Codispoti, Macke, Mardis, and Sullivan 1

Michael Codispoti, Katie Macke, Ben Mardis, and Valerie Sullivan

Vicki Forcina
BA 1041-008
Business Profile Paper
14 October 2016

PACE Analysis: Nike

A PACE analysis has been performed on Nike. PACE stands for professionalism,
academics, character, and engagement. PACE is the Lindner College of Business platform for
creating outstanding business students. We did an analysis on Nike because it is such a high
profile company and we wanted to see how they treat their employees and how they give back to
their community.
Professionalism is how one conducts themselves appropriately in a business and has the
required skill set to do their job . At Nike all employees are expected to have the required skill
set to do their job. Professionalism is important in any company because if they cant act in a
professional manner then they cant be taken seriously as a company and their reputation
becomes damaged, making it harder for them to sell their product. Nike makes sure that this does
not happen to them by hiring employees who have previous experience in the field of work that
they are applying for at Nike.
Nike offers a wide variety of jobs. From retail to product design each job requires
different levels of education. If you want to work in retail at Nike no college or high school
degree is required. If you try to get a job in anything else at Nike you will need to have acquired
at least a bachelors degree that is relevant to the field of work that you would be applying for.
For example, if you apply for a job in manufacturing and engineering you would need at least a
bachelors degree in engineering or manufacturing. Nike also requires that any employee who is
looking to earn a job in an upper level position would be required to have past experience in the
field that the position falls under. For example, the North American brand design art director

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position requires at least eight years, of progressive technically sophisticated design experience
(Nike).
Academics is major part of the Nike company, they offer schooling all across the nation
and internationally. This allows them to interact with young children everywhere to spread their
brand and to help educate the youth. Nike hopes to increase the level of academic involvement
for years to come. Academics is part of the company ethics held throughout each branch of the
company. It is one of the major ways that Nike keeps constantly rising as a strong company in
the sporting industry. Furthering academics in the youth will only help the country and earth as a
whole to better itself and that is something that Nike strongly believes in.
Nike has Active School programs in Brazil, China, Russia, and Turkey. In Brazil,
Nike partners with 1,400 kids in local organizations during school by finding creative ways to
combine school subjects and physical activity. In China, Nike partners with the Ministry of
Education to implement sports and physical activities in schools across the country. In three
years, the program is predicted to grow up to 7,000 teachers and 2 million kids. In Shanghai,
Nike participates in schools to unlock school gates, which means that they are trying to open
school playgrounds so that kids have a safe place to be active. In Russia, Nike partners with the
Childrens Sport Foundation. They work to encourage schools to become Active Schools and
create a new active generation of Russian kids. During the first year of this program, they had
900 kids involved. In Turkey, Nike partners with the Turkish Olympic Committees Active Kids
project to create positive experiences in sports for kids in elementary schools and promotes
sports, exercise, and a healthy freestyle.
Nike is also involved in Lets Move Active Schools in the United States. An Active
School incorporates physical activity before, during, and after school for at least 60 minutes a
day (Let's Move! Active Schools). Philip Hampson, Phil Knight is an American business
magnate and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and chairman of Nike. Knight has donated

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more than $300 million to the University of Oregon. Nike School Innovation Fund. Mission:
Fuel excellence in education through the power of innovation. Since 2007, Nike has worked
with school leaders in Oregon to engage students and support teachers to help all students realize
their potential. The funds goal is to increase the number of students who graduate on time and
prepare all students to succeed in high school and beyond.
Character is the morals and values that make a company unique. Nikes character
shows how much the company cares about the relationship between education and physical
activity in young children. Character is extremely important to a company because when
consumers see that a company has good values they will be more likely to buy their products.
Nike partnered with Lets Move Active Schools, which Michelle Obama had involvement in,
because many Obama supporters would see that partnership and have a positive feeling towards
Nike.
Nike impacts the community by donating 1.5% of their pre-tax to drive positive impacts
in the community around them. In 2004 alone, they donated 37.3 million dollars in cash and
equipment to 4,500 different non-profit groups across the United States. Nike also has been
working toward safer ways to make their products so that they can help save the environment.
Some of these include; reducing water usage and eliminating the use of harmful chemicals used
in their production. We focus on using lower-impact, high-volume materials such as recycled
polyester and certified Better Cotton (cotton grown according to the Better Cotton Initiative
Standard System) that drive energy efficiency and water efficiency (Nike). Recently Nike has
implemented a new system called the closed loop system. This system outlines way for Nike to
increase use of recycled materials in their products. Also, their new low carbon impact materials
makes recycling materials easier.
Engagement in the community and around the world is a very important part of Nikes
company. By being engaged in the community, Nike hopes to have a positive impact on all

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people, as well as encourage and get children to become more active. In order to fulfill this goal,
Nike partners with several organizations and nonprofits across the country and around the world.
Due to this, Nike is able to directly impact and help those in their target market, which in turn
allows their customers to see that Nike is an extraordinary and respectable company.
Nike is very engaged in the communities around them and one of their goals is to
positively impact the community and help change the world. One organization that they partner
with is Marathon Kids. This is an organization that helps children to get active by running, along
with helping them to stay positive throughout their experience. Additionally, Nike has numerous
impacts on local communities within the United States. Some of these include the Nike
Community Impact Fund (NCIF), having community ambassadors, and partnering with
Converse. The NCIF is an organization that partners with the Charities Aid Foundation and the
Oregon Community Foundation in order to make grants that will directly impact a community.
These grants are usually given to organizations that will promote the importance of sports and
being active. In total, Nike has given more than 3.2 million dollars to this organization.
Furthermore, Nike has a program for their employees that allows their employees to become a
volunteer to be an Ambassador and coach for kids sports teams. This is a great opportunity for
Nikes employees to directly impact their community and to positively help impact the children
on the teams. Converse and Nike also impact the community by helping organizations that are
located within the same local community as the headquarters of Converse is. They help
organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club and The Institute of Contemporary Art, and more.
In addition, Nike has several global impacts as well. They are a part of an organization
called Designed to Move, which is an organization where more than ninety other organizations
and companies came together in order to help children to become more active all over the world.
Nike also partners with Hurley and Waves for Water. This is an organization that is designed to

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help those who do not that access to clean drinking water by distributing water filters that make
unhealthy water cleaner and healthy to drink. This organization has helped about five million
people already. Nike also offers a few scholarship opportunities for their employees. Nike offers
its employees up to $5,250 per year in tuition assistance. They also offer scholarships to the
children of employees that range from $500-$5,000.
Even though Nike has made significant strides in the right direction in their service and
social work their are many opportunities that Nike could do take advantage of to better their
engagement. Donating more overall profits to charities would help them become more engaged
in many other communities. Another opportunity that could expand their sales overseas could be
donating their products to children who otherwise dont have the money to buy them. Sponsoring
teams who don't have the best equipment or can't afford a sponsorship with Nike can also help to
allow their product to be viewed by other people. Keeping kids active and outside playing is
another place where Nike can really expand its services to the community. Using sponsor
athletes to get kids engaged in sports they otherwise wouldn't try to play can help kids get out of
the house and being active.
Each group member worked on a couple of topics about the company that related to
professionalism, academics, character, and engagement. Valerie Sullivan worked on character
and Nikes involvement in schools in the United States and abroad in Brazil, Turkey, China and
Russia. For the presentation, she explained part of the academics portion. Katie Macke focused
on the engagement part of the project. She researched how Nike was involved in both the
community and around the world through organizations and nonprofits. For the presentation, she
again explained Nikes engagement in the community along with what Nike could/should do
better within their company. Michael Codispoti worked on the professionalism, and part of the
academic portion of the project. He also researched the educational requirements of the Nike

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employees, and the educational opportunities offer by Nike to their employees. For the
presentation, he explained professionalism at Nike, and a portion of the academics. Ben Mardis
worked on the character part of the project along with some of the academic portion of the
writing. He also researched the social and service responsibility of Nike and what they plan to do
in those fields.
Nike shows that its a great company by all the work they do to treat their employees
right, helping in the community with academics, and their charitable work. Our PACE project
gave us a great opportunity to research all of these aspects of Nike. With each different letter of
PACE we saw that Nike is a great company and follows the outline that PACE lays out.

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