Nike Case Study
Nike Case Study
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For Master of Business Administration Degree
Tiffin University at University of Bucharest
Information and Decision Support Course
By
Ciprian Jitaru
Instructor: Prof. John J. Millar Ph.D.
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Management
Cohort 9
November 06, 2010
1. What external and internal pressures did Mark Parker face when he assumed the leadership of Nike, and how did he respond to this challenges?
In order to understand the challenges that Mark Parker had we need to know what the internal and external business environment was. Speaking about external environment in that period Adidas become more powerful in the U.S. market trough the acquisition of Reebok. So the company was facing the challenge of a growing competitor. Also Parker had to maintain Wall Street investor’s confidence because for the this leadership change was unexpected due to the fact that during Perez management Nike posted a 15% jump in the most recent quarter's profits so everything seemed to work well.
In terms of internal environment Parker inherited some difficult issues: Perez was appointed by Knight hopping that he will “bring some more organizational and managerial discipline to a company that has been expanding rapidly into new global markets as well as acquiring more brands, such as Converse. ” (see BW Online, 11/19/04, "Nike: Can Perez Fill Knight's Shoes?"). Unfortunately Perez had different approach to the strategic management decisions than Knight and most of the company management. This led to an organization which is resistant to change and a gap was build between the CEO and the organization. Under this circumstances Parker had to gain their support for the changes that he had in mind.
So Parker had to face a much more competitive external environment. He knew that that he had to drive an organizational change in order to meet the expectations of the
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
For Master of Business Administration Degree
Tiffin University at University of Bucharest
Information and Decision Support Course
By
Ciprian Jitaru
Instructor: Prof. John J. Millar Ph.D.
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Management
Cohort 9
November 06, 2010
1. What external and internal pressures did Mark Parker face when he assumed the leadership of Nike, and how did he respond to this challenges?
In order to understand the challenges that Mark Parker had we need to know what the internal and external business environment was. Speaking about external environment in that period Adidas become more powerful in the U.S. market trough the acquisition of Reebok. So the company was facing the challenge of a growing competitor. Also Parker had to maintain Wall Street investor’s confidence because for the this leadership change was unexpected due to the fact that during Perez management Nike posted a 15% jump in the most recent quarter's profits so everything seemed to work well.
In terms of internal environment Parker inherited some difficult issues: Perez was appointed by Knight hopping that he will “bring some more organizational and managerial discipline to a company that has been expanding rapidly into new global markets as well as acquiring more brands, such as Converse. ” (see BW Online, 11/19/04, "Nike: Can Perez Fill Knight's Shoes?"). Unfortunately Perez had different approach to the strategic management decisions than Knight and most of the company management. This led to an organization which is resistant to change and a gap was build between the CEO and the organization. Under this circumstances Parker had to gain their support for the changes that he had in mind.
So Parker had to face a much more competitive external environment. He knew that that he had to drive an organizational change in order to meet the expectations of the