Nike venturing into both the fashion and sports scene
\When it comes to the fashion industry, Nike is definitely one of the companies at the helm. The sports company could easily stake a claim to the top spot in the sportswear scene, which is no mean feat considering the competitive nature of the industry. It specializes in the production of sports-wear, majorly shoes but also game kits for various sports figures in the world. The company has established itself in most, if not all, sports as the trusted producer of kits and other sportswear for major clubs in the respective leagues. It is this far-reaching impact that has earned it the mass recognition it now boasts, though majority of its loyal followers recognize it primarily for their shoe wear chain. Nike, similarly, has a strong hold in the manufacture of sports equipment, and as it is a trusted brand, their products get preferred for use in the biggest of sporting events in the world. As stated earlier, the company is a recognized shoe brand, with many of its shoe chains lining the shelves of fashion stores and sports stores across the world. It is this diversity, venturing into both the fashion and sports scene that has ensured its continued success over the years.
The company is largely labor-dependent, relying on the thousands of employees it has managed to bring into its ranks for the manufacture of its chain of products (Case Study: Nike and the rise of robotics, 2019). The human resource varies greatly from the designers, tasked with coming up with new concepts for sportswear, shoes or gaming equipment, to the technical workers, who actualize the company designs to the products which are distributed around the world by either their own distributors or other courier companies (Case Study: Nike and the rise of robotics, 2019). As a result, Nike has managed to hire thousands of workers in its various factories around the world, who primarily depend on their wages to forge out a life. This, to some extent, may be considered to be dragging back the company in terms of its growth potential and the actual profits it should be making with the current market, due to the reluctance to join in the technological advancement that is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation. While other companies are willingly taking the technological innovations into stride for the better interests of the company, Nike has for the longest time been holding back, owing to some conflicts the introduction of automation and AI may have on the company’s culture and values that have been with it since its inception. To better understand the predicament, and the overall impact the culture of the company may have on the implementation of new technologies, a deeper understanding of the culture the company operates by is needed.
As one of the largest shoe, apparel and sports equipment companies, Nike has a large pool of workers, all of whom are expected to abide with a set of traditions, values, and culture that have long been a part of the company. The continued upholding of these rules is so as to maintain its corporate and organizational culture that breeds business resilience and competence, which has been a major contributor to the success of the company over the years. The values of the company can simply be summarized by the characteristics that best describe its corporate culture, more specifically its pool of employees.
Nike thrives off the talent of its workforce (Panmore Institute, 2020). It is a recognized fact in the company that no design fathomable could possibly be actualized, let alone thought up, in the absence of a talented work force. Talented in this context refers to the ability to conjure up a unique idea on a new product and bring it to life in the most accurate manner possible. Talent, of course, goes hand in hand with innovation, hence one talented enough to stich a piece of fabric into a soccer ball, probably has the ability to think up ways of making the ball slightly lighter and easier to play with. Talent, too, comes with its own dose of passion and therefore, an overwhelming desire to innovate and create new designs.
Diversity is also a key aspect of the Nike community (Panmore Institute, 2020). The company prides itself in having the most diverse workforce in nearly all aspects of the word, whether nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, among others. Its emphasis on a diverse workforce is not misplaced, though, as the differences in the background and ideologies among its innovators and designers means greater, more diverse ideas are thought up. What this achieves is the ability of the company to innovate products that, not only maximize comfort and effectiveness, but appeal to a wider customer base, as the values and preferences for all divides are represented and catered for in the diverse work force. By doing this, Nike builds its brand as a customer-oriented company that factors in the likes and wants of all its customers into the design of its products, therefore, caters to all cultures.
As detailed above, Nike is a company that prides itself in inclusiveness and innovation from its diverse workforce (Panmore Institute, 2020). This, in a nutshell may be considered to be the culture of the company, and what has largely contributed to its success to this point. The introduction of Artificial intelligence and automation, no doubt, would disrupt the culture of the company in a significant way. Previously, Nike would have a team of nearly 1000 people tasked with coming up with innovations for new products to hit the market (Case Study: Nike and the rise of robotics, 2019). The diversity of the workforce played a major part in the actualization of this, as the diverse cultures meant diverse ideas which when incorporated suited all manner of customers. This is set to be replaces by the Artificial intelligence, which at the peak of its powers, could be able to come up with new designs way faster than the human workforce. What computers lack, though, is personality, and knowledge on the culture of the people. Therefore, while the Artificial Intelligence may be effective in coming up with efficient designs that get the job done, they don’t have the ability to design it to capture the imagination of the customers and give them the feeling of a product that was personalized for them, therefore drastically reducing its pull power. While automation may also be faster and cheaper for the company, it may lead to a mass loss of jobs by the Nike employees, which goes against their value of inclusivity. All these factors combined would be enough to put a hold on the implementation of the new technologies, unless upon further consideration into its pros and cons, as it basically goes against everything the company stands for.
References
- Case Study: Nike and The Rise Of Robotics. pp.1-10.
Panmore Institute. 2020. Nike Inc. Organizational Culture Characteristics: An Analysis – Panmore Institute. [online] Available at: http://panmore.com/nike-inc-organizational-culture-characteristics-analysis [Accessed 1 June 2020].