13A - Reading Reflection No 1

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

1) Part 1 Questions:

1. What surprised you the most? All the bendings of truth Phil Knight did to get to were he is now surprised me the most. In his initial meeting with the Japanese shoe making company, Onitsuka, Phil presented them with a fake company called "Blue Ribbon Sports." Also, he lied to Onitsuka about having Blue Ribbon offices in the US. These little lies paid off and Phil wins these business deals. In addition to his lies, Phil rummages through the export manager, Kitami's, briefcase and steals information about his opponents. Later on, many of Phi's missteps unfold into large court cases. Despite all of these difficulties and little lies, Nike has become a huge global company with a focus on principals related to environmental, social, and governance factors like; such as, the Girl Effect.
2. What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? As an accounting student, I admire how Phil Knight took his background education in public accounting to the next level to pursue his passion to create new running shoes. In addition, all the talent he surrounded himself with on his management team all came from the accounting industry. His team use their accounting insights and perspectives to build this global enterprises. For example, Phil did not want Blue Ribbon, then Nike, to become a public company. Phil, Bowerman, and other his partners knew the trade off and hurdles it takes to transition from a private company to a public company.

3. What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? What surprised me most is also what I least admired about Phil Knight. Integrity is an important characteristic for management. Especially coming from accounting, Phil Knight knows the foundation of a company comes from it control environment and the "tone at the top." As a reader, one feels sympathetic and justifies Phil's actions. There is clearly a fine line between committing an ethically wrong act and twisting the truth. Sadly, some of Phil's actions disappointed me at time.  However, from Phil's story any entrepreneur can see they need to evaluate their values and integrity in correlation to their strategy and mission.
4. Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Phil Knight and Blue Ribbon company was on the verge of failure on a multiple of occasions. Blue Ribbon knew they could fail, but realized it was not an option. They did everything in their best to ensure the continuous operations of the company. For example, they created new products, marketing strategies, and gambling their savings away.  One noteworthy adverse situation was when US Customs demanded Nike to pay $25 million in import fees and Phil and his team got them to settle at $9 million.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

Phil Knight embodies resiliency. He is willing to give up everything for Blue Ribbon. In addition, he is able to rally the troops in desperate times. This is due to Phi's passion in Blue Ribbon. Phil grew up running and believed he and his old coach could design an efficient and effect shoe to decrease the times for competitive runners.  Phil believed in something so much he never lost focus of his mission and constantly had the intrinsic motivation to push him and his team.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

There was a time during Nike's history, where Blue Ribbons did not have the funds to pay off their expense because the company was growing so rapidly. I was a little confused about the contractual arrangements made by Phil with his shoe distributors. From the contract's description, it seem like Nike is practice channel stuffing to raise more cash. Channel stuffing is a deceptive business practice for a company to inflate sales by selling more products to their vendors than vendor's can sell. I want to learn more about Phil's contractual agreements to raise more revenues.

 4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

1. What moment made you the proudest seeing a Nike shoe?
1. Why? There are so many athletic events, teams, and athletes who wear his shoes. Phil mentions some of his favorite moment, but I want to know his all time proudest moment.
2. Anything you would have done differently in your strategy to develop Nike?
1. Why? I am curious if Phil regrets his unethical behaviors.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? Phil Knight values hard work. He is an athlete himself and is extremely competitive. Like many athletes, Phil is built with the drive and the  intrinsic motivations to work hard for something he is passionate about. He knows practice makes perfect and training aids to the success story. This is evident theme in his memoir, Shoe Dog, with the creation of Nike.