Nike

Executive Summary

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight are the founders of Nike which has grown to become one of the most popular brands in the world. It is a dominant player in athletic clothing and equipment market. The corporate mission for the company is, "to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world". From a very humble beginning of $500 investment, drawn from the two owners, the company has tremendously grown into a global corporation with total number of employees being estimated at 26000. It is reported that the company reached a net income of $1.4 billion and an investment of $15 billion for the fiscal year 2006.

Taking into consideration that globalization is enhancing competition in the market place there is need that Nike undertake more innovations to keep abreast in the market. In reference to this Nike made a decision to shift their focus to being market oriented as opposed to being product oriented. To realize this goal, six major business categories were identified: running, men's training, basketball, soccer, women's fitness, and sportswear. Focussing on these business categories is believed, will change the company's business operations. Implementing these changes has been reported to be challenging due to some barriers which have been met. Among the categories mentioned above this paper seeks to examine the women fitness category.

In order to solve and analyse the barriers that are faced by Nike as they shift into being market oriented, there is a need to highlight key information about process innovation management and successful innovation factors. The key components of innovation management include: R&D and technological management, manufacturing logistics, the supplier chain management, the process and project management and culture of innovation. There is also a need to manage the challenges, barriers and trade-offs through aspects such as Strategy, Market, New product development, Supply chain, Human resource, Sustainability, Cost and Benefit and etc. This will make it possible for Nike to accelerate the change in women's fitness market and on a large scale. This article will finally give detailed recommendations in regard to these barriers and challenges.