Capstone Project
Nike, Inc. Mission Statement
Nike’s Mission Statement is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” The Mission Statement underscores the fact that Nike, Inc is in existence to supply everyone across the world with high quality athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories. The leadership of Nike, Inc firmly believes that “if you have a body, then you are an athlete.” They strive to inspire, innovate every athlete in the world, which translates to every person on the planet (Blakey, 2011). While most people believe that only individuals with perfect bodies and in good shape qualify to be termed athletes, Nike, through its new innovative ideas offers an opportunity to everyone to feel like an athlete that they truly are. As such, Nike’s Weight Loss Program reaches to overweight individuals who hardly work out to feel inspired regardless of their shape or size.
The wholly inclusive Mission Statement shows that Nike, Inc strives to satisfy a wide set of stakeholder groups. The Mission is both clear and concise, with a solitary purpose representing the firm’s goal. It is very specific in its wording, short and socially responsible as much as possible. Nike’s solid performance in the FY 2012 is highly in line with the company’s Mission Statement (Blakey, 2011). The desirable results were as a result of relentless flow of innovation not only in product and service, but also at retail. The results show Nike’s ability to continue expanding worldwide by taking advantage of growth opportunities while dealing with the numerous macro-economic challenges that the companies in the industry have continued to face. The 2012 Annual Report was a clear indication that Nike, Inc is highly committed to serving all athletes, consumers and its shareholders. In the FY 2012, Nike emerged number one on The Patent Board’s Consumer Products scoreboard because of its strong technical skills, in-depth science and research, together with superior quality of innovation. In fiscal year 2012, as always, Nike, Inc demonstrated relentless drive to only innovate, inspire but also to grow.
Nike, Inc Vision Statement
Nike’s Vision Statement is “to carry on his (Bill Boweman) legacy of innovative thinking, whether to develop products that help athletes of every level of ability reach their potential, or to create business opportunities that set Nike apart from the competition and provide value for our shareholders.” By staying faithful to this faithful in the FY 2012, Nike, Inc was able to register significant success while promoting their products to many consumers, including those who do not perceive themselves as athletes and thus inspiring them a whole great deal (Russell & Cohn, 2012). Nike’s value emanates from the actions of its strategy teams, which primarily focus on working relentlessly on each element of the vision. Nike has been successful in collaborating with all stakeholders and share best practices.
Indeed the 2012 Annual Report offers much evidence that Nike, Inc lived up to the spirit and letter of both its Mission and Vision Statements. The company’s drive to create and deliver innovative products to the marketplace enabled to generate top line growth in FY 2012. The company was able to expand NIKE + into Basketball and Training, and launch a brand new digital technology and community – NIKE FuelBand. Nike, Inc also introduced some 32 new uniforms for the American NFL besides unveiling its lightest and most sustainable kits for the national football teams (Russell & Cohn, 2012). Furthermore, Nike, Inc proved to the world the potential of making the most of a shoe’s upper using a single thread with its Flyknit technology.
Nike, Inc’s global revenue grew by 16 percent to reach $24.1 billion, which represented the company’s fastest growth in a period of 15 years. The growth was evident in every category and geography. The Nike Brand, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), business – representing Nike, Inc’s stores and websites – rose 23 percentage overall. An impressive growth of 26 percent was experienced in online sales during the year. The company’s diluted Earnings per Share in 2012 grew by 8 percent to $4.73 (Gibson, 2012).
At the end of FY 2012, Nike’s Running was worth $3.7 billion in wholesale business due to the emotional connectedness of the company to the athletes. China emerged as $2.5 billion geography because of greater understanding of the brand among young Chinese consumers and Nike understands of them as well. Converse was a $2.5 billion brand in wholesale terms due to its fine job at leveraging franchising products along with inspiring youth culture. Direct-to-Consumer stood out as a $3.9 billion sales channel due to its creation of retail experiences with unmatched excitement to the marketplace (Gibson, 2012). Lunar Cushions was a $2 billion franchise at retail, as a result of its expertise in delivering real performance innovation together with distinct style, the kind of authenticity most appreciated by consumers. Finally, NIKE Free – the most popular franchise products for Nike, Inc proved to be the best leverage model by delivering almost half the revenue for without the Running category that it helped launch (Gibson, 2012).
The above were impressive results considering the unfavorable variables in the economy in terms of increased costs of materials and labor that went into producing the products. The size, business diversity and able leadership position of Nike, Inc significantly helped it mitigate the effects of macroeconomic forces on their profitability (Russell & Cohn, 2012). Nike, Inc worked to identify an invest in the most potentially beneficial growth opportunities, producing new generation of digital products and services in addition to bringing great consumer experiences to retail. Going forth, through Nike, Inc’s core businesses (NIKE, Jordan and Hurley, Converse), the company is keen on stepping up its ability to deliver much sustainable, profitable, growth with a revenue of between $28 and $30 billion by the end of FY 2015 (Gibson, 2012).
Organization’s Strategic Goals and Mission/Vision Statements
Corporate strategy entails the organization’s overall scope together with direction of the organization. It also includes the strategies that the leadership or management plan to add value through outlining of owner expectations, mechanisms for product diversity and geographical coverage. Decision makers have to be clear about their strategic goals and how to attain them because they form the basis of all other relevant decisions for the business. Clarity of strategic goals is best summarized by the Mission and Vision statements of the company. The general expectations of the company’s overall purpose serve to capture stakeholder’s expectations as well as communicate clearly the corporate values. Nike’s mission statement has been expanded into 11 maxims that guide every employee about the strategic goal that company has set out to achieve. They are: (1) “It’s our nature to innovate”; (2) “Nike is a company”; (3) “Nike is a brand”; (4) “Simplify and go”; (5) “The consumer decides”; (6) “Be a sponge”; (7) “Evolve immediately”; (8) “Do the right thing”; (9) “Master the fundamentals”; (10) We are on the offence – always”; and (11) “Remember the Man.” The Mission and Vision statements play a crucial role in Nike, Inc’s strategic planning because it helps focus the workforce on the organization’s vision. In this respect, Nike’s maxims stand out as the excellent reference on how to best communicate both the mission and vision throughout the organization. Nike, Inc is a forward-looking company and has set out strategic goals for the future. They include:
• Product Design – All Nike, Inc’s products shall be designed to improve the environmental profile on the basis of Sustainability indexes as drawn from the company’s Considered Design ethos and indexes. By end of FY15, the company targets that all its new NIKE Brand global footwear shall attain silver rating while all new NIKE Brand global apparel shall attain bronze rating.
• Climate/Energy – Nike, Inc envisions achieving 20% reduction in CO2 emissions per unit by FY15 (from assessed footwear manufacturing, footprint in built environment, and inbound transportation).
• Labor – the company targets source only from contracted factories demonstrating their commitment to workers and sustainability by end FY20, thus achieving minimum Bronze on its Sourcing & Manufacturing Sustainability Index. The index includes measures of worker rights and protection such as health and safety, together with progressive stride toward a “fair wage” approach as defined by the Fair Labor Association.
• Chemistry – Nike, Inc targets to attain zero discharge of hazardous chemicals for all its products in its supply chain by 2020 (Gibson, 2012).
• Water – Nike, Inc aims to improve efficiency by achieving 15% per unit in apparel materials, footwear manufacturing, dyeing and finishing by FY15.
• Waste – The company targets achieving 10% reduction in waste from manufacturing and shoebox weight per unit by FY15, thus realizing waste reduction in footwear manufacturing of not less than 35% per pair in the first decade of program.
• Community – Nike, Inc aims to invest a minimum of 1.5% of its pre‐tax income in the communities annually.
Nike, Inc Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Nike, Inc is recognized as a very competitive company – an industry leader. It does not have factories for production (lean organization), thus saving much money in buildings and manufacturing workers (Russell & Cohn, 2012). Nike has a very strong research and development team that produces highly innovative and quality products at fairly low prices. Nike is also a widely recognizable global brand with great loyalty. It also has offices in over 45 different countries and is recognized as a Fortune 500 company. Nike has aggressively tapped into many different rebranding opportunities gaining successful results. The company designs lightweight shoes using lunarlite foam materials (Blakey, 2011). Finally, Nike, Inc is well positioned to leverage its strengths, including scale, operational capabilities, pricing power – to mitigate the risks beyond its control and take advantage of opportunities to realize further growth.
Opportunities
Nike, Inc has opportunity to create sportswear items by building on much waste resulting from regular manufacturing. The company can also invest in a number of economy boosting projects making use of recycling (Blakey, 2011). Nike can also undertake product development in line with trends in the market besides venturing into production of sport sunglasses and jewelry lines because of the growth in these market segments. Nike also needs to reduce controversy relating to its trade and production practices around the world.
References:
Blakey, P. (2011). Sport Marketing. New York: SAGE.
Gibson, Charles H. (2012). Financial Reporting and Analysis + Thomsonone Printed Access Card. South-Western Pub.
Russell, J., & Cohn, R. (2012). Nike, Inc. United States: Book on Demand.
