A leader is defined as, a person that can influence others and who has authority over that certain group. Managers have this label of being a leader; leading their companies in the market and try to be the best they can be. Philip Knight, the cofounder and former chief executive officer of Nike is a leader, and lead his company to the top of the charts, for athletic shoes and apparel. His visionary style of leadership, and specific traits he obtains made this possible.
Worldwide recognition of the “swoosh” as the symbol of Nike is due to the company’s success it has achieved in sports apparel, shoes, and athletes. This company started from the humble beginnings of selling track shoes from the back of Knight’s trunk. Today, Phil Knight has propelled his company to the top of the food chain for sports. Knight’s vision was to create a better shoe for track and field runners, and with the help of his coach Bill Bowerman he brought this idea to life after he graduated from Oregon State. The company would be named Nike a few years after the original name of Blue Ribbon Sports. Following a few trips to Asian factories where Knight would begin manufacturing deals with these companies. This is evidence of Knight’s visionary style. He understood that it was not necessary to own the factories that create the shoe you design. This expansion would create the name change to Nike in 1978, and a new era for the athletic shoe industry would begin.
Like the Nike slogan, “Just do it”, Knight’s leadership style can be seen as parallel to this slogan. In other words, Knight is known to allow his employees to get the job done, “to get from point A to point B but [he] does not prescribe the route to take” (Anonymous, 2005). One can clearly see the trust that Knight has for his employees, allowing them to get the job done in their own creative way. Some would argue that this is because of his shy and “extremely introverted nature” (Katz, 1994). Over the years Knight has been...