Nike's Case

Nike's biggest failure was greed, lack of responsibility, and procrastination. Nike was focused on low production cost, blaming others for their lack of control in the manufacturing facilities, and putting off addressing the critical issues in a timely manner. All Nike had to do was hire an ethics audit committee which would have prevented unethical practices within the company.

When a company operates at a global level, major risks are involved if not taken into consideration and evaluated thoroughly upfront. Nike's business decisions included a quest for cheaper labor to drive down costs for a competitive edge and market survival. Their decision to employ workers in a developing country without full acknowledgment or adherence to international labor standards caused a hostile response resulting in unwanted public criticism. Nike should have spent more time and effort treating these labor problems as more than public relation issues. More importantly, more research and development should have been invested during business startup focusing on human rights issues. This focus would have gained Nike respect internationally by presenting itself as a socially responsible corporation. They made a bad choice by ignoring the American culture awareness of labor laws and negativity of "sweat shops". The company had no control or countermeasures because of failure to address corporate social responsibility in the beginning of company startup.

The company became too big for their britches. The authors mentioned how Nike became popular from celebrity athlete sponsors. As a result, the popularity demanded production to meet customer demands. Nike exclusively focused on the benefits of lower production costs. They failed to use their leverage over their suppliers to force compliance with human rights, standards, and accept the minor increase in production costs.