Nike Vertical Relationship

- Used business strategy called vertical integration, which a company would control every stage of industrial process, from mining the raw material to transporting to product.

Vertical integration is a concept in which a company develops or acquires production units for outputs which are

sale of Nike’s high-margin products to high-end customers. Regardless of the low cost of the World Shoes, they

Vertical integration is when one firm joins with another at a different stage of the same production process. Forward Vertical is when the other firm is at a later stage and Backward Vertical is when the other firm is at an earlier stage. Vertical integration as a whole allows for a firm to control key stages of the production process; guarantees access to a market; and gains control of supplies. Companies such as Zara and American Apparel are vertically integrated, especially at key stages of

Horizontal integration involves buying out other companies and taking over one single step of an industrial process. It establishes a monopoly because, with horizontal integration, everyone must go the company that has monopolized that step.

The main advantage of the vertical integration is the increased control. For instance, Wal-Mart with large market share is attractive to supplier. Though

1. Discussion: What factors drive Nike’s decision to stick with some form of network organizational structure rather than own its manufacturing operations?

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.

The forces of Nike’s customer-supplier relationship is based on joint efforts of improved quality, mutually beneficial partnerships, reduced costs, and increased market share for both parties. According to Nike building customer-supplier relationship is one of the most important goals because it is the analysis of the value chain which is defined as the collection of all activities involved in designing, marketing, manufacturing, delivering and supporting Nike’s products. Having strong relationship with both parties helps Nike to predict and notice any problem at might rise in the supply chain; as a result Nike will be able to develop better solutions to avoid it (Wankel, 2009). The first tier supplier of Nike is located mainly in Taiwan and South Korea, which work closely with R&D personnel in Oreon making the most expensive footwear. Strategies have shown that Nike implements include the vertical integration strategy. In general, the vertical integration strategy allows a firm to gain control over distributors, suppliers and competitors (Nike report, 2015). Nike has implemented forward integration by having its own retail locations throughout the United States, foreign countries & online stores. Every partner has a hugely significant

Media Essay: David Russell How important is vertical integration for institutions and audience? Vertical integration is when a company, e.g. Warner Bros – oversees the planning and also the creation of a specific product. The way they oversee this is by advertisement, marketing and distribution; for example Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. A company which is vertically integrated, has control over all the product’s life when making, or selling the product. Warner Bro’s.

Backward integration is a type of vertical integration in which a company takes control over its suppliers. It is a form of acquisition of the intermediary players involved in supplying the raw materials used in the production process of the firm. Raw materials, intermediate manufacturing and assembly are controlled by the firm whereas distribution to the end customer is done by a third party company. In this way, company increases production efficiency and gains a competitive advantage by lowering its production cost.

The athletic shoe industry is made up of companies that produce footwear for athletic use. This is a strong industry and has been around for over 100 years. The athletic shoe industry is one of the fastest growing footwear industries and have top growing sales compared to other footwear industries (NDP Group, 2016). The key players that currently dominate the market are Nike, Adidas, and Puma (Kates & Bolduc, 2013). This paper will use the porter five forces, industry life cycle, and the key players to understand the industry. Over these years the athletic shoe industry has grown into a competitive market.

Every year, about 900 million pieces of Nike footwear, apparel and equipment arrive at the right destination on time. The complex process involves more than 50 distribution centers, a network of thousands of accounts, and more than 100,000 retail stores around the world.

A company won’t integrate vertically its production if it against its business interest. There are some vertically

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.