Case Study Series #2 - Phil Knight

In the second blog of the case study series, I am going to be writing on one of the world's most inspiring businessmen, Phil Knight.

The co-founder of Nike, Knight grew the firm (then known as Blue Ribbon Sports) from a regional business to the world's most valuable sports company. Through his exemplary man-management skills, passion for his work, never say die attitude and visionary leadership, he was able to lead Nike through tumultuous times and establish it as one of the biggest businesses on the planet. 

Here are the reasons why I admire Phil Knight:

1. Man-Management Skills - Much of Nike's success can be attributed to its solid foundation during its founding days. Although it is usually said that a company's first hires are extremely important and have to be very skillful, Nike's first hires were loyal shoe enthusiasts who did not have much experience in helping run a business. However through his exceptional man-management skills, Knight was able to inspire his colleagues to work more harder and effectively. In his own words, he had adopted a 'man with few words' attitude in order to bring out the best within his employees. Knight was also very good at conflict resolution, a skill that  proved to be very beneficial whenever the company faced doubt or uncertainty.

2. Passion - Prior to founding Nike, Knight was an encyclopedia and securities salesman. He was not able to sell many encyclopedias or securities and initially thought that he was not cut out to be a salesmen. However, after founding Nike, he found that he was able to sell multitudes of shoes and proved to be a very astute salesman. Knight later alluded this transformation to the fact that while he was not particularly interested in selling encyclopedias or securities, he was very passionate about shoes and believed that athletes should only wear shoes of the highest quality. Knight's passionate leadership inspired his employees and is one of the main reasons why Nike became the company it is today. This teaches us a lesson that if we are truly passionate about and believe in whatever we do, we will definitely go far in life. 

3. Visionary Leadership - The main reason Knight wanted to start Nike back in the 1960s was because he felt that the shoe market in the USA was largely untapped then and felt it could possibly generate massive revenues. This proved Knight's visionary plans as Nike had a revenue of $37 billion in 2020 alone! Furthermore, although not many people used to run as a hobby in America during the 60s, Knight believed that more and more people would start running in the future years, which would bolster the sales of shoes and other sport accessories. He was thoroughly vindicated of this, as following the 1970s running boom, the world has become more conscious of fitness, which has also tremendously boosted Nike's revenue. This shows that Phil Knight's visionary leadership was very instrumental in Nike's growth and its dominance of the sports market. 

4. Never Say Die Attitude - From Nike's inception in 1964 till its initial public offering in 1980, the company faced countless problems which could have even resulted in it getting liquidated. However at each critical stage, Knight led from the fore by installing a Never Say Die attitude in his colleagues. This was crucial in the company overcoming these challenges. Most notably, when Nike's shoe manufacturer Onitsuka Tiger terminated their deal with Nike, everybody in the company was very grim as they had fully depended on Onitsuka for generating revenue. However, Knight praised his employees for their constant hard work and told them to look at the positive side of the situation. He said that instead of selling another company's shoes, they could now manufacture and sell their own, which will allow them to be able to generate higher revenues. This lifted the spirits of the employees and by following Knight's approach, they were able to reinvent Nike and the rest is history.

To conclude, I very highly recommend that you read Phil Knight's memoir named "Shoe Dog". In this book, Knight chronicles his topsy turvy journey from founding Nike until the firm became the biggest sports company on the planet. Knight details the various problems the company faced, how they managed to overcome them and provides many more business tips along the way. A highly inspiring tale and one of my favorite business books of all time, I am sure that all of you will be as amazed as I was after reading this book😀