Developing New Knowledge at Nike - Strategy Case

Developing new knowledge at Nike

Question 1: What Knowledge has Nike acquired over the years?

Nike was founded by Phil Knight (athlete) and Bill Bowerman (coach), both connected to the athletic world. They had a good knowledge of what was important in the shoes in order to improve the athlete performance, due to an emergent necessity of improved shoes for running (they had to be lighter). Bowerman then decided to create his own design of sports shoes. The Waffle Shoe, was a very rudimentary idea, which in order to mature, had to have had some other input besides knowledge of the athletic world. Phil Knight, who had been a previous athlete, had a great understanding of the athletes needs. Therefore he decided to take a Stanford MBA Course, to take advantage of this tacit knowledge, and put in motion a business model which would ultimately allow the use of Bowerman´s idea. Knight then decided to take a journey around the world to search for athletics shoes, in a search for a business opportunity. Both Bowerman and Knight aligned their interests and competences to join forces and create a company together: The Blueribbon Shoes.

Knight found a superior athletic product in Japan, with brand called Tiger. These shoes were produced with a much higher quality when compared with other products of this kind produced in the USA. They decided to import the Tiger branded shoes, to the USA. Two years after the company felt they had enough tacit knowledge about the shoe production business and decided they could start selling American-designed shoes but still being produced in Japan. This was the beginning of what we know as Nike. (which would ultimately give them tacit knowledge, about the supply´s Know-How, necessary in the producing side of the business.)

Since then until now Nike has gained a most profound knowledge in shoe business. Being one of the most important, the ability to handle overseas production and achieving the lowest production costs possible. This...