Word: knightings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Nike campus teems with adherents to this athletistocracy. It attracts a weirdly diverse collection of go-getters who are young (average age: 31) and confident, if not cocksure. Nike remains one of the most sought-after companies for employment by new M.B.A.s. Says Nelson Farris, another of Knight's former teammates: "We like employees who aren't afraid...
Nike had to use cash because it had little else to offer. Its first soccer shoes were terrible, forcing Knight to buy a shoemaking operation in Italy. The company poured money into R. and D. and designed a new soccer shoe around Ronaldo, a Brazilian, voted best player in the world last year. The new model, called the Mercurial, uses a synthetic material instead of kangaroo leather, and is 50% lighter than current models. "It's going to rock the shoe world," says Mike Moyle, CEO of Eurosport, a leading mail-order catalog. Despite its investment of hundreds of millions...
Nike is also undergoing a holistic reorganization as it struggles with the very size of the company and what it stands for. Says Knight: "What we are doing today might be O.K. for a $3 billion company. It's not O.K. at 9." In reviewing its corporate image, executives reached an interesting conclusion: too many swooshes. "There has been a little bit of an internal backlash about just the number of swooshes that are out there," says Parker, who is the keeper of the brand image. When Tiger Woods made his debut in Nike gear, there were so many logos...
Will the new Nike work? The strength of the brand and willpower of the organization are still formidable. And rival Adidas is walking proof that great brands can rebound. Knight has written this year off. By 1999 he expects to have new product, a new management structure and better press. Knight envisions a totally global company, one in which communication of the brand flows effortlessly through language and cultural barriers. He knows the past six months have made a sizable dent in that progress. "When we started kind of really emphasizing [globalism]," he says, "I thought, well, Nike could...
That might not be all bad. In some respects, Knight's in a comfortable position again, running from behind...