Nike Narrative

Nike has entered into a number of significant mergers and acquisitions over the years. Some of the most notable include its acquisition of Zodiac, Invertex, and Converse. Mergers come in many forms. They can be vertical, horizontal, means of extending the market, conglomerate, or ways to extend the product. In its merger history, we can see Nike entering merger agreements with its own distributors and suppliers, which would be vertical and backwards vertical integration mergers. Nike is always very strategic with its mergers whether they are merging with a competitor or entering a merger to enter into a new market or take ownership of a product innovation. 

Nike formed a Strategic alliance with Apollo Global management in order to shift its apparel supply chain to a more vertically integrated model in the Americas. This partnerhsip will increase regional manufacturing capabilities, and decrease delivery times to consumers. The company acquired new apparel and textile suppliers to achieve this as well as broaden and diversify its offerings and abilities. https://news.nike.com/strategic-partnerships

Nike's organization structure is divided geographically. Since Nike is a global company, this structure helps it effectively manage its international and domestic markets. The company has global corporate leadership as well as semi-autonomous geographic divisions. This model has benefits as well as drawbacks. The benefits are that this model helps to foster growth and stability as the global leadership can manage and control the entire organization, but the semi autonomous division enjoy the flexibility that comes with smaller scale regional management and consumer tailoring. A drawback, however, is some limits when managing the company's large subsets of the company such as Converse. http://panmore.com/nike-inc-organizational-structure-characteristics-analysis

Diversification is critical for companies that have obtained success in particular industry and are looking to  grow, expand, and avoid stagnation. A company that is Nike's size, is expected to have diverse production  offerings. While Nike functions in the sporting goods industry, it does not just offer one type of sporting good such as apparel or equipment. Nike offers a diverse spread of goods to its consumer. industry is sporting goods, it offers so many different types of sporting goods from sports equiptment, to fitness bands, to water bottles, apparel ,and so much more. No matter the product, Nike's strategy is to market all of its products as the best in the business. This diverse product offering allows Nike to  avoid putting all its eggs in one basket in case a division of its company fails or declines significantly. It has a lot of other profitable options to turn to for revenue if the time came. https://www.scribd.com/doc/242601885/Diversification-Strategy-of-Nik

Vertical integration is the number of stages in a product or service's value chain in which a particular firm engages.In 2016, Nike partnered with Apollo Global Management to establish a new supply chain for their apparel division.With the guidance of Apollo the plan was to invest in suppliers and acquire additional textile and apparel firms in hopes creating a more vertically integrated supply chain. With this new model, they project to see an improvement in product capabilities and delivery times.  https://www.cips.org/en/supply-management/news/2016/august/nike-announced-supply-chain-strategic-partnership/

Collusion is defined by the text as existing when firms in an industry agree to coordinate their strategic choices in order to reduce competition in an industry. It can result when firms collaborate on output and pricing decisions. Collusion can be seen in multiple industries and companies can even collude against particular individuals. For example, the NFL is accused of colluding to not give Colin Kaepernick a contract in the league because he chose to protest against police brutality against unarmed black men by kneeling during the national anthem. He began this protest in 2016, and has been out of work ever since. That is, until Nike, in its familiar controversial fashion revealed Mr. Kaepernick as the face of their ne w  major marketing campaign  honoring the 30th anniversary of its iconic “Just Do It” slogan. Kaepernick has sued the NFL and hope to receive justice if collusion is found to be at play. I think it's honorable that Nike stand with Colin Kaepernick in his effort t