Organizational Goals and Strategy Nike

Nike Inc.

Introduction

Nike, Inc. was founded between 1964 and 1978. Its headquarters are in Oregon, which is in Beaverton. Both Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman created the company (Beresin, 2011). The company's initial retail outlet was opened in 1966, which led to the creation of the Nike shoe brand in 1972. In 1978, the company gained Nike's name, making it go public two years later (Beresin, 2011). Currently, it has retail outlets and distributors in more than 170 nations, and it has diversified its product line and expanded massively after making several acquisitions (Beresin, 2011). For example, it purchased Canstar Sports, Umbro, and Converse, Inc. The company's primary market is sporting products, and in 1966, it marketed the products for extreme sports like snowboarding and mountain biking (Beresin, 2011). Recently, Nike has begun selling accessories in the sporting technologies. They include portable heart-rate monitors and even high wrist compasses. Nike has several goals and operations, and its organizational structure helps it improve, and power and politics have a role to play in its activities.

Organizational Goals

Nike's existence is mainly done to follow its vision, values, goals, and mission, considering all the stakeholders. The firm's goal is to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete globally. It also hopes to supply everyone on the globe with equipment. Shoes and apparel and give those who have the potential of being athletes these items. From the beginning, it is easy to understand that one of the main goals of Nike is merchandising for the world of athletes. This is a considerable activity that entails several sets of stakeholder groups. The goals act as catalysts for the company. The stakeholders can influence the process of achieving the goals (Dyer, 2020). The stakeholder groups have different objectives, expectations, goals, and ideas, and the company aims to make them part of its activities. The plans are part of the vision, and they aim to ensure that the consumers have a sustainable economy where the planet, profit, and people are in balance. Integrating data from several stakeholder groups helps the company rethink its past processes and mistakes, further allowing it to go ahead with implementing sustainable principles (Dyer, 2020). Nike uses the information collected to make remarkable changes, identify any issues involved, and brainstorm solutions that assist in evaluating, monitoring, and reevaluating if the goals and vision align with the expectations.

Nike's operations are mainly based on ten distinct decision areas. The first is the design of the goods and services. The company ensures that its product design aligns with its business goals and capabilities. The other area is quality management Nike mainly emphasizes the quality of its products and processes. This area especially satisfies the customers' expectations about the quality of products. It also addresses any concerns through the manufacture of high-quality products. The other area is process and capacity design. It is considered a strategic decision area that makes efficiency and streamlining easier in production (Dyer, 2020). It ensures that there is efficient, effective, and adequate production. Location strategy is the fourth decision area that optimizes the efficiency and costs of Nike products to the target market, suppliers, and employees based on the corporate strategy. The other is the layout strategy and design. Nike's operations management mainly deals with the layout design, and this optimizes its workflow based on the technology, human resources, requirements in the inventory, and capacity requirements. The company also has operations in human resources and job design. Its human resource department is adequate and well-maintained through internal leadership development to manage its operations (Dyer, 2020). It has a supply chain management to facilitate more efficient production in supporting the global sports business. Inventory management also exists, maximizing the company's efficiency and effectiveness. It entails continuous monitoring by the retailers and distributors. The company operations also entail scheduling related to its operations and the supply chain coordination in the retail and distribution operations. It ensures it utilizes its resources to the maximum level. It also has a maintenance strategy that considers the adequacy of the resources. It has recruitment programs to support human resource needs and evaluate the company's integrity and activities.

Organizational Structure

Nike, Inc.'s organizational structure reflects its limitations and abilities as it continues its operations. The organization's corporate structure is a system and composition design that shows the interconnections among distinct employees, business groups, and even divisions. The structure of Nike shows the differences in the regional markets that should be addressed. In most instances, these differences are linked to the demands of a particular region to the target customers. It also lies in the variations based on the apparel based on popularity and sports climate.

Similarly, Nike Inc's organizational structure assists in dealing with the existing market differences (McIntyre & Ramstad, 2018). Nike is the leading player in the equipment, footwear, and apparel sector. Its corporate structure shows the differences among several regions and how they should be part of the business strategies. The strategic and structure alignment offers Nike's competitive advantage and how it penetrates through the regional markets.

The company also uses a geographic divisional structure which I mainly analyze the needs that Nike may have as an international company. The structure uses semi-autonomous divisions placed o the global corporate leadership. The divisions are primarily based on licensing of brands and converse. It also entails uniqueness in the conditions in the regional market. Such characteristics are notable within the company's structure (McIntyre & Ramstad, 2018). The company's organizational structure comprises corporate managers who are part of the global corporate leadership. These managers' offices are in Oregon, its headquarters. They decide the corporate structure to use in the company. These managers implement all the decisions. The leadership groups within an organization are the president, executive vice-president, or chief officer.

Its structure also has semi-autonomous geographic divisions. These are the main structural characteristic of the company. The operations are divided into segments that are based on the regional markets. Each manager plays a role in optimizing the regional sports apparel, shoes, and equipment market operations. Some divisions of its organizational structure are Western Europe, North America, China, Japan, Central and Eastern Europe, and other emerging markets (McIntyre & Ramstad, 2018). The design has two main international divisions (McIntyre & Ramstad, 2018). The first is for the Converse brand, while the other is brand licensing. The first division manages the Converse operations worldwide, and this is Nike's subsidiary company and another footwear brand. The second division aims at licensing the Nike brand. The characteristics of the corporate structure provide a form of control for Converse operations and licensing.

Role of Power and Politics in Nike

Power involves the ability to influence others. Nike is a model for power in the organization whose aim is to inspire and innovate each athlete. The word Nike is from a Greek goddess known for victory in Greece (Strese et al., 2016). Its primary influence is a global power. The power in the company affects people's feelings, behaviors, and thoughts. Nike uses effective tactics to employ innovation and technology. It also rewards the employees who perform the best, making them more creative. The power, in this case, is witnessed in the way these rewards are controlled among the workers to reach the target they may want. Besides reward power, Nike uses coercive, expert, referent, and legitimate authority. It also employs effective tactics in running the company (Strese et al., 2016). It is mainly done by putting the correct pressure on the employees o ensure they finish the projects on time. Nike has an excellent hiring and recruitment process where it hires the managers who have the greatest hope and potential to make the company move forward. The political skills that the managers have must pertain to getting things done through robust and positive relationships. Empowerment helps in creating motivation among the employees.

Effectiveness of the Organization and any challenges

Nike has been practical since it has achieved its goals immensely. Even if the company conducts basic and continuous research to benefit several facets of the fitness and sports industry, Noke, Inc. is a part of it. It also focuses on applied research. It focuses on short-term initiatives like successfully developing new product lines. This has helped the firm achieve its goals since it has understood its target customers better and has even been less risky. The successful projects have realized the immediate profitability, and the unsuccessful projects have been discontinued. It has also developed a posture to achieve these goals (Strese et al., 2016). This posture has been innovative, and it adjusts to the protective position. At times, it also creates a catch-up stance. Nike is proud of being a premier provider of high-quality sports apparel and footwear. Its innovativeness has helped it secure a top position in the market.

However, the company has experienced several challenges. The first challenge is that the sector has reached a level of maturity. Technology and style in athletic apparel and footwear have reached a leveling-off point, and Nike has to differentiate its lines from its competitors. Inflation has been the other challenge that has been looming in the American economy (Strese et al., 2016). The inflation has led to a significant cutback in consumer spending. Most consumers nowadays prefer discounted items, which creates a new challenge for Nike. It also faces market saturation. Consumers may scan the market for different and unique apparel and footwear products. Most of the primary manufacturers in the sector have been there for many years.