Internal Alignment and External Competitiveness for Adidas' and Nike

Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development and worldwide marketing and selling of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area. It is the world 's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$24.1 billion in its fiscal year 2012 (ending May 31, 2012). As of 2012, it employed more than 44,000 people worldwide. The brand alone is valued at $10.7 Billion making it the most valuable brand among sports businesses. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune

The factors that drive Nike’s decision to stick with its current organizational structure include its well-established brand name in the industry. The company positioned itself as a brand

Nike is the leading and yet renowned supplier of athletic apparel and shoes. The company controls close to 33% of the global athletic shoe market (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker,2009).Nike was founded by Bill Power and Phil Knight in 1962 as a Blue Ribbon Support and then was later on renamed to Nike in the year 1968 (Patrow,2003).The company supplies very high quality product in close to 100 countries with major markets being located in the U.S,U,K, Asia Pacific as well as in the Americas. The company has managed to attain its lead and legendary position via the application of innovative and yet attractive product design which is backed by quality production as well as well crafted marketing strategies.

has, it is very clear that the company is focusing on Nike's future business needs, developing the "bench strength" of the company’s ability through intentional pioneer advancement. In the long process of choosing the suitable candidates who are capable to work in the company, Nike is concerned in their team building because of their well-known brand image. In doing so, Nike can look for suitable candidates that are capable of discriminating task arranging, supervisor responsibility for training and tutoring, and organized learning by means of individual- and group based classroom and learning new things from the web. Looking ahead, key regions of center for NIKE, Inc. incorporate helping workers and supervisors see how to fabricate effective vocations through formal and casual preparing and improvement, enhancing administration advancement, and inviting thoughts. The compulsory test for job seekers who are looking up for higher positions in Nike, candidates have to take is to understand how the company works and how well will the candidates cop in working with the company for Nike’s main focus is to enhance the potential of their employee and develop a leadership capability, this is done in organization and ability audits straightforwardly connected to the business vital needs. In Nike, high position leaders and managers are considered responsible for enhancing the execution, potential,

The company Nike operates in over 50 different companies. This makes them a very large global company. Nike makes all kinds of products including gym shoes, clothing and apparel, equipment and accessories. “In 2004, Nike products were manufactured by more than 800 suppliers, employing over 600,000 workers in 51 countries” (Locke, Kochan, Romis & Qin, 2007, p. 6). Nike came under fire because of their workers that work outside the United States. In other countries, labor laws are unlike those within the United States. Large corporations often exploit the fact that they can pay laborers significantly less outside of the United States. Companies may also provide less than favorable working conditions to its labor force outside of the United States.

If Nike would use all its power to try to give better work conditions and wages and in the end the companies donʼt live up to that, Nike should not be held that responsible although I would strongly suggest to end the contract.

Currently, Nike stand as a leading figure in producing high quality sports and fitness equipment and apparels. Bearing just a simple start of selling Japanese imported shoes from a station wagon has transformed

Although Nike may be technically removed from responsibility in some areas, it clearly has the obligation to be certain that exploitation by subcontractors do not occur. Certainly the pay and working conditions that the workers of subcontractors receive is due in large part to the contract that has been negotiated by Nike. If Nike had chosen to make improved working conditions a part of the arrangement, them those benefits may have been passed on to the workers. Still, Nike is a publicly owned firm whose goal is to improve the wealth of its shareholders. The workers in these Asian countries were happy, even eager, to accept the conditions that were provided as a manufacturer of Nike. The reason is that those wages were probably equal or superior to wages available from other sources. If Nike were to leave the country because of the pressures placed upon it, the workers would undoubtedly suffer greatly.

Nike, the world’s largest and leading innovator in athletic footwear, apparel, and equipment, is considered to be the quintessential global corporation. The company was founded in 1972 by Phil Knight, a former track star from the University of Oregon. Their company logo, “Just Do It”, has become one of the most recognizable marketing phrases throughout the world as well as their celebrity sponsors, which include Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, are also some of the most recognizable athletes. In 2006, Nike employed an estimated 650,000 people in 600 different factories scattered throughout the globe and had an annual revenue of

Nike has seldom manufactured products own premises, except their air bladders. The shoes are manufactured through outsourcing and alliances with other companies. A successful company like Nike formed its organization on the customer values that have the MOST impact on the consumers mind – Design/R&D, Marketing and Distribution. Even though manufacturing is a vital function to perform, Nike realized that there were other ways to go about this function and thereby save both cost and maintain its focus on the critical customer value areas.

Nike‘s vertical structure includes CEO Mark Parker and a board of directors chaired by co-founder Phil Knight. Although Nike has functional divisions and divisions based on specific products it is not a matrix organization. In a matrix organization, employees report to a functional and divisional manage. At Nike, employees report to the divisional manager and the president of each division reports directly to the CEO. Nike’s continued product innovation and successful marketing are due to the combination of functional and divisional organization using an operations department to insure communication between divisions. There is division of labor but it is not clearly identified. With a more pronounced division of labor and levels of direct supervision Nike can improve its

Competition is very fierce due to the number of companies competing for sales. Lots of money goes to marketing and promotions using various channels to reach the young demographic group of consumers who spend the most money on Nike’s products. Growth is slowing down in the athletic footwear industry. But new markets are emerging with high growth rates. These markets include extreme sports market and the corporate merchandise market.

Because Nike is able to more efficiently produce its product and reduce costs due to outsourcing, it can more competitively price its products. This enables Nike

During the late 80s and early 90s Nike was faced with a series of labor strike back at home due to unethical labor practices by its independent countries in third world countries. It is well known for Nike to outsource almost all its production from third world countries at cheap prices and sell them in U.S. market at an abnormal profit. The company began outsourcing its products from Japan where labor was competent and wages were very low. The living standards were raised which prompted Nike to outsource its products from Thailand, Pakistan and Indonesia since wages in these countries were extremely low and labor for these products were competent due to rapid development of the Japanese economy. The outsourcing of footwear products from Asian countries enables Nike to earn high profits and enjoy a competitive advantage over its rivals in the footwear industry. The company invests the high profits realized in marketing its products through celebrities. For instance, Michael Jordan was used to advertise the positive image of Nike Company (Lipschutz and James, pp. 87-96).

It seems Adidas works to be transparent with the global community, they are striving towards meeting all customers’ needs, in all walks of life, while giving back to communities. They follow a corporate mission that reflects human resources, social and environmental affairs, and community affairs; thus, good corporate social responsibility