Summary of the Case
Nike Considered is a sustainable line of shoes presented by Nike Inc. with the purpose to present something new to the customers and make them interested in the environment friendly products. The main idea of such change in company direction was the blame in using toxic materials for producing shoes.
The company managers and designers had to invent something new and attractive to make sure that the managed to rehabilitate. Thus, the main idea of the Nike Considered is to improve its image by means of producing shoes made by recycled material and using the raw material available within approximately 300km from the Nike factory to reduce the energy used for transportation.
The company also tries to make up the products which do not give too much waste. Thus, the central principles of the Nike Considered are as follows, to use the recycled environmentally preferred materials, to eliminate the toxic ingredients and to reduce the wastes by means of design decisions (Bolton, 2010).
The company had problems with its image based on the accusing in the use of toxic materials. Nike had to decide what to do to return its positive image and the creation of the line of natural and environmentally friendly shoes was exactly what the company needed with the implementation of the innovative design (Henderson et al, 2009).
Identification of the Key Issues
Corporate Responsibility
Corporate responsibility is considered to be one of the core issues of the company. According to the statement that “Corporate Responsibility-related global trends such as water, health, and energy, alongside increasing worldwide concern about climate change, had fueled Nike’s worries about the company’s supply chain” was considered from different angles and the decision was made to save costs on transportation.
Therefore, the company uses only the raw materials which are available within the nearest kilometers. The Nike Considered was recognized as the program of the Corporate Responsibility importance and was referred to the designing decisions. Only the understanding the importance of the corporate responsibility were the reasons for the creation of the environment friendly line of shoes.
With the emergence of this line, Nike CEO Mark Parker stated that “Corporate responsibility is no longer a staff function at Nike. It’s a design function, a sourcing function, a consumer experience function, part of how we operate”.
It is impossible to disagree with the statement as the environment and the eco friendly products have become the image if Nike and it had to be incorporated into something more than just human resources to make sure that the society trusts Nike.
Environmental Issues
The central idea of the Nike Considered is the environment friendly shoes produced on the basis of the raw materials delivered within 300 kilometers from the Nike plant and designed with the purpose to eliminate wastes. Covering a great scope of environmental problems relevant to Nike, the environment sustainability and social sustainability issues are to be considered.
Dwelling up the environment sustainability issues within the corporate program energy, chemistry, wastes, and water are believed to be the central issues in the discussion. Thus, Nike paid much attention to make sure that the exploration of any of the mentioned items corresponds to the nature friendly principles.
Considering the social sustainability, the company referred to the improved working conditions for employees who eliminated harmful health effect (Hauser, & Blume, 2010).
Therefore, it may be easily stated Nike cared not only raw materials and wastes while implementing their environmentally friendly program, but they also cared about employees. The customers’ interest in eco-friendly products and the tendency for saving the planet from house-green effect may be considered as the essential support from the society in favor of Nike’s program.
Alternative Courses of Action that Could Be Taken
Thus, the main problem which resulted in company reference to the natural materials and environmentally friendly manufacturing was the accusing of Nike with using toxic materials. Of course, the chosen strategy has a number of dangers and could be failed if people refused to buy shoes made of recycled material as leaser is safer and better for utilizing.
Therefore, it is possible to predict that the company had another way out, different from environment friendly course. Thus, refusing from the use of toxic materials without referencing to the environment safe production had to be supported with the alternative variants of the company development.
Nike could continue its “strategy of pursuing global sourcing opportunities to produce lower cost products was financially rewarding” (Henderson et. al., 2010, p. 3). This could result in good profit as the strategy was checked and successfully worked for many years. The company could create the massive global supply chain as the leading strategy for company development.
Evaluation of Alternative Courses of Action
However, such alternative course of action was refused by the corporation n favor of the environment friendly strategy. Assessing the alternative action plan, it may be concluded that the company would not return its image which was spoiled for many consumers. Of course, there are always people who do not care about the company image and buy its products because of their quality, but Nike is not the case.
Being accused in the use of toxic material, Nike could not continue business development using the standard strategies. Of course, some crisis recovery strategies could be useful, but they would not be long-term lasting and it would be possible that top sports shoes brand in the past could become an ordinary shoes producer.
Recommendation of the Best Course of Action
The company has chosen a successful course of action as the whole world cares much about environment. More and more companies create their business of the idea of nature friendly basis, but Nike is one of the first companies who used the strategy in shoes production and remains one of those who managed to succeed. The company should continue working in this direction.
The implementation of the eco-safe program may be supported with the exchange of the used shoes on the new ones with substantial discount. In this way Nike again takes care of the environment and does not allow its image of eco-friendly company to stop on using recycled raw materials.
Additionally, there Nike is to continue its environment safe strategy and do all possible to intrigue and innovate something each time when the company needs further development. Additionally, the company should link with the farmers producing organic cotton so as to enhance growth in the market for organic cotton sector.
The improvement and constant announcing of the better conditions for employees by means of various means is one of the best ways for improving and creating the positive image of the company. Nike should support it.
Reference List
Bolton, S. (2010). Nike: Sustainability as a strategy for innovation and competitive differentiation. Sustainably Defined Idea Paper. Web.
Hauser, R., & Blume, R. (2010). Review of Nike Considered Index and Support Tools. The Natural Step. Web.
Henderson, R., et al. (2009). Nike Considered: Getting Traction on Sustainability. MIT Sloan Management (Case # 08#077).