In the recent years, sports businesses are coming up as one of the major mainstream business sectors. This is mainly due to the reason that sports are becoming more commercialized and with the entry of the corporate investments, the approach of the sports are not limited to the entertainment, rather it is also becoming more economic for the investing organizations (Doherty, 2013). Emergence of number of sports in the popular culture such as different professional leagues is contributing more on the commercialization of the sports industry. Thus, with the gaining of popularity of the sports industry and increase in the profit from this sector, competition is also increasing. More corporate organizations are entering in the sports sector, thus increasing the competition.
It is becoming important for the sports companies to come up with effective business strategies as similar to other business sectors. This is due to the reason that effective business strategies are important to compete in the increasingly competitive scenario in the current global sports industry. Organizations such as Nike are one of the leading brands in the global sporting environment. Nike is mainly sports apparel suppliers for different types of sports. They are having their presence in huge number of sports and are one of most known brand in the sporting history. Currently, they are operating in the highly competitive market of sports apparel industry. Some of their major competitors are Adidas, Reebok and Puma. Therefore, they are having the importance of having effective business strategies and organizational processes.
Internal management is one of the major aspects that should be considered by the contemporary business organizations. This is due to the reason that the more effective will be the internal management of the organizations, the more will be their efficiency in dealing with the external organizational challenges (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). In the internal management of the organization, some of the key elements are power, politics stakeholder conflict, decision making process, organizational culture and leadership skills. Effectiveness of these elements will help the organizations to have efficient internal management.
This report will discuss about the organizational processes of Nike along with determining their operating strategies. In addition, this report will also discuss about the organizational structure of Nike. Strategic alliances for Nike will also be discussed along with identifying the impact of the organizational change on the business operation of Nike. This report will discuss about these elements from different perspectives of Nike. As discussed in the earlier assignment, Nike is not a sports organization but they are in the sports apparel industry. This report will help to determine the effectiveness of the internal management of Nike and identifying the gap areas in their existing managerial roles.
According to the definition of a sports organization, any governmental entity that sponsors or conduct competitive sporting events for participation of the professional athletes can be terms as sport organizations. However, in the case of Nike, they are not a governmental entity nor they conduct any professional sporting events (Cunningham, 2013). Nike sponsors different sporting events as the official apparel suppliers but they do not officially conduct any sporting events. This is due to the reason that Nike is not an authorized entity to conduct professional leagues or events. Thus, Nike cannot be considered as a sports organization. However, the business of Nike is associated with sports industry and their core business is to manufacture and sale sports goods and apparels. Thus, they can be considered as a manufacturer of sports items not a sports organization.
As discussed in the earlier section, sports industry is gaining huge popularity in the current time due to the adaption of sports as one of the major mainstream source of entertainment. However, there are a few unique characteristics of sports industry that is distinctive from other contemporary business sectors. The major differences between the sports industry and other contemporary business sectors are clearly stated by Smith and Stewart (2010). According to them, one of the major distinctive features of the sports industry is the objective of increasing the participation of the customers rather than increasing the consumption. The key objective of any business sector is to increase the customer consumption in order to increase the revenue, but in the case of the sports industry, participation of the audience will determine the trend of revenue generation.
It is also being discussed by the authors that in the case of conventional business sectors, revenue is generated from the consumption of the customers. Thus, the value paid by the consumers is the source revenue generation for the operating companies. On the other hand, it is also stated by the authors that in the case of the sports industry, the revenue from the audience is not the core source; rather sponsorships and increase in the corporate investments with the increase in the participation of the audience is the major source of generating revenue. Another unique feature of the sports industry is the peculiar nature in participation of the audience. This is due to the reason that the offerings of the sports industry are not homogenous in nature. Thus, the level of participation of the audience is also not homogenous. It is also being stated by the authors that it is difficult for the organizations in the sports industry to maintain the similar level of offerings as sports industry is driven by the experiences earned by the audience. All these distinctive characteristics differentiate the sports industry from other conventional industry.
Nike is also getting affected from this distinctiveness of the sports industry. This is due to the reason that concept of heterogeneous structures and experiences being stated by the authors are creating challenge for Nike to get changed with the market and industrial trend (Leeds & Von Allmen, 2016). Moreover, it is also stated that emotional experiences are also relevant in doing business in the sports industry. Being a sports apparel manufacturer, Nike is facing the challenge to meet the emotional experience expectation of the customers with their products. Moreover, due to the fact that Nike is not a sports organization and it deals with the physical products, it is more difficult for them to meet the customer demand where emotional experience of the customers is the key determining factor.
Organizational theory is the concept of organizing the people or the internal stakeholders of the organization to achieve the optimal utilization of the available resources. Thus, it involves the different managerial aspects of the organization. On the other hand, organizational behavior is the real world situation of the organization. The processes and practices follow by the organization in relation to the interaction of the internal stakeholders. Thus, the effectiveness of the organizational behavior of the organization determines the efficiency of the organizational theory. In the case of Nike, one of the major organizational theories practiced by them is rational system perspective. According to this organizational theory, Nike should follow pay for performance concept, providing training to the employees and effective allocation of the work between the superiors and the subordinates along with having positive relationship between them.
On the other hand, in view to the above organizational theory, Nike follows the collegial model of organizational behavior. According to this model, they maintain less hierarchy in the organization without having the concept of superiors and subordinates. All the internal stakeholders work as a team and coordination among them is given the major concentration. It helps Nike to have positive working environment in place and having less probability of emergence of issues with the employees.
Critical thinking is one of the most important tools to determine and understand a particular issue. This is due to the reason that critical thinking helps in reviewing different models and theories in relation to a particular problem. Thus, different approaches of the problem can be identified. Some of the major aspects of the critical thinking are having a specific purpose for the critical analysis, solving the issue and the analysis will be based on a few assumptions and data (Halpern, 2013). These aspects are important due to the reason that critical thinking should have a specific purpose. This is due to the reason that the critical analysis is done based on the objective. In addition, critical analysis should be done in order to solve the particular issue rather that discussing about it. The major objective of doing critical analysis is to identify solution for the issue. The last aspect is the assumptions and use of data. This is also important due to the reason that crucial analysis should be relevant and authentic enough to solve the issue. Using of data and authentic information will ensure that the critical analysis will be reliable and relevant in relation to the identified issue.
Critical analysis will be more effective when number of sources of information will be used. This is due to the reason that the more will be the number of the information, the more will be the probability of gaining diverse knowledge about the particular issue. Using of interdisciplinary approach in doing the critical analysis will help to gather more diverse information along with having the understanding of different views in relation to the identified issue. It is also to be noted that using of number of information will also help to come up with more than one solution in the critical analysis.
The goal of Nike is to offer latest and innovative sports items to the athletes. They also aim to offer products in order to enhance the athletic performance and also they aim to bring sports to all by offering different products for different need. Thus, it can be concluded that the goal of Nike is defining their basic business approach. However, apart from just stating the vision of the organization, goal for Nike serves more than that. The major importance of goals for Nike is determining their business approach in the market. This is due to the reason that according to the identified goals, Nike designed their business strategies in operating in the market (Porter, 1996). For instance, in relation to their goal of offering latest and innovative products in the market, Nike invests more in their research and development. This helps them to come up with newer products in the market in less time compared to their competitors. In addition, it also helps them maintain their business motto of staying ahead in the competition in terms of offering latest products in the market.
Figure: 1
Source: (Ridgewoodavenuejournal.blogspot.in, 2018)
The above figure shows that Nike is way ahead in the competition compared to their competitors. This can be concluded that designing and practicing the business policies in accordance to the goal of offering newer and latest products in the market is helping them in staying ahead in the competition along with having the majority share in the market.
Another goal of Nike is to provide products that will enhance the athletic performance of the users. This defines that all the products of Nike will be performance and athletics oriented. This also shows in their current product portfolio, where all their products are designed in such way that the athletic performance of the users will get enhanced. Therefore, this goal of Nike helps to maintain their product orientation in the market and also helps them to initiate differentiated approach compared to their competitors. The last goal of Nike is to offer different products for different set of requirements. In accordance to this goal, Nike is having their presence in footwear, Apparel and accessories sector. Thus, it helps them to cater to larger and diverse market share. It also contributes in increasing the global market share of Nike.
Given the scarce resources, Nike is having number of strategies in resolving the competing goals. One of the major strategies initiated by them is outsourcing of their manufacturing facilities. According to the reports, Nike is having their manufacturing facilities in different countries mainly in the Asian countries such as China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia. This helps them to reduce the cost of production due to the fact that the host countries selected by Nike are having lower cost of human resources. This helps them to resolve the competing goals by offering their products in competitive price along with increase in profitability.
Difference in effectiveness and efficiency is evident in the business operation of Nike. The leadership and managerial role practiced in the organization is effective enough to increase the efficiency of the internal management. Employees in the organization are lead and managed by effective leadership roles. This helps Nike to have efficient employees in place and this is evident in gaining their competitive advantages from the production efficiency and customer service (Dale, 2015). Moreover, it is also being identified that in terms of the product portfolio, Nike is effective enough in bringing the latest products in the market and meet the changing trend in the market. On the other hand, the efficiency in the production process of Nike in manufacturing the new products along with gathering the market information is helping them to have positive marketing environment.
The goals of Nike are collected from the official mission and vision statement of them. Nike is not having any official goals stated and thus with analyzing the mission and vision statement, the goals of Nikes are collected. In addition, the data collected is analyzed by comparing with the business, marketing and product strategy of Nike. This is being done in this way due to the fact that goals of Nike are compared with that of their strategies in order to identify the alignment between the two. Thus, the data is analyzed by comparing the goals with that of the organizational strategies of Nike. The quality of the data is checked through analyzing the authenticity and reliability of the sources of collecting the information.
Information for effectiveness and efficiency of Nike is collected through different articles. These articles helped to have the fair idea about the effectiveness and efficiency of Nike along with analyzing different perspectives. The data is analyzed with different articles and the key points are being identified. Lastly, the quality of the articles is checked with the help of CRAP test.
Data in relation to the organizational structure of Nike is collected from the official website of them along with some other websites. All the information are analyzed and compared in order to identify the key points. These points are used to discuss about the organizational structure of Nike. The collected data is checked by comparing the reliability of the website in terms of their rating.
It is identified that organizational structure of Nike is having number of issues or complexity. One of the major complexities identified is lack of communication across the hierarchy level (Amis & Slack, 1996). Moreover, it is also identified that the lack of freedom in decision making of the middle level managers is also creating issues. Thus, one of the methods to be used is the initiation of horizontal organizational structure. Currently, Nike is having vertical organizational structure, which is causing more hierarchy levels. On the other hand, removing the intermediaries in having horizontal organizational structure will help to meet the communication issues. Moreover, another method will be the providence of training for the middle level managers in order to equip them in decision making process.
|
Cost of investment |
Benefits |
|
|
Initiation of horizontal organizational structure |
US$200,00 |
· The key benefit will be the less cost incurred in having more hierarchy level. · Effective process of communication will be in place with having flat structure. · Efficiency in the organizational structure will get increased. |
|
Training for middle level managers |
US$ 150,00 |
· Middle level managers will be more equipped to deal with organizational challenges. · Lower level stakeholders can have their issue solved efficiently and swiftly. · More effective decision making process. |
Nike is having learning type of organization. This is due to the fact that Nike concentrates more on the learning process in the organization. Employees are being motivated to initiate innovative ideas and out of the box thinking and share with their peers (Kikulis, Slack & Hinings, 1992). Moreover, the organizational learning process in Nike helps them to be one of the most innovative organizations in the world.
Nike mainly follows the business and market level strategy. This is due to the fact that with the help of the business level strategy, Nike is being able to maintain their product leadership in the market by means of innovative and diversified products. Moreover, business level strategy also helps Nike in having lower cost of production. This is important for them in operating in the intensely competitive market scenario of the sports apparel industry. On the other hand, market level strategy also being initiated by them (Alstyne, Parker & Choudary, 2016). This helps them to increase their market share and penetrating in the new market. In addition, initiation of the market level strategy also helps them in offering different products in different markets. The major objective of initiating these strategies for Nike is to effectively compete in the highly competitive market and enhance their market share and revenue.
Blue ocean strategy will help Nike to launch new product in any business sector where the competition will be lower or nil. Thus, it will help Nike to diversify their business in new sectors along with increasing the market share and revenue (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). It is recommended that Nike should come up with their branded energy sports drink. This market is selected due to the reason that energy drink market is less competitive due to the presence of limited number of players such Red bull, Gatorade and Monster. Moreover, all these players are operating the higher price segment. This is providing the opportunity for Nike to enter in this market with having lower price range. Energy drink market in the lower price segment is having no such competition and it will help Nike to increase their market revenue. Moreover, diversifying their presence in different market sector will ensure that Nike will have more brand value and exposure and it will help them to gain competitive advantages in the long term.
The there shortlisted potential allies for Nike will be PepsiCo, FIFA and Walmart. PepsiCo is selected in order to initiate co branding and launch drinks in collaboration with them. Expertise of PepsiCo in beverage sector will help Nike to make an entry in this sector (Washington & Patterson, 2011). Strategic alliances with FIFA will help Nike to have their branding in the leading football events. It will also help Nike to launch FIFA merchandise products in the market. Strategic alliances with Walmart will help Nike to have more effective distribution strategy in the global market.
PepsiCo is selected as the most potential strategic ally for Nike. This is due to the reason that Nike is already having their distribution channel. They will only require an expert in the beverage market to launch their energy drink in the market (Kennelly & Toohey, (n.d). Thus, Walmart is not required for Nike to distribute their products, while promotional activities through FIFA will not help Nike to develop the new product. Thus, they should go with strategic alliance with PepsiCo in order to have co-branded product in the market.
According to DiMaggio and Powell (1983), the organizational approach of the business firms becomes same due to mainly three factors, namely Coercive, Normative and Mimetic processes. In case of Nike, there are number of suppliers from where they source their materials. However, their competitors are also sourcing their materials from the same suppliers. Thus, the sourcing approach along with the quality of the materials is becoming similar for Nike with that of their competitors. This is an example of coercive process. In addition, the local rules and regulations to be followed by Nike in different countries are also similar for all the organizations and thus it is also creating coercive effect on Nike.
In terms of the normative process, Nike employs local employees in a particular region of their manufacturing facility. However, these employees may have already worked with their competing firms or they are going to work after leaving Nike. Thus, the knowledge of the employees is becoming similar for employee for all the players in the market in a particular region. This is also creating similar business approaches for Nike.
In terms of the mimetic process, Nike is having their own organizational process and policy, but the success rate of their practices is attracting other players to follow their policies. This is leading to the similar business approach for Nike with other firms in the industry.
Change and strategy are inter-related for Nike due to the reason that initiation of the change management is leading to the need of having strategies in place. On the other hand, change in the existing strategies is leading to the initiation of the change management in the organization. In the case of Nike, they initiate newer strategies in accordance to the change in the business and market scenario and this is creating the need of change management in the organization. However, it should also be noted that Nike also faced number of difficulties and challenges in initiating the change management in place, which proves that not all their strategies are successful or fruitful.
According to the report, Nike had one of their major change management in 2013 when their top executives are replaced in relation to their change in strategic goal. The change was initiated in order to adopt the long term organizational strategy along with driving the growth in the market. Moreover, they targeted to have more customer centric or focused team in place. In accordance to this, Nike changed their top organizational structure with new executives.
Paradox of change is having majority of the negative implications on the business operation of Nike. This refers to the contradictory proposition where the external overview of any situation seems good and positive but the consequences of it will be different and in major cases, undesired. In the case of Nike, change in the top management of Nike was done in view to their increase in customer orientation. However, in the real world situation, the impact was negligible and not up to the desired level (Amis, Slack & Hinings, 2004). Moreover, change in the top management caused reduction in the pace of the organizational growth along with creation of the disturbances in the sequential pattern of the organizational policies.
Nike initiated the geocentric staffing approach in order to overcome the issues of normative isomorphism. Initiation of the geocentric approach helped Nike have home country employees in the top management (Shilbury & Moore, 2006). Thus, it will help to create distinctive organizational policies along with managing the local employees according to the distinctive organizational policies.
There are number of power sources being identified in the internal management of Nike. Moreover, the power is highly legitimized due to the presence of hierarchical levels in the organization. One major sources of power practiced by the upper level managers in the organization is legitimate power that comes from the sense of authority and organizational position (Raven, 2017). Due to the fact that Nike is having the global business operations with having number of strategic business units in different countries, managers enjoy more legitimate power in managing their subordinates. It also helps them in directing and leading the internal stakeholders in achieving the organizational vision.
Another source of power identified in Nike is expert power. This refers to the origination of power from the expertise possessed by the stakeholders. However, in this case, the power is not legitimized in Nike; rather they are distributed among all the internal stakeholders across all levels. This helps the organization in motivating the employees in coming up with expert knowledge by providing the option for possessing expert power in the organization. Reward power is also being practiced in the organization in order to motivate and engage the employees in their workplace (Pierro et al., 2013). However, this source of power is legitimized in the organization due to the fact that reward can only be practiced by the upper level managers for their subordinates. Upper level management is responsible to practice the reward power in order to enhance the organizational productivity and performance.
External consultant is mainly having legitimate and expert power in the organization. This is due to the reason that external consultant is appointed in the organization on the basis of their expertise and knowledge (Howlett & Migone, 2013). Thus, they are having the options to possess expert power. On the other hand, external consultant is also having the option for legitimate power due to the reason that they are appointed in a certain position or designation in the organization and thus they are having the option for practicing the power of their organizational posts and authority.
If the external consultant is having this range of power and influence in the organization, then they will also have higher level of influential power in the organization. For instance, external consultant appointed for recommending the organization in their business approach can have the power of influence to change the hierarchy level. If the external consultant recommends that the existing organizational structure should be changed, then it will have direct impacts majorly on the middle level managers (Yeoh & Popovic, 2016). On the other hand, recommendations of the external consultants regarding the change in the leadership styles and managerial roles will also affect the current approach of the upper level management of Nike.
Nike is having their operation and facilities in number of countries around the world. Thus, they face diverse and varied political factors in different regions and countries. One of the major political factors being faced by them in the global operation is the higher taxation rate in the some major countries with having lower cost of operation in the some developing countries (Morschett, Schramm-Klein & Zentes, 2015). This political variance is enabling them to outsource or off shore their manufacturing facilities in developing countries and regulate the cost of operation. Another major political factor that can have adverse implications on the business profile of Nike is political turmoil between the United States and developing countries such as China. United States is taxing more imported goods in the country and it is also the largest market for Nike. On the other hand, China is the major manufacturing region for Nike.
However, in the case of Nike, the leveraging on the political networks to produce organizational outcome is less. This is due to the reason that according to various reports Nike maintains distances from the mainstream politics in every region around the world. For instance, in the last American presidential election, some of the major competitors for Nike took political stand while Nike maintains the distance from the whole process with just promoting equality. Though this strategy is not having direct positive impact on the organizational performance, it is helping Nike in having clean and responsible image in the global market.
Nike being operating in the global market for several years have faced number of conflicts in their business operation. One of the major conflicts in the recent time for them is channel conflict with Amazon (Spaho, 2013). The issue emerged when it is seen that third party vendors selling the products of Nike in the online marketplace of Amazon and eating away the retail sales of them. This is due to the reason that up to a certain time, Nike was not having online sales channel in Amazon. Thus, this caused emergence of third party vendors in Amazon who were bought the products directly from Nike in lower price and sold in more competitive price compared to the retail channel for Nike (Mugal & Khan, 2013). This caused loss of retail volume and revenue for Nike. Moreover, the conflict emerged due to the reason that Nike is losing the revenue to the third party vendors while these vendors are one of the major sources for reselling their products.
In order to overcome the conflict, Nike came up with their separate online retail channel in order to overcome the challenge posed by the third party vendors. Thus, initiation of the Omni Channel distribution strategy helped Nike to cater to both online and offline market properly. It also helped Nike to have the entire control on both the online and offline retail channels.
Decision making is the process of initiating resolution about the future business approach and strategy for the organization. Decision making process also refers to the selection of the most effective and suitable alternative from the available source of number of alternatives by judging different criterions (Shepherd & Rudd, 2014). In the case of Nike, there are number of conditions or factors determines the decision making process. Some of the factors are marketing factors, political factors, economical factors and social factors. Marketing factors refer to the marketing forces including rate of competition that determines the future strategies for Nike. In addition, political factors are the political landscape under which Nike operates in the global market. Economical factors are the financial condition of the operating market including the purchasing power of the customers and per capita income. Social factors refer to the taste and preference pattern of the target customers.
Nike mainly initiates rational decision making process over the administrative model in decision making. Rational decision making process refers to the effective evaluation of the alternatives based on different criterions and selecting the most effective one (Hopfe, Augenbroe & Hensen, 2013). On the other hand, administrative decision making model refers to the choosing of available alternative rather than comparing them with others. Nike initiates rational decision making process in order to have the most effective option in their business approach.
Organizational culture refers to the values and approach being maintained in the internal management and the approach in managing the employees. Nike is having free, flexible and diverse organizational culture covering all the internal stakeholders across every level (Hogan & Coote, 2014). For instance, the culture of innovation practiced in Nike helps them to encourage their employees for out of the box thinking and initiate the innovative products in the market.
Statement of Peter Drucker of “culture eats strategy for breakfast” is partially applicable due to the reason that there are some organizations who concentrates more on their organizational culture over the other factors while some organizations can change their existing organizational culture according to other business factors. Organizations such as Nike are having more organizational culture oriented approach that is justified with the statement of Peter Drucker.
Currently Nike follows innovative culture in their organization and this is managed holistically. All the internal stakeholders across all levels in the organization are involved in managing the culture. This also helps in gaining the employee insights and amends the organizational culture accordingly. Thus, currently Nike is not having the requirement for change in their organizational culture.
CEO of Nike, Mark Parker mainly follows transformational style of leadership. According to the reports, visionary approach of Mark Parker is helping Nike in creating the effective business strategies and approaches for future. This leadership attribute is actually helping Nike is having effective internal management due to the reason that employees are more motivated and engaged by having supportive and participative leadership roles. It also enhances the inclusion of the employees due to the holistic coverage of all the internal stakeholders.
There are number of factors being identified in the above analysis and it is having the importance to recommend some effective steps that will help to overcome the existing challenges and enhance the organizational performance of Nike in the next three years. The following sections will discuss about a few recommended steps from different perspectives for Nike.
The first recommended step for Nike is to change their existing marketing approach and strategy. This is due to the reason that the current marketing approach of Nike is effective enough but the effectiveness is reducing with the emergence of more complex business factors. It is recommended that Nike should come up with more mass market and market penetration marketing strategy compared to their premium marketing strategy. In the current time, target market for Nike is mainly the premium section of the market with offering premium priced products (Gummesson, Kuusela & Narvanen, 2014). Thus, it is recommended that they should introduce more affordable products in the market. The major rationale behind this recommended step is that offering more affordable products will help in increasing the sales volume and increase in the market share. Though the rate of profitability will be lower for Nike in offering affordable products over the premium products but the increase in the sales volume will adjust the lower rate of profitability.
The more will be the affordability of the products of Nike, the more will be the market penetration for Nike. This will also help Nike in expanding their current market area and potentiality. However, there will be number of pros and cons in initiating this strategy by Nike. One of major advantages for Nike will be penetration in the newer customer segments. This is due to the reason that the more will be the affordability of the products, the larger will be the target customer segments for Nike (Spann, Fischer & Tellis, 2014). They will be able to enter in the new markets, which are cannot be targeted by the current marketing strategies. Another major advantage of this strategy will be effective use of the supply chain and value chain process. This is due to the reason that the more will be the sales volume, the more effectively and fully fledged will be the value chain process of Nike and thus this will be optimally utilized.
Apart from the advantages, there are some demerits also to be faced by Nike in implementing the recommended strategy. One of the major disadvantages will be the chance of dilution of the brand value of Nike. Increase in the affordability of the products will reduce the exclusive brand value of Nike, which may discourage the current set of customers for them. Another major disadvantage of this strategy will be the increase in competition due to the fact that competition is higher in the lower level of market. However, it is expected that the outcome of implementing this strategy will be favorable due to the reason that increase in the sales volume will further cement the brand value of Nike. On the other hand, this strategy will also help Nike to cater to the customers across every income level.
As discussed in the earlier section, transformational style of leadership being followed in the organization. Though the current leadership approach in Nike is having majority of positive outcomes but it is also having some limited challenges (Choudhary, Akhtar & Zaheer, 2013). One of the most probable challenges will be directing the employees through the rough phase of the organization. This is due to the reason that initiation of the transformational style of leadership may cause less control of the upper level management on the employees. Thus, in the case of the emergence of organizational challenges, upper level management may face difficulty in managing the employees. It is recommended that situational style of leadership will be more effective and applicable for Nike. This is due to the reason that initiation of the situational style of leadership will help the upper level managers to change their leadership approach in accordance to the originated situation (McCleskey, 2014). In the current business scenario, external environment get change more frequently and thus practicing same leadership approach will cause challenge for the managers to deal with the external factors. Thus, initiation of the situational style of leadership will help Nike in having effective leadership roles according to the emergence of the external factors.
One of the major advantages that will be gained by Nike from the change in the leadership approach is more effectiveness in their business strategy. This is due to the reason that initiation of the situational style of leadership will help the upper level management to manage their employees in accordance to the external factors. In addition, it will also be an advantage for Nike by making the employees accustomed with the different leadership approaches. However, on the other hand, there will be number of demerits also to be faced by Nike from the initiation of situational style of leadership (Thompson & Glaso, 2015). One of the major disadvantages to be faced by them is the resistance from the side of the employees. This is due to the reason that employees will face more difficulty in getting accustomed with the change in the leadership approach. In addition, the rapid change in the leadership styles in the situational leadership approach will further cause difficulty for the employees, which will further lead to the emergence of resistance from them.
It is expected that initiation of the situational style of leadership will help Nike to have effective business strategies and leadership roles according to the organizational situation. Thus, the internal management will become more effective and it will enable Nike to enhance their business in the next three years (Gonos & Gallo, 2013). This due to the reason that in the next three years, there will be different external factors that can only be mitigated by having flexibility in the internal management of the organization. This flexibility in the organization can only be initiated by having situational style of leadership.
According to the organizational vision of Nike, they targets to cover more sports products under their brand and offering more holistic experiences to their customers. Thus, it is recommended that Nike should initiate the strategy of product diversification (Mayer, Stadler & Hautz, 2015). This will help them to introduce new product in the market and to cater new customer segments. It is recommended that Nike should come up with sports drink under their brand. This will be the most proper product due to the reason that sports drink will be related and associated with current business line of Nike. Introduction of the sports drink in the market will help Nike to increase the target customer segments along with reducing the dependency from the single business line. In the next three years, the objective of Nike will be to increase their business and revenue across the world. However, the business will be limited if the current business line is being continued. Thus, with the help of product diversification, Nike will be able to increase their business and expending in other sectors also.
However, in the case also, there will be certain advantages and disadvantages to be faced by Nike. One of the major advantages to be gained by them is increase in the market presence due to the fact that entering in the new business sector will help them to have more diverse customer segments. Another major advantage that can also be gained by them from the initiation of product diversification is providing more holistic set of customer experiences. Currently, Nike is having number of sports products in the market and absence of any sports drink is one of their major gap areas. This can be fulfilled by initiating the product diversification strategy (Lien & Li, 2013). On the other hand, the major disadvantage that will be faced by them from the initiation of the diversification strategy is dilution of their core offerings. More concentration on the sports drink may cause dilution of their core offerings of sports apparels. Moreover, Nike will also face the challenge of investing huge capital in developing the new products, which may cause added financial load for Nike.
It is expected that initiation of the product diversification strategy will have added benefits for Nike. This is due to the reason that, in the next three years, they will be able to leverage the business opportunity from their existing product portfolio along with having the added benefits from the newly launched product. Moreover, it will also enable Nike to enhance their organizational performance in the next three years along with meeting their organizational vision of offering more sports items to more diversified set of customer segments.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that the current internal management of Nike is effective enough to deal with different organizational challenges. However, there are numbers of gap areas being identified and in accordance to that; a few recommended steps are being discussed in this report. It is expected that effective implementation of the discussed steps in this report will help Nike to overcome their current challenges and enhance their business performance in the next three years. Thus, it can also be concluded that Nike is not a sports organization but operating in the sports industry with their sports items. This report discussed about the internal organizational policies and processes Nike and how effective they are in meeting the organizational goals. In addition, this report also discussed about the organizational structure being followed in the organization along with identifying the complexities in it. In accordance to the complexities, a new organizational structure is being recommended for Nike, which will enhance their effectiveness. On the other hand, the potential strategic allies are also being identified in this report. Three major allies are being identified and different factors that should be considered in selecting the strategic ally are also discussed. It is concluded that PepsiCo will be the most viable strategic ally for Nike. It is also recommended that Nike should launch energy drink in the market in view to their diversification strategy. This will help them to increase their market share and market revenue. Lastly, this report also discussed about the impact and initiation of the change management in the organization for Nike.
Reference
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