Le Style De Management De Phil Knight

 ABOUT PHIL KNIGHT

Phil Knight was born February 24, 1938 in Portland, Oregon, the son of a lawyer and future newspaper publisher. Knight attended Cleveland High School in Portland and then the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta ("FIJI") fraternity and earned a journalism degree in 1959. Right after graduating from Oregon, Knight enlisted in the Army and served one year on active duty and seven years in the Army Reserve. After the year of active duty, he enrolled at Stanford Graduate School of Business. "In this class Knight needed to create a business plan.

Knight set out on a trip around the world after graduation, during which he made a stop in Kobe, Japan in November 1962. It was there he discovered Tiger brand running shoes, manufactured in Kobe by the Onitsuka Co. So impressed with the quality and low cost, Knight made a cold call on Mr. Onitsuka, who agreed to meet with him. By the end of the meeting, Knight had secured distribution rights for the western United States for Tiger running shoes.

The first Tiger samples would take more than a year to be shipped to Knight, during which time he found a job as an accountant in Portland, Oregon. When Knight finally received the shoe samples, he mailed two pairs to Bill Bowerman in Eugene in the hope of gaining a sale and an influential endorsement. To Knight's surprise, Bowerman not only ordered the Tiger shoes, he offered to become a partner with Knight and would provide some design ideas for better running shoes. The two men shook hands on a partnership on January 25, 1964, the birth date of Blue Ribbon Sports, forerunner to Nike.

 PHIL KNIGHT'S SUCCESS AS CEO OF NIKE

Phil knight was CEO of Nike for 33 years and known as one of the best business leaders of all time. He made Nike one of the most profitable companies in the world.

Phil Knight's success as CEO of Nike is in large part due to his tremendous leadership skills .

Knight’s corporate culture is like no other; what he hated about the organization in his early days as a chemical engineer is exactly what he transformed as CEO:

This informal approach allowed Knight to get to know his employees, interact with them, and get involved in all aspects of the business. Knight also prided himself on his personal touches, such as the handwritten memos sent to employees. During his early years at Nike, he displayed one of the qualities of a leader: self-confidence. he became known for during his time as CEO: annually giving huge bonuses to the top performing managers and sacking the lowest performers.

During his time as CEO, Welch grew GE’s revenue from $26.8 Billion to $130 Billion and grew the company’s value from $12 Billion to a staggering $410 Billion in 2004 when he retired, making it the world’s most valuable company.

Phil knight firmly believed that top performers deserved to be handsomely rewarded, an attitude he had retained since his first job at Nike. He established a performance-review program to identify the top 20 percent of employees, who were accorded bonuses, as well as the bottom 10 percent, the "lemons," who were typically fired and replaced.

Customer satisfaction and positive relationships with both customers and employees were what ultimately made a business successful. Thus, Knight made efforts to cultivate relationships with suppliers, customers, and employees alike. Knowing his employees had a direct impact on productivity, Knight communicated with workers often enough for them to feel that at any moment they could receive a note or a visit from the boss.

PHIL KNIGHT’S GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Phil Knight's fundamental needs, values, and orientation towards life are symbolized by the four astrological elements. Each person has their own unique balance of these four basic energies: fire (warmth, inspiration, enthusiasm), earth (practicality, realism, material interests), air (social and intellectual qualities), and water (emotional needs and feelings).

He is a nurturer and a protector and is prone to what has sometimes been referred to as the "Atlas Syndrome" - namely, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Phil Knight assumes responsibilities in his relationships very conscientiously and often takes on more than his share of the troubles as well. Phil Knight has a very strong need for security and he places safety first. He is unlikely to make sudden changes or to take new directions that involve risk and unpredictability. He is very retentive. Phil Knight holds on (and sometimes clings) to the people, places and ways he is familiar with. He also tends to repress feelings, and he may need to learn to express and let go of old feelings and past conditioning.

His strengths include depth of feeling, patience, and generosity. The qualities that Phil Knight needs to cultivate include initiative, openness to change and new experience, and a stronger sense of self.

He is likely to be overly humble or unsure of himself and to look to others for inspiration, motivation, reinforcement and approval. Tending to be somewhat passive, Phil Knight must learn how to take initiative and motivate himself.

On the positive side, Phil Knight is unlikely to be egocentric and has a capacity for ample patience and peacefulness.

 PHIL KNIGHT AS A TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER

• Broad and long range perspective: In 1961 Phil Knight was not considered a leading contender for GE's top job. However, his performance and earnings record ultimately won him the position over six other candidates. Even though he had no formal master plan for Nike's reorganization, he did have a vision of what he wanted the company to be. The first step in realizing that vision was a dismantling of the bureaucracy.

• Guidance and feedback: Like a football coach, he moves meeting to meeting, conveying that message and a host of other ones as well. He does have lots of ideas on how business should work, and many of them make great sense.

• Risk taking by bringing a change: He encourages colleagues to never stop thinking about the need for change. Start each day as if it were your first day on the job, he tells his managers. Make whatever changes are necessary to improve things.

• Direction setting: He is quick to sense when ideas or activities are out of focus or out of style or less valuable than they used to be. He always has the strength to pioneer another idea on the heels of ideas that have been mined

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