply chain discipline and go-to-market speed. What makes this particularly fascinating is how it reframes governance: leadership isn’t just about top-down directives but about a fused flywheel where invention and execution spin in near-synchrony.
The leadership rhythm is designed to protect agility. Co-CEO coordination with the Board and CFO ensures financial discipline won’t become a bottleneck as On scales. From my perspective, that balance matters because in high-growth consumer tech-adjacent sectors, the danger is a chasm between ambitious product promises and real-world margins. The new structure attempts to close that gap by embedding founder intent directly into operational loops.
Boardroom to boardwalk: Product as the connective tissue
The emphasis on product heat—the speed and relevance of product development—runs through the announcement. Scott Maguire’s promotion to President & COO anchors the cross-functional engine that links R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and global sales. What this implies is a deliberate narrowing of the authority bottlenecks that often slow premium brands when they scale. In my view, this is less about centralized control and more about a unified product-led growth engine that can weather distribution complexities and regional tastes.
There’s a deeper takeaway here: premium brands win not just with innovative tech, but with a coherent, repeatable consumer experience. The promise of a seamless global brand experience hinges on harmonized product storytelling, consistent quality, and predictable supply—weaving a global chorus from local markets. What people don’t realize is how difficult that harmony is to sustain at scale; On seems to be betting that its founders’ intuition, bolstered by a professionalized operating backbone, can keep the chorus in tune.
The transitional note: Hoffmann’s exit, but not his influence
Martin Hoffmann’s departure marks a significant transition. After a 13-year tenure culminating in IPO-era discipline, his stepping down is framed as a well-timed pivot to allow the next growth horizon to take center stage. From my vantage point, this is less a retreat and more a strategic handoff that preserves continuity while freeing the new leadership to push bolder bets. Hoffmann’s advisory role through 2027 still keeps the institutional memory intact, which is essential for a founder-led enterprise moving into a more complex global operating environment.
The impact on investor perception is subtle but real. A leadership transition that preserves founder cohesion while introducing an amplified operational cadence often signals durability to the capital markets. It communicates that growth won’t come from wandering into new categories but from deepening the core, accelerating product-led expansion, and refining governance to keep pace with scale.
Future-facing implications: Scale without losing soul
A practical implication is a more deliberate focus on expanding direct-to-consumer channels while maintaining the brand’s premium aura. Maguire’s role suggests that On aims to tighten the loop between product development and consumer experience, ensuring that innovations don’t just exist in lab or showroom but translate into durable consumer devotion.
What makes this shift intriguing is the tension between entrepreneurial speed and institutional rigor. Founders who grow into executive leadership can either smooth out the rough edges of a fast-growing company or risk ossifying the culture they built. On’s approach—retain founder-led strategic intent, empower a strong COO, and appoint a seasoned CFO—appears to be an attempt to preserve cultural DNA while building a scalable operating chassis. If you take a step back and think about it, the move is less about a single strategy tweak and more about orchestrating organizational DNA for a longer, more demanding race.
Deeper Analysis
The broader trend here is the maturation arc of founder-led brands entering mature growth phases. The playbook blends charismatic leadership with professionalized governance, aiming to sustain innovation velocity while improving margin resilience. The On story emphasizes three interlocking bets: relentless product innovation, a unified organizational flywheel, and a globally consistent consumer experience.
What this suggests about the industry is that the most valuable premium brands will increasingly be judged by their ability to scale without commoditizing their identity. The new leadership structure leans into a model where founders stay close to the strategic heat while the rest of the organization operationalizes that heat with ruthless efficiency. In practice, that means engineered product breakthroughs, smarter supply chain management, and a more data-informed approach to consumer engagement.
A detail I find especially interesting is the role of executive co-chairmanship. Keeping the founders in a governance position while distributing execution responsibilities among a COO and CFO can reduce the friction that often accompanies rapid expansion. It’s a delicate balance: preserve the founder’s vision but not at the expense of process discipline. This arrangement could become a blueprint for other high-growth, culture-driven brands navigating the minefield between start-up velocity and corporate scale.
Conclusion
On’s leadership refresh embodies a confident bet on the idea that the company’s competitive edge is inseparable from its origins. The transition is not a break with the past but a bold leap into a more scalable future, with the founders still steering the compass and a seasoned line-up ensuring the engine doesn’t stall. If this structure holds, On may not only sustain its market momentum but also model a practical path for other founder-led brands seeking to grow without losing their soul.
Takeaway: Growth isn’t just bigger; it’s smarter, more connected, and more intentional. For On, that means keeping the dream alive while building the machinery to realize it at global scale.
