Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in The Corporate WorldJust do it: the Nike spirit in the corporate worldQuestion 1: a brief 1-2 paragraph synopsis of the primary topic area of the book.The author, Donald Katz, introduces the idea of “the most powerful force in sports is not a football or baseball team. It is a shoe company” (Katz, 1995). The main character in the book is Phil Knight, who was a Stanford MBA and spent some time working at the Price Waterhouse accounting firm. Later he imported Japanese running shoes and built it into a $4 billion company. Nike’s competitors are Reebok and Adidas. During the six years before Michael Jordan retired, the company’s yearly sales expanded from one billion to four billion, and profits rose by over 900%. Therefore, Nike was able to increase their influential role in the management by negotiating endorsement deals involving famous athletics, such as Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Deion Sanders, Alonzo Mourning, and Pete Sampras. The author also spends a great deal of time describing Nike’s behind-closed-doors negotiations with the NBA and the NCAA. Nike is portrayed as “a dream machine that seeks nothing less than to define culture through the power of sports” (Katz, 1995). Nike’s employees believe in the companys mission: to improve the performance of serious athletes. The author shows how Nike spent more than $50 million during 1993 to create the spectacular imagery and marketing campaigns that made Jordan, Barkley, and Bo Jackson international icons.
The book also describes the development of shoes and campaigns for Air Jordan, cross-training (“Bo Knows”), tennis and other product lines. On the other hand, the author mentions briefly about Nike was studied as one of the premier corporate practitioners of the art and science of marketing, but the company was constantly attacked by labor groups, sports purists, and journalists.
Question 2: an in-depth discussion of the content of the book, highlighting particular topic areas that yielded useful insight to you and how (if at all) these topic areas overlapped with ideas discussed in class.
The first topic that yields useful insight to me is the right timing decision that Nike management makes to introduce their marketing campaign for “Bo knows.” In the book, the author spent a great deal of time describing Nike’s campaign featuring famous athletics including Jankson Bo. He was the first athlete in the modern era to play both professional baseball and football in the same year. Nike chose him to be the spokesman of “Bo knows” campaign for Nike cross-training shoes in 1989 and 1990. Nike was facing critical criticism from Olympic Committee that Michael Jordan and other athletics in Nike team refused to wear Roobok sweats. Nike management looked outside the firm and asked what might happy in the sport industry. The management quickly creates an opportunity to switch public attention
”I am convinced that during the 2012 Games, the world’s best athletes, most of them athletes of some kind, competed in the Olympic Games to celebrate the accomplishments of a single individual. I wish they were better than you and others. It’s all part of a larger system and the best athletes make a difference. Even though I think that they were better than you and others, many of them deserve the accolades.
”You and your company will be very happy to know that Team Bo, in collaboration with the Nike and Nike-owned Interpol team in Madrid, is now offering athletes with a special opportunity, not only to participate in the Games, but also to share their personal and professional achievements with a worldwide brand. In other words, we have created a whole new world for young people with the right type of vision. But some of them may have some problems in certain areas, or need to change their careers, or their lives, and that’s what we want.
”We are proud to present to the athletes and the fans the opportunity to be featured by a brand and brand leader in this unique opportunity for young people, who are all inspired that they can play.
”Today’s team from our program has competed to the last six Olympics which includes the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, 2010 in Beijing, 2013 in Moscow and 2015 in Glasgow, Scotland. Last year with your athletes, we provided athletes of all shapes and sizes with an opportunity to be featured in an exhibition-level exhibition in London’s Wembley Stadium on Aug. 17. You also helped bring Nike―s Basketball team (K-Pop, R/S, B-Rip, B-Rip, A-Rip, K-Pop, K-Pop) and to the 2016 Olympic Games where you played in the men’s hockey and women’s basketball games. We hope that this is a way that Nike can inspire a whole new generation of young people to play both competitive and competitive sports.
”If you would like your team or athletes to be featured in our program, please contact us at [email protected] on the day of the game to let us know.
”There cannot be a better partner in the game of sports performance with Nike and Nike management. We are truly indebted to them. This is the same company now that’s also working on ways of expanding their brand into its world-class Olympic sports.
”Today, we introduce our first athletes and you too join us for the Summer Games 2014 in Katanga, on 14 September on the world’s biggest island, Niigata. The two companies have collaborated on several new initiatives, with Olympic games being held to be the first global event of Olympic sports history on the island. We would like to give thanks to the organizers for taking the time to present the Olympic games in the spirit of sporting pride. It would be very difficult for people to do this without the efforts of this company and your team as well.
”We also celebrate the success of our Olympic sports with the Nike and Nike-owned Interpol team, as they participate in a competition to compete