Essay about Minimum Wage and Philip H. Knight

Many nations do not respect human rights till today. Rights which are birth right of human in developed countries are still not universally accepted. Rights such as freedom of speech, equality without discrimination towards gender, race, religion, language or any other status should be respected and taken into account. Nike has been accused of abuse in factories overseas where its products are manufactured. The abuse includes both physical and mental abuse to their employees working in the factories. There have also been reports of workers being underpaid and overworked. It is Nike’s responsibility to take good care of its stakeholders, which include factory workers and families, the factory management besides Nike

Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The two men met when Bowerman was coaching track and field at the University of Oregon and Knight was a middle distance runner on his team. After earning an MBA from Standford, Knight returned to Oregon and approached Bowerman with an idea to bring in low priced, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan to compete in the United States athletic shoe market. With a handshake and a five hundred dollar investment by both men, Blue Ribbon Sports was born in 1964. BRS began importing shoes from Onitsuka Tiger, with Knight making sales at high school track meets and Bowerman

So much so, Marc Kasky, activist, sued Nike based upon his belief that Nike’s campaign to rectify their problem was very misleading to the public. Apparently, the Supreme Court agreed and the lawsuit, Kasky v. Nike, was settled for approximately $2 million (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2011). Clearly, Nike’s ethical disaster recovery did not follow the necessary steps of recognition, decision, discovery, response, and anticipation & intervention when trying to recover from the damage (Bethel, 2015).

Nike a global fashion and sport icon to the world is branded as one of if not the best athletic company in the world. Nike produces athletic gear for every sport imaginable. They are known as well for there one of a kind products but as well as the brand that the best athletics wear and advertise for. The founders of Nike Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman meet when Bill Bowerman was the training coach for Phil Knight when he ran track for Oregon. It was there at the University of Oregon where Bill Bowerman always looked for ways to amplify the track shoe to enhance a student’s performance but was unsuccessful. Phil Knight who later went to study at Stanford followed the same mindset of creating a shoe himself. Knight alternated his decision

Conclusively Nike should be held responsible for its subcontractors. They are not completely responsible for this but they should be aware of it and as a influencial company they should impose what they call basic rights to their subcontractors and make sure that their rules are followed.

Like often, no changes are usually made unless a tragedy has been struck or when the public decides to advocate for such issues. However, in third world countries they don’t get off the hook that easily. South Asia, in particular, has been a central area for the production of Nike sportswear. Unfortunately, the working conditions were far less than tolerable. Nike’s factories overseas had minimal standards and the repercussions of exploiting employees were not seen as a threat. For several years, little was known about Nike’s factories, simply because no light was being shed on the topic. However, when news came out about the reality overseas, Nike didn’t hesitate to address these concerns. Some recommendations that were given to Nike include giving workers the rightful wage, ensure factories had eliminated any forced overtime, investigate thoroughly any allegations that are brought up, provide employees with the companies Code of Conduct, implement a compensation fund for any workers that are injured or killed etc. Phil Knight’s speech had addressed theses concerns and he had ideas of his own such as implementing an education program at the factories overseas. In conclusion, Nike and its CEO had made a drastic progress into eliminating the sweatshop threats against them, and I hope are making additional necessary changes to grant all their workers the rights they

Continuing throughout most of the nineties, Nike remained in the news for numerous human right issues at many of their subcontractor factories, although they had initiated a code of conduct, hired an outside activist to scrutinize labor systems outside of the United States. Not until 1998,

In addition, Nike, Inc.’s Code of Conduct also states that its subcontractors must provide “a safe, hygienic and healthy workplace setting and [take the] necessary steps to prevent accidents and [injuries] […]” (Nike, Inc.,”Code of Conduct”). In 2013, following another company’s factory catching fire in Bangladesh, killing 112 people in the process, two of Nike’s vice-presidents flew to Bangladesh to assess the situation in their own factories (Banjo). Seeing as their buildings were not safe, the company decided to stop subcontracting in Bangladesh; in doing so, Nike was aware that it would lower its profits by 3% (Banjo). However, it must be noted that Nike, Inc. had been present in Bangladesh since 1991; therefore, it took the company twenty years to react to the dangerous working conditions (Banjo).

They had to step up their game and change it. Nike started off by moving past the labor issues. Simon Zadek, the senior fellow at the Global Green Growth Institute and the International Institute of Sustainable Development, said that: “The company is participating in, facilitating, convening and financing initiatives to improve worker conditions in global supply chains”. Nike started some campaigns which put a focus on important crisis or issues. Their “Lace Up, Save Lives”-campaign, and their “Girl effect”- campaign boosted consumers believe in Nike improving themselves. By starting those campaigns and initiatives Nike reversed their current situation and changed their consumers view in the company. They regained their brand and made it even stronger, which led to regaining their consumer's trust. They were now able to reverse their situation and to get people’s attention away from the child labor shitstorm that had been going on. They did this by reaching out to their consumers and showing that they actually care about sustainability, being environmentally friendly, and that they realized, that they have a responsibly as a company. This had a positive effect on their customers and also on Nike's

Despite extensive efforts and investments beyond this monitoring, Nike continues to grapple with incidents of worker mistreatment and exploitation. A recent internal report showed that nearly two-thirds of 168 factories making the company’s Converse product line still fell short of Nike’s standards [408].

This case was about the struggles with sustainability with in Nike as well as the fashion industry. Greenpeace came out and slandered Nike, Adidas, Puma, and several other fashion designers for pollution resulting in the manufacturing process of their products. There are several chemicals used in the process of manufacturing clothing and shoes. Several chemicals are also used in the Dying process. Although these facility are 3rd parties and these locations are not used by Nike it has fallen on them along with their competitors to reduce pollution with in the manufacturing process.

Nike is a multinational corporation founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in 1964. Nike produces, markets and sells athletic footwear, apparel and other accessories. Even though they have a great reputation with their products, Nike is not seen as a good corporate citizen. Nike does not have enough campaigns that they do globally, especially in Asia after allegedly being accused of Violating Labour Laws in 1996. Nike was involved in Child labour. The only active campaign they have running globally is the “Active Schools” Campaign.

Nike should not be allowed to claim they are an ethical company especially when they are still outsourcing to impoverished countries in Asian. The company takes advantage of low living standards and lack of democracy in those countries. There was nonexistence of labor movements in countries like Indonesia. The government never allowed

Nike took responsibility and created stringent benchmarks for production associations - the Code of Conduct (CoC). While CoC became a need and necessity as it was evident that there still was more to be carried out to direct and deal with the inventory network. Nike constituted the CR Board. It also disclosed the locations of the source factories and manufacturing plants. Nike took measures to match the expectations and published its progress reports. This signalled Nike’s tough stand against these issues and that Nike takes is very seriously to strictly adhere to the best practices and find the solutions. This has resulted into transparency. It has empowered Nike to better fathom the issues and shape more fitting

Nike was founded in 1964 by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman as a small distributor for a Japanese shoemaker, and it has since then become the world’s largest supplier of athletic footwear and apparel. Nike currently has 70,700 employees generating a worldwide revenue of $32.38 billion in 2016. Nike’s success stems from their competitive advantage in their corporate and business strategies, resources and capabilities, and their value chain.