Book Review: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Shoe-Dog/Phil-Knight/9781501135910


Shoe Dog is a very well written memoir that I have read after a long time. I did not expect such an accidental and humble beginning for a company like Nike (formerly Blue Ribbon) as it always conjures up an image of a big multinational out to get its smaller competitors. Its fascinating to read about Phil Knight’s struggles selling Japanese Tiger shoes and his cat and mouse game against the Tiger management. He provides great insight into the perennial cash flow problems at Nike which surprisingly contributed to the success of Nike and how they developed their own shoe when they saw the writing on the wall partnering with the Tiger management. There is a great story of a near death experience for the company when they received a $25 million bill from the U.S. Customs Service at a time when their sales were just as much; all because of under-handed practices by their competitors at that time. For those of you who might expect Phil Knight to address the so called sweat shop factories in the far East might be disappointed as he almost brushes it off by devoting just about a page in the book. Overall, this is a must read for anybody wanting a great insight into what made this great American company out of Oregon such a roaring success!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Leadership Principles - Beyond the Job Description: Cultivating a Culture of Proactive Problem-Solving

Autumn's Artistry

Book Review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer