Nike - David Haspas And Matt Bauer

Overview Nike Inc designs, develops, and markets footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessory products for men, women, and children worldwide. The company has more than 36,000 across six continents. The Green (Create) QuadrantLeaders values and behaviors: Nike’s mission statement is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” The company is committed to delivering innovative new products and experiences in a more sustainable way. In 2007, it donated $9 million to create the Nike School Innovation Fund in Oregon. CEO Mark Parker said, “Innovation is our lifeblood at Nike… Our hope is that innovative practices springing out of this fund will reach thousands more through the sharing of new best practices across Oregon and beyond.” Organizational culture in terms of norms, values, practices and processes: Nike partnered with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ line of shoes which monitors a runner's performance with RFID chips. Nike also develops proprietary materials for their shoes such as products like Nike Flywire, Aerographics, Swift and innovative technology like Lunarlite foam and PreCool. These materials are designed to give Nike the edge in sports apparel with lighter, more comfortable and less air resistant products. Outcomes, or the bottom-line value the organization intends to achieve: Nike continues to seek new and innovative ways to develop superior athletic products, and creative methods to communicate directly with our consumers. Nike Free, Nike+ and Nike Sphere are just three examples of this approach. The company is also heavily focused on its innovative efforts in sustainability. In an effort to further industry sustainability efforts, Nike invested over seven years with a six million dollar to develop a Environmental Apparel Design Tool to accelerate collaboration between companies, fast-track sustainable innovation and decrease the use of natural resources like oil and water. The Yellow (Collaborate) QuadrantLeaders values and behaviors: Phil Knight, Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of Nike has said, “It's not a single product model, nor a single manager, nor one ad, nor a single celebrity, not even a single innovation that is key to Nike. It is the people of Nike, and their unique and creative way of working together." Nike ’s primary objective with regards to its employees is to build an equitable and empowered work force. The company’s talent strategy focuses on critical assignment planning, manager accountability for coaching and mentoring, and structured learning via individual- and team-based classroom and online learning. Organizational culture in terms of norms, values, practices and processes: Nike's new focus on lean manufacturing includes worker empowerment in areas such as quality or process improvements. These changes put decisions closer to the worker, and require a high level of support to ensure they have the skills and confidence to consistently produce quality products. Nike is well known for its value in diversity; In 2011 the company earned a 100% rating for LGBT workers by the Human Rights Campaign. In addition to diversity, the company has repeatedly been recognized by FORTUNE magazine on its "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for employee benefits like paid sabbaticals and on-site childcare. Outcomes, or the bottom-line value the organization intends to achieve: Nike highly values the satisfaction of their workforce and continually works to ensure employee needs are met and that they are satisfied with their work. The company implements several audit tools to monitor and improve its level of workforce engagement and employee satisfaction. Nike conducts an annual survey of its employees where its key metrics for success are: Do employees feel energized, engaged work force with a passion for the company, their consumers and their jobs Are employees connected to the strategy and vision of NIKE. Do employees feel valued, respected, involved, and empowered Do employees feel that the company growth and development Do employees have good relationships with their managers The Red (Control) Quadrant Leaders values and behaviors: Nike has more than 1 million direct and indirect employees. Only 30,000 are truly considered Nike associates. With this being said it has been challenging to have full control throughout the company. Nike has; however, over the years placed numerous policies and procedures into place in order to keep control of their ever growing business. Along with the policies and procedures, audits have been the main way that Nike has been able to keep control within their organization. With these new practices which have been developed within the past 10 years along with an acceptance that they do in fact have image issues, these audits have contributed to the greater success of Nike. Organizational culture in terms of norms, values, practices and processes: Nike has created two major processes that allow their audits to take place and be successful within their organization. First, MAV (Management Audit Verification Tool) which is a tool that focus in on non-compliance issues that directly affect employees. This system takes Nike’s code of leadership standards into account as well as on to fix the conflict or issue at hand. It sets a standard way of thinking for the entire company not just one office or location, rather they are contacted employees or full staff employees. The second is directed to contact factory employees and is used to ensure that they are in compliance with Nike’s Code Leadership Standards. It is called SHAPE (Safety, Health, Attitude of Management, People and Environment). Outcomes, or the bottom-line value the organization intends to achieve: Again the purpose of these processes within Nike is to ensure one global mindset for all business operations and employees. Nike understands that they need to have control of everything within their organization even if their labor is mostly contacted out. For the simply fact that it all falls back on them directly, they can no longer play the card of “we are unaware”. From their past they have both learned and accepted responsibility; moved forwarded with new audits, processes and procedures in order to keep control of their business. The Blue (Compete) Quadrant Leaders values and behaviors: Nike wants to be the industry leader in not only their products but also their profitability. They continue to manage their working employees tightly by keeping inventories at optimal levels and actively managing accounts receivable. Focusing on both the short term growth and long term outlook of the organization. Again as stated Phil Knight the co-founder and chairman of Nike stated, “It’s not a single product model, or a single manager, or one ad, or a single celebrity, not even a single innovation that is key to Nike. It is the people of Nike, and their unique and creative way of working together that makes Nike special.” This means that it takes everyone’s full dedication in order for them to compete in the worldwide market everyday. Nike understands that it is one idea, person or technology that makes them competitive; rather, all of these firing together. Nike wants to operate with excellence in order to produce growth, profitability and shareholder value. Organizational culture in terms of norms, values, practices and processes: Nike’s financial model is explained best as keeping cash on hand, low inventories and increasing profit margins. According to Nike this is achieved by expanding gross margins, leveraging selling general and administrative expenses, focusing in on highest return opportunities and driving top-line revenue. Basically this means, Nike’s is doing their very best to create new ways of thinking to reduce waste, streamline processes and reducing the number of styles. This coupled with better management of their logistic systems and pricing as allowed Nike to better manage their gross margins resulting in expanding profit margins. Outcomes, or the bottom-line value the organization intends to achieve: Truly the bottom line is simply with Nike or any organization within the blue category, profitability. Nike clearly has focused on being competitive and profitable for years which some may say at what cost? Although, very successful at times Nike has stuck directly to the blue quadrant. This clearly was an unsustainable practice; over the years Nike has dealt with their past and started to take steps to correct the situation. Removing themselves from being entirely “blue” has been the key in their continued success. Improve Nike’s deficient yellow quadrant. Despite the accolades Nike has received for its culture, the last employee survey in 2009, the company lacks in the realm of career development. Specifically in the realm of support and preparation, employees desire more assistance in the development of their career. Currently Nike only has two career development programs. One is the Marketing Development Program at their headquarters in Beaverton and the other is a Management Development Program for sales and marketing managers in the Netherlands. To employees’ perception of career development at Nike, the company should consider expanding its development programs to include more business areas and provide more guidance to help train and develop its workforce. In addition to career development, employees have voiced discontent with the level of involvement and empowerment they are given from management. Clearly, employees want the ability to make decisions within their job. They want the ability to make a difference and add value to better the organization as a whole. If Nike could create more ways of making employees accountable for their own actions, increasing autonym within their positions and control of their own job growth we believe it would be a better place to work for everyone. The disconnect between management and lower level employees appears to be a problem if it is not addressed this could grow to be a much larger issue companywide. Nike needs to ensure that they have collaborative teams in order to continue their success focusing in on job growth and autonym could be a quick and cost effective way to correct this issue. David Haspas Matthew Bauer