Abstract
Nike Inc is a multinational corporation based in America that engages in the development, design, manufacturing and global marketing and trading of footwear, accessories, apparel, equipment and services (Williams, 1984). The company is headquartered close to Beaverton, Oregon .Nike is one of the world’s largest suppliers of athletic footwear and apparel and a chief manufacturer of sports equipment.by 2012, it had more than 44,000 employees worldwide. In 2014 the Nike brand was worth billion, thus becoming most valuable brand in sports businesses. It was established on January 25th, 1964 in the title of Blue Ribbon Sports through Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman,
It became Nike, Inc. on 30th May 1971(Williams, 1984). Nike markets under its own brand such as, Nike Pro, Air Force 1, Nike Dunk, and many more. Nike does sponsor many international high-profile sports teams and athletes around the world, with the highly renowned designs of the Swoosh logo and “Just Do It “”.
According to Williams Nike is a name that is familiar globally (1984). The company’s designs include athletic footwear, equipment, apparel, and accessories. Nike with its brand is well known and has itself well-grounded worldwide (Williams, 1984) .The trademark carries a brand equity which unique when compared to other brands. Nike has its establishment in various countries where by their operations are good such that it has resulted in improved sales (Carbasho, 2010). This has not come easy; Nike has toiled hard for this appearance maintenance and towards accomplishing an impressive and versatile product range.
The biggest threat to the Nike company has been the recession, this has had very hostile effects on the advancement and growth of Nike .besides the US economy is facing a great depression, so is Asia as it has had its effects on Nike economic performance since most of Nike factories are established there. And as a result the opinions of Martials and labor work are also gaining momentum (Williams, 1984).
Nike has grown in sales margins. People are becoming more health conscious by the day, hence they need to keep fit by joining health clubs. This meant increased need of the Nike products like sport shoes and much more.it has continuously been the prime choice of people when it comes to buying something fitness/sport related (Carbasho, 2010). On the flip side Nike effort have been futile tin addressing the problems like that of the state of labor and sweatshop at various sites of the production in Asia. This has had its undesirable effects on the Nike advertisements and its sale.
Since it is a multinational establishment, Nike has always upheld the business moral principles. It has always paid attention to remaining environment conscious.
Legal issues have been controlled by Nike at the vicinity they have been operative in. Whenever Nike has been welcomed into a new country or region, the native trade and other regulations have manifested an impact in the way operations are done at Nike (Sutherland, 2012).It has however always believed in distancing itself away from problems. For instance, the different nations’ rules and regulations with regard to external investment are differing in the industrialized world and the developing world. Nike has always been careful with this issue (Carbasho, 2010).
Nike is has as a matrix organizational arrangement, meaning that there are numerous lines of command and some employees report to at least two leaders. During the course of Nike, employees answer to team managers who then convey the progress report to the branch manager. Each brand comprises of its own section and has separate section managers who act freely of the CEO (Sutherland, 2012).
Team managers and personnel make resolutions regarding production and specification while department managers concentrate mainly on policy-related issues. Personnel are entirely accountable to both of these superiors (Sutherland, 2012). Internationally, Nike is a very distinguished brand. The use of Matrix Structure permits Nike to make choices and respond effectively an average departmental manager, who is often not included in verdict making process (Carbasho, 2010). All in all, Nike is evidently a proof that the divisional and functional structures can be popular and result in limitless possibilities in regards to long term and short term goals in an organization.
Nike also faces operating problems as they attempt to contract out their factories. Nike has outsourced their industrial plants in Taiwan and china for the past years. Low-cost labor and huge cost cutting ability was easy for Nike to subcontract their operations overseas. Nike operations in countries like Taiwan, Vietnam and china manage their factories poorly.it have gained a bad reputation and their markets have declined for the past few years. Employees are being neglected (Carbasho, 2010). As a result Nike operations have been severely damaged and CIO of the Nike establishment has been desperately struggling to amend the damage caused.
Nike operations were not just catastrophic to the business because of the factories but it had a huge increase in production in substandard goods reaching American consumers. Nike with all familiarity in Taiwan and china should have seen this problem coming and it had in their managing strategy and operation of their company to endorse their merchandise. The Nike operations did fail in all ways (Sutherland, 2012). The Chinese market decreased massively, this is because Nike got comfortable in China and then started to continuously lose out to its competitor, Adidas (Carbasho, 2010).
Nike Company has also faced installation complications involving a set of supply-chain management soft wares which culminated in financial problems which played a huge role in an anticipated profit decrease in the company’s financial third quarter. Dallas-based i2 Technologies Company, established that the company’s soft wares were the ones with problems as there had been issues with implementation (Sutherland, 2012).
Nike Company has always developed innovative and different impact safety systems. It has been dedicated to continuous developments of technologies, through biomechanics( body movement),physiology (body works under stress) and sensory (product working) .the products go through comprehensive testing process that covers a variety of testing surfaces and four significant factors namely, geography, age, gender, and skill level (Carbasho, 2010).
Nike opened a water free dyeing company introducing high-tech equipment to abolish the use of process chemicals and water from textile dyeing .the ecological innovation ColorDry assisted in highlighting the environmental profits and unparalleled coloring accomplished with the technology. The ColorDry procedure is both more consistent and more efficient than traditional dyeing methods (Carbasho, 2010).
Nike also innovates how the products are made. For instance, Nike uses an assortment of cushioning methods in their products for impact protection (Sutherland, 2012). The cushioning methods are used to reduce shock, protect from impact, distribute pressure and offer comfort. The four cushioning methods have been pioneered and traded are Nike Air, Nike Air Zoom, Nike Air Max and Nike Shox.
Reference list
Tracy Carbasho. (2010) Nike. California. : Greenwood.
Lora Williams. (1984) Nike. New York: Schocken Books.
Adam Sutherland. (2012) Nike. London: Wayland.

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