13A

I read Phil Knight's biography, Shoe Dog. The thing that surprised me the most is that in its first year, Nike only had 8,000 dollars in sales. From there, it has emerged as one of the most global companies in the world. Almost anywhere you could travel to, you will see someone wearing a pair of Nike's. This just goes to show that good things do not happen overnight in the business world. You must market your product in order to expand. The thing about Phil Knight that I most admired is the perseverance that he and his team showed. Nike throughout the years ran into numerous lawsuits, many fines, failed shoe designs, etc., but none of this ever slowed him down. The world can thank him for that, or else many of us would not have many of the shoes that are probably sitting in our closet today. Throughout the book, it is expressed that Knight was sometimes very secluded with his work. It was mentioned that he was not one to give much positive feedback, and was often indecisive with his decisions. I would have to say these are the things that I least admire about Knight.As previously mentioned, Nike ran into much adversity through the years. But to overcome it, they kept churning out new designs, offering better products, and making sure consumer satisfaction was at the top of their interests. Some of the competencies that I noticed Knight exhibited well were innovation and the ability to change concepts. It is tough to switch from failed products, and then all of a sudden design a concept that works. So, for that I must applaud him. The part of the book that most confused me was how Knight started this whole thing off with selling imported Japanese shoes, all the way to becoming the shoe giant it is today. One question I would ask Phil would be how the idea of Nike originally started. I would like to know if it started as wanting to create a comfortable shoe, or if the idea was to create a shoe giant. Another question I would ask Phil is if the first time he created a shoe that failed, what did he say to himself to get past this failure. I think Phil was a very hard worker. You cannot slack off and create the biggest shoe company in the world.