A former long-distance runner who later created the sports empire for $1,000, he is the founder of a well-known company, but he is known as one of the most eccentric leaders of the Fortune 500 companies, and he is Phil Knight.
1. Change the trajectory of your life because of a class, and then start a company for $1,000
Born in 1938, Phil Knight was very fond of sports as a teenager, and also published sports-related interviews in the high school newspaper, after college, Fett not only successfully obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration, but also became a long-distance runner, when his best time in a kilometer was 4 minutes and 10 seconds, after which he earned an MBA at Stanford, this learning experience changed Knight's life, more accurately, a class changed Knight's life, In that class, the teacher assigned such an assignment, envisioning a small company, describing its goals and developing a marketing plan, In which Knight envisioned using the cheap labor of RB at that time to produce high-quality sneakers, and in 1964 Knight and Ballman each invested $500 to start the company, the company's original name was Le Cordon Bleu, and was a distributor of the RB sneaker brand Onizuka Tiger in the M country.
2. Buy a unique logo for $35 and officially rename the company nike
Initially due to lack of funds, they did not have a fixed office and business room, so the company address was in the garage of their parents' house, when they sold products, the house was the shop, the sales car was the office, in order to save rent, they chose to open a store near the garbage station, because the packaging fee was too expensive, they chose to buy old wrapping paper from the scrap collection station for packaging, when Knight was working as an accountant at PwC during the day, and after work, he went to the university campus or sports field to sell shoes. By 1969, Knight had successfully sold a million pairs of sneakers with the Blue Ribbon trademark and produced in Rb, and Knight found a trick in this experience of selling shoes, which was also the secret of Nike's ability to become a dominant shoe field in the future, that is, to spread the belief that shoes can bring people a good life experience. In 1971, Knight spent $35 to adopt a person's design logo, and later this logo was well known around the world, at this time The Blue Ribbon sales have exceeded $6 million, and Tiger offered to buy 51% of the shares of Blue Ribbon, and two seats in the 5 directors, if it does not agree to this request will immediately stop supplying, but Knight refused this request, and quickly found a partner with his own design patent, at the end of this year Knight named the company Nike, it is worth mentioning, The name NIKE is said to have been dreamed by an employee, and it represents the winged goddess of victory in ancient Greek mythology.
3. Launched air cushion shoes and signed a 5-year contract with Jordan
In 1972, Nike shoes were officially listed, the sales revenue of that year was 3.2 million US dollars, and in the next 10 years, Nike's profits doubled year by year, and Frank Rudy brought new innovations to Knight, that is, injecting air into the sole, commonly known as air cushion shoes, at first Knight felt that this idea was not very reliable, so he decided to try this shoe himself, it turned out to be a flying feeling, Knight immediately agreed to cooperate with Rudy after testing, this shoe contributed huge profits and reputation to Nike, and by 1979 Nike has been in the year, the M country sneaker market to catch up with the former hegemon Adi, until today air cushion shoes is still Nike's largest technology branch. In 1983, Knight handed over the company to Bob Wooder to manage, several and after the jogging fever ebbed tide, aerobics rose, Wooder ignored this trend, continued to focus on running and basketball, resulting in the industry rookie Reebok came later, Nike turnover fell by 6%, so Knight returned to the company the following year to regroup, Nike began to use the strategy of advertising spokesperson, re-established its image, Knight signed a 5-year contract with Jordan, when many people thought Knight was crazy, But he proved his choice right, and four years later, the phrase "Just Do It" helped Take Knight's career to the next level.
4. Continuous innovation and continuous progress, firmly believe that those who break the routine are always respected
Nike is not only a sports products company, to a certain extent it is also an advertising company, in the 80s and 90s of the last century, Knight began to spend a lot of money on star packaging and advertising marketing, and the reason for Knight's success lies in his innovation, which is largely due to Ballman's many times to transform sneakers, Knight said that what we do is meaningful innovation, do not innovate to die, while Knight subversively modified the rules of sports marketing, star endorsement has become a classic model of sports marketing, Nike's advertising has repeatedly become, the classic in the history of advertising, Knight requires the company's advertising ideas not to appeal to products and sales, but is committed to communicating with the hearts of consumers, Knight makes good use of marketing means, but also strives to do a good job of products, he firmly believes that people who break the routine are constantly respected, so many people call Knight "one of the most eccentric leaders in fortune 500 companies.". In the years he has been in charge of Nike, he has announced his retirement three times and returned twice, and even fired the successor appointed by himself, looking back at Knight's decades of entrepreneurial history, you will find that the reason for his success is continuous innovation and non-stop entrepreneurship, of course, his wealth will not stop, on April 6, 2020, Knight ranked 19th in the "Hurun Top 100 Global Entrepreneurs" with a wealth of 300 billion yuan, and behind him is a business empire with a market value of more than 170 billion US dollars founded with 1000 US dollars.