Case study

In January 2006, Phillip Knight replaced CEO William Pierce. His hand picks successor after only 13 months on the job and replaced him with Marks Parker. Repelling on his pre Piece said, Nike is an incredible organization of tremendous growth opportunities. However, Phil and I weren’t entirely aligned an some aspects of now best, lead the companies long term growth. In naming Parker as CEO and a director, the broad turn to a seasoned Nike veteran with 27 of experience at the company who has been involved in many of Nike most significant products innovation at integrated brand company. He has also been one of the keys executives leading the company long-term strategies plan. Mark Parker is described as someone who has a proven frank record in driving creativity and innovation and growth. “He has experienced talented executive and has played an instrumental role in building our business and making thr Nike brand as strong as it is today“– said Parker
Parker 51 joined Nike in 1979 and has served in various management capacities in product design, development, marketing, and brand management. He is widely recognized as a product visionary for Nike air franchise and many other industries heading product design and performance innovation. Prior to heading to Nike brand, Parker ran the companies multimillion & footwear and apparel business“ I’ve spent my life to building the Nike brand, and I am excited to lead the most dynamic organization” – said Parker
Since assuming the role of the CEO of Nike, Parker team has overhauled the way way Nike runs, shifting the brand away from the previous sub-brand, and product based structure, to the customer driven structure.
He has structured Nike into 6-customer focused categories such as running, basketball, swimming fitness. Parker has personally shade Nike innovation processes, for example, he has established a group for long-range innovation called Explore. He described Explore as multidisciplinary group pursuing
“ deep space” innovation possibilities with academic inventors and other companies. Explore, he points out, was chiefly responsible for the cooperation with Steve Jobs and Apple that led to the launch of the Nike Plus program in 2006. The Nike + Ipod is a wireless system that allows Nike + footwear to talk with your Ipod nano to connect you to the ulti mate personal running and workout experience
According to most analysts, Parker’s biggest strength is his ability to key into consumer trends. In addition to being product guru, he fits the Phil Knight mold and therefore will have a better working relationship with Knight than did Perez, who was an outsider to the athletic industry.
Mark Parker has taken the helm of Nike at the time when the stakes in the U.S market are particularly high, especially as Adidas has become more powerful with acquisition of Reebok. However, Parker believes he is the right person to lead Nike through the challenges of the future. As he sees it, Nike’s success depends upon its continuous focus on the customer “ At Nike we all work for one boss- the customer” he said. As long as Nike stays connected to the consumer, it will be able to keep its products innovative and relevant.
Parker believes his job is to help carry the torch to make sure Nike’s passion for real innovation continues to thrive. Nike is still the world’s largest sportswear company with over $18 billion in annual sales, employing more than 32,00 employees and operating in more than 200 countries. How long this leadership position will last depends on the leadership effectiveness of Mark parker and his team.

Potentially Question
1> How did Mark Parker respond to internal and external focus of change?
2> How effective has Mark Parker been as an agent of change leader? Justify your answer
3> if you were a CEO ( like Mark Parker) of an organisation, how would you utilise power, politics and negotiation in dealing with various organisational stakeholder when designing change?