Philip Knight of Nike

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Philip Knight is the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Nike and he currently owns more than 90% of the firm. The company is internationally known for its trademark "swoosh" and its leadership in the athletic apparel industry. Philip H. Knight's involvement with a sporting goods company is not accidental. He has always loved running, was a miler in college and has participated in marathons since. Knight received a BBA in Accounting at the University of Oregon in 1959, and was an MBA student at Stanford University. The revolution of the sports clothing industry began in 1964, when Knight and his partner, coach Bob Bowerman, began to import Japanese shoes and sell them to local track runners, under the company name Blue Ribbon Sports. According to reports from www.hoovers.com NIKE is the world's #1 shoemaker and controls over 20% of the US athletic shoe market. The company designs and sells shoes for a variety of sports, including baseball, cheerleading, golf, volleyball, and wrestling. NIKE also sells Cole Haan dress and casual shoes and a line of athletic apparel and equipment. In addition, it operates NIKETOWN shoe and sportswear stores, NIKE factory outlets, and NIKE women shops. NIKE sells its products throughout the US and in about 200 other countries. According to www.nikebiz.com Nike's mission is as follows, "To be an innovative and inspirational corporate citizen in a world where our company participates. We seek to protect and enhance the Nike brand through responsible business practices that contribute to profitable and sustainable growth." This mission portrays its management's beliefs and values of their desire to be number one and m... ... middle of paper ... ...at workers be paid fair wage. Nike also opposes child labor. In 1998 they directed all of their contracted factories to set age standards at 16 for apparel and 18 for footwear factories. According to their 2004 annual report Nike's biggest challenges are that they have so many opportunities in front of them that the degree of their success will be based on what choices they make and how they focus our energy and their investments against those decisions. They want to make sure that they have the talent and the strength in the organization to build on what they've got so they can execute against those new opportunities. They also have to continue focusing on what the world of sports supplies them by stories, personalities and the challenges and use that to improve their product, their brand and their performance.

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