A Review Of The Book "Shoe Dog" By Phil Knight

The author of this book is “Phil Knight” or Phillip Hampson Knight, the founder and current chairman of Nike inc. He was previously a certified accountant. He has also held the position of CEO but has since resigned from that position. He currently holds a Net Worth of $34 Billion and seeing that he is the person that created Nike and then proceeded to write this book, we can say without a doubt that the information that the book contains is extremely reliable. Phillip Hampson Knight hasn’t written another book.

1. You must be ruthless on your path to success while remaining humble and all the while not forgetting the people around you on the way up.
2. Working smart is better than working hard and will enable you to achieve your dream in a much more efficient way.
3. There is no set time for when you arrive and leave work. If want success, then it’s going to take a lot a of late nights and early mornings.
4. No matter how much money you have, always give back to people that are less fortunate than you are.
5. Always be 10 steps ahead of your competition.

1. Inkling: a slight knowledge or suspicion; a hint
2. Reverie: a state of being pleasantly lost in one’s thoughts; a daydream
3. Concisely: in a way that is brief but comprehensive
4. Perilous: full danger or risk
5. Fusillade: a series of shots fired, or missiles thrown all at the same time or in quick succession.

Problems that Phil Knight encountered

Creating and being able to sustain a business is a tough thing to be able to achieve, but a challenge that many people face with their new business, is exposure and being able to get your name out there. This was indeed a problem back in the early days of “Blue Ribbon” (Nike incorporated). To overcome this issue he faced, Phil would spend as much time as possible with Athletes, showing them the shoes, letting them test them and give feedback ect…I would say he overcame this problem of brand exposure, with the simple thing of just interacting and being able to talk to people about his idea and product. Another problem he faced on the daily was the issue of running out of financing. Nearly all the way up until the IPO 1980, “Blue ribbon/Nike” was all most entirely funded by Japanese backers as many banks were scared to lend him money in fear of not being able to retrieve the loan amount from Phil.

This problem was finally solved, and the cycle of borrowing ended at the IPO in 1980. That however doesn’t mean that just because a random company stuck in the cycle of debt can list and their problems are solved, Phil put in tons of work in order for the people to love his brand and that is what ultimately helped him overcome his problem, brand interactions with the public and how he had built his brand.

When I think of a dog, I think of a cute golden retriever playing in the park, and the one thing that dogs love to do is play ‘fetch’. The dog wants to catch the stick so badly, its willing to run all the way to the other side of the park to get it. This is quite clear in the book as Phil Knight is constantly willing to go the extra mile and is constantly hungry for success or the “stick”. Just like a dog is so desperate to go the extra mile to the stick, which is its end goal, Phil was willing to go the extra mile to the get his Shoe company the best in the world. He is the “Shoe Dog. ”The link to Business StudiesI feel that the book relates closely to the “self-management” topic that we did at the beginning of the year.

In the book when expanding his company, Phil was able to identify his Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. This enabled him to hire people with strengths in areas that he had a weakness, it enabled him to identify opportunities that were arising through being ‘specific” in what he wanted to achieve, and it also helped him in staying organized and always in control of not only his company but himself and personal life.

Personal Reflection and Recommendation

I thoroughly enjoyed the book because I showcased how a company so successful today was born out of a $50 loan. It showed me anything is possible through working smart not hard and enabled me to really dream big and aim high. I couldn’t really relate to anything personally in the book as of now, but I feel that I will most likely encounter things like Phil encountered later in life. I have learnt that nothing is impossible, that ideas and your ideas being a reality aren’t that far away if you are really determined to make them happen. I also learnt that I should broaden my horizons when looking for business partners later in life, like Phil himself did when he partnered with Onituska, a Japanese brand. I absolutely love shoes, so I feel that the most interesting thing I learnt was that they design them years before they are released so that they can prefect them as much as they can. I guess that this can be said for any industries. My favourite part of the book had to have been when the company went public and suddenly, they had a windfall of money. This interested me simply because I liked to hear about what their lives were like after that. I do not have a least favourite part of the book, I enjoyed all of it.

The details that he went into about everything, I feel that it was a little too intense with all the details and ended up making the book a little longer then it should’ve been. Then again, the devil is the details and others might have thought differently. I would recommend this book to others because I was really interested in how such a household brand like “Nike” was made into such a huge success and I feel that others would enjoy it too because of this reason. The type of person that would enjoy a book like ‘Shoe Dog’ is one that is hungry forsuccess, inspiration, someone that wants to be as successful as Phil Knight himself.