Business Management Case Study -- Case Study

Possible Problem with Current Strategies

The most obvious conceptual problem is that two of Nike's current goals seem to conflict. Namely, it's expressed intention to increase the integration of it products and product lines and its simultaneous intention to further differentiate its women's "fitness" product lines by specific fitness interest. In principle, both initiatives make sense: increasing overall integration builds brand loyalty and cross-over consumer interest. However, because Nike determined that women "don't do fitness" because they focus much more narrowly on particular fitness interests, the company decided to cater to that specificity by developing dedicated product lines for different women's fitness and women's fitness-related interests. At the operational level, achieving both of those objectives simultaneously might prove challenging.

Internal Problem Analysis

The principal problems faced by Nike had to do with the highly isolated and segmented nature of its many different business units. Generally, they operated on entirely different production schedules determined by the different parameters of their target sports interest and their respective product development operations were equally isolated from one another. Collaboration, to the extent it existed, was mainly a function of specific initiatives in which multiple business units contributed products, such as to Olympic-year initiatives. More specifically, with respect to the new emphasis on women's fitness, there were internal issues in relation to the long-standing domination of male-centered corporate culture and concerns that emphasizing women's fitness could erode the strength of its male-oriented product lines.