1. You are to write a program in C to do the following in a loop for the KL46Z .
   • Prompt the user for a positive integer greater than 1 and sanity-check the input.
   • If the number is a prime number, it is to be printed on a new line in red text.
   • If the number is evenly divisible by 7, it is to be printed on a new line in green text.
   • If the current number is evenly divisible by the last number entered, it is to be printed on a new line in blue.
   • If the least significant digit of the number is 3, the number is to be printed on a new line underlined.

If none of the above conditions are met, simply print a blank new line

Best Buy ranks number 72 on the Fortune 500; it is the largest consumer electronics retailer in the world. Best known for its discounted high-quality products, customer centered approach, sustainable outreach, and extensive recycling program. Best Buy is listed as a “socially responsible” company. It was founded by Richard Schulze in 1966. Since then the company has undergone many changes.

College students, who wanted higher-end electronics, were the first customers they targeted. In 2000, when sales growth slowed, Best Buy acquired Geek Squad, a repair service. This acquisition led to their Concept 5 stores, where products are sold, and customers taught how to use them. This improved service turnaround time and increased customer satisfaction. By 2009, the company became the primary online and brick-and-mortar provider of consumer electronics.

             Best Buy views itself as a customer-centered organization. The company uses www.BestBuy.com to learn more about its customer needs and preferences. Customers can use that website to rate every product purchased. In 2007, the Company published its first Corporate Social Responsibility Report (SR) as result of the customers concern for sustainability. Electronic waste was filling landfills, and their customers wanted to see this problem addressed. In response to their concerns, Best Buy implemented a wide-scale electronics recycling program.   In 2009 Best Buy set a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 45%; by the end of 2016 they had reached nearly 47%.

             Today Best Buy employs a Chief Ethics Office and maintains a blog for company employees; it covers ethical lapses and related issues. Employees can visit the website and read about the company policy regarding ethically questionable behaviors and learn tips on how to best defend themselves from crossing ethical boundaries. Hubert Joly was appointed CEO in 2012 after a scandal forced out CEO, Brian Dunn and Chairman, Richard Schulz.

Under Joly, Best Buy, once again, became a growth company. He implemented its “Renew Blue” strategy, adding new product lines and services and emphasizing both in-store and online customer opportunities. Its Geek Squad division began an in-store, online, and home advisory program. He expanded into both Canadian and Mexican markets. Operations in China and Europe were closed to reduce costs, and he closed some domestic stores, under his lean management mandate.

             To improve customer service, the “Geek Squad hours were expanded to provide 24-hour service on site, at home, or through the Internet. The tech experts make about 4 million home calls a year. Walmart and Amazon their biggest competitors do not offer comparable at-home services. In March 2017, “Renew Blue” was officially closed by Joly and pronounced a success.

             In 2017, Joly announced the company will implement “Best Buy 2020 - Building the New Blue.” Best Buy began a try-before-you-buy program which allows the customer to rent gadgets such as audio equipment, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and cameras. If the customer decides to keep the product, 20% of the rental fee is deducted and applied to the final cost of the product.

             Best Buy will continue demonstrating new technology solutions, contracts and services and sustainability . The company plans to enhance their smart home areas in all stores, roll out its Best Buy Smart Home Powered by Vivint home automation and security offering to 450 stores, which will add 1,500 dedicated smart home employees. The “Geek Squad” expanded services will include “Smart Home ‘Total Tech Services, which will service every electronic product in your home no matter where the product was purchased and create a totally integrated technology system for your home.

Another service Best Buy will provide is the Smart Home Senior Care Services,” which is considered an “untapped white space opportunity.” The electronic “Assured Living” system will allow millennials /caregivers to look in on their aging parents while permitting the seniors to live independently. Mr. Joly envisions rolling out a broader business of sensor-based senior services, sold through health-and-wellness departments in Best Buy’s more than 1,000 stores.   With an aging population in the U.S., there will be 70 million people who will be seniors in 2027. Best Buy sees this growth opportunity and will use the Smart Home Business and its ability to get into people’s home as a trusted adviser.

Question:

How does Best Buy deal with ethically questionable behaviors, in short essay form

Case Study 3:

QWERTY It is now June 2013. Qwerty Limited is an Irish based company that designs, manufactures and sells a wide range of wireless computer keyboards to retailers in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. QWERTY is co- owned by twin brothers Paul and Joe Hayes, who founded the company after graduating from their local university with undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering respectively. Since then, QWERTY has experienced rapid sales growth (with modest but growing profitability) and now employs 55 full-time employees from their Limerick base. Paul and Joe are the only directors of the company. Performance Measurement As a result of the on-going difficulties experienced by QWERTY in acquiring adequate levels of credit from their local financial institutions to fund their working capital, Paul and Joe have decided with immediate effect, that if any of their products are budgeted to be loss-making for the forthcoming year, they should be discontinued immediately in an attempt to protect the future viability of the company. Consequently, the 2014 budgetary data for one of QWERTY's most popular (and to-date profitable) keyboards called “Exile”, is causing Paul and Joe a lot of concern (see Appendix I for the 2014 budgetary data on “Exile”). In an on-going attempt to reduce their costs, all of QWERTY's 2014 budgetary forecasts were jointly prepared by the company's co-owners, having previously been contracted out to a small local firm of Chartered Accountants. In addition to focusing on product profitability as a key performance indicator, Paul and Joe are also keen to consider the use of some non-financial metrics to guide them in making future strategic decisions. Having discussed the various options available, allied to the nature of the industry in which they compete, they have collectively decided on “innovation” as the key non-financial success factor for QWERTY to focus on in the short to medium term, although they have yet to agree on any specific performance measures.
Growth Opportunities Paul has always been more growth focused than Joe and for the past year has been exploring various options to expand the company. He has identified a venture capital investor, with an interest in small technology companies. The investor has made an offer to invest €/£ 2 million in QWERTY for 36% of the equity. Paul and Joe agree that this is an attractive offer. An agreement has been signed and this investment will go ahead within the next three months. The venture capital investor is impressed by Paul and Joe's management of QWERTY but has some concerns that it does not have the corporate governance structures to sustain its growth over the medium to long term. As a condition of the investment the venture capital investor is insisting that he has a position on the board of directors and a veto over major strategic decisions made by the company. Paul and Joe are agreeable to these conditions.
Paul is proposing that they use the funds raised from the new investor to part-finance the acquisition of Screen Magic Limited (“SCREEN”), an Irish company which manufactures computer screens. Paul has had preliminary discussions with the owner (and managing director) of SCREEN, who has told him he is keen to retire soon after finding the last few years increasingly stressful trying to resolve a complex tax issue affecting SCREEN and dealing with increasingly onerous regulations on environmental standards in manufacturing. He may be interested in selling SCREEN and has provided information on the company (see Appendix II). Paul has been pushing a “growth by acquisition” strategy for several years because he believes QWERTY is too narrowly focused on one sector and believes acquisitions almost always deliver significant value through synergies and economies of scale. He is confident that if QWERTY acquires another company he and Joe have the management skills required to ensure a successful integration. Paul is eager to agree the terms of the takeover of SCREEN before the venture capital investor takes his seat on the board as he is not sure if the investor would approve of the takeover. Bridging finance would be available from QWERTY's bank to finance the acquisition pending receipt of the new equity funds. This facility would be personally guaranteed by Paul and Joe.

CASE STUDY 3 QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1: Discuss three (3) non-financial considerations that Paul and Joe should also consider prior to making their final decision as to whether or not to withdraw the “Exile” wireless keyboard from sale in 2014.

QUESTION 2: Critically evaluate Paul and Joe's new proposed policy in respect of discontinuing any products, which are budgeted to be loss making within QWERTY. In addition, suggest any improvement to the proposed policy that you consider appropriate.

George was happy he did so well on his math test after doing poorly on the last one. He knew he had the ability, but just didn’t study last time. This time he felt confident in his ability and his practice of the material. When it comes to math George has developed a:

5 points   

Question 7

By middle childhood, children who hold flexible beliefs about what boys and girls can do:

5 points   

Question 8

One factor that can reduce performance on intelligence tests is a child’s anxiety about being negatively judged based on a preconceived expectation of performance for his or her race, culture, or gender, also known as:

5 points   

Question 9

The most common psychological problem experienced by adolescents is:

5 points   

Question 10

Sternberg identified three types of intelligence that work together in various ways, depending on the task at hand. He describe these three types as:

5 points   

Question 11

A contributor to obesity in early childhood is:

5 points   

Question 12

Research has identified some advantages and disadvantages of being an only child. Overall, only children report:

5 points   

Question 13

The families of chronically delinquent youth are more often characterized as:

5 points   

Question 14

Effective sex education programs have been shown to delay the age of initiation of sex, and to reduce the frequency of sex and the number of sexual partners. Berk (2014) lists effective elements for sex education programs. Which of the following is NOT considered an effective element of sex education:

5 points   

Question 15

Adolescents who are actively involved in a religious community tend to _______________ their peers who are not involved in religious activities.

5 points   

Question 16

Although no one was nearby, Eric tells his mother that she is embarrassing him when she asks about his homework on the way to the car. He checks his hair in the mirror when he gets in the car and worries that someone will see that his hair is out of place. Eric is concerned with:

5 points   

Question 17

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the industrialized country with the highest divorce rate is:

5 points   

Question 18

Olivia is preparing for a Friday test of vocabulary words. On Wednesday, Olivia checks her progress on learning the vocabulary words. She is pleased with how well she has learned some of them, but is having a harder time with others. She decides to look some up on the Internet to get additional help in understanding them. She checks her progress again on Thursday. Olivia is using the process of ____________ to help her reach her goal.

5 points   

Question 19

Which of the following about children from divorced parents is NOT accurate?

5 points   

Question 20

As they are developing identities, many adolescents from immigrant cultures experience a clash, or ______________ due to conflicting pressures between family values and the host culture.

Case Study:

Nike's Core Competency: The Risky Business of Creating Heroes

DURING THE LAST DECADE, Nike's annual revenues doubled and by 2018 attained some $35 billion. With its globally recognized brand, Nike is the undisputed leader in the athletic shoe and apparel industry. Number two adidas has some $22 billion in sales, while recent entrant Under Armour reports revenues of $5 billion. Nike is tremendously successful, holding close to a 60 percent market share in running shoes and nearly a 90 percent market share in basketball shoes and apparel. Yet one of its greatest strengths can also be seen as one of its greatest vulnerabilities. Before we introduce that strength, it helps to know how Nike started.

Nike Co-founders:

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight

The Beaverton, Oregon, company has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It was founded by University of Oregon track and field coach Bill Bowerman and middle-distance runner Phil Knight in 1964 and was first called Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1971, the company changed its name to Nike (Greek mythology's goddess of victory) with the now iconic "swoosh" designed by a Portland State University student.

BOWERMAN'S ROLE. Coach Bowerman was a true innovator because he constantly sought ways to give his athletes a competitive edge. He experimented with many factors affecting running performance, from different track surfaces to rehydration drinks. Bowerman's biggest focus, however, was on providing a better running shoe for his athletes. While sitting at the breakfast table one Sunday morning and absentmindedly looking at his waffle iron, Bowerman had an epiphany. He poured hot, liquid urethane into the waffle iron—ruining it in the process but coming up with the now famous waffle-type sole that not only provided better traction but was also lighter than traditional running shoes.

ENTER KNIGHT. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon and serving in the U.S. Army, Phil Knight entered the MBA program at Stanford. One entrepreneurship class required him to come up with a business idea. He wrote a term paper on how to disrupt the leading athletic shoemaker, adidas. The research question he came up with was, "Can

Japanese sports shoes do to German sports shoes what Japanese cameras have done to German cameras?"

At that time, adidas athletic shoes were the gold standard. They were also expensive and hard to find in the United States. After several failed attempts to interest Japanese sneaker makers, Knight struck a distribution agreement with Tiger Shoes. After his first shipment arrived in the United States, Phil Knight sent some of the running shoes to his former coach, Bill Bowerman, hoping to make a sale. To his surprise,

Bowerman replied that he was interested in becoming a business partner and contributing his innovative ideas on how to improve running shoes, including the waffle design. With an investment of $500 each and a handshake, the venture commenced.

Creating Heroes

Nike had already reached a level of success by the late 1970s. Based on a highly successful string of innovations including Nike Air, by 1979 the company had captured more than a 50 percent market share for running shoes in the United States. A year later, Nike went public. Even so, the company had yet to establish one of its most effective marketing tactics.

In 1984, Nike signed Michael Jordan—still early in his career, before he was hailed by many as the greatest basketball player of all time—with an unprecedented multimillion-dollar endorsement deal. Rather than spreading its marketing budget more widely as was common in the sports industry at that time, Nike made the unorthodox move to spend basically its entire budget for a specific sport on a single star athlete. Nike sought to sponsor future superstars that embodied an unlikely success story. Michael Jordan did not make the varsity team as a junior in high school, and yet he became the greatest basketball player ever. Nike's Air Jordan basketball shoes are all-time classics that remain popular to this day.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Nike continued to sponsor track and field stars such as Marion Jones as well as Kobe Bryant in basketball. With the help of major celebrity endorsements, Nike was also able to move on to different sports and their superstars, including golf with Tiger Woods, cycling with Lance Armstrong, soccer with Wayne Rooney, and football with Michael Vick. If some of those names trigger memories of scandals as well as athletic achievements, you see the problems that Nike risks with its endorsement program. Before going into the negatives, let's examine the powerful message behind such endorsements.

Nike is less about running shoes or sports apparel than about unlocking human potential. This is captured in Nike's mission to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world (and if you have a body, you are an athlete). ² Nike uses its heroes to tell a story whose moral is that through sheer will, tenacity, and hard work, anyone can unlock the hero within and achieve amazing things. Nike will help everyone become a hero. Just Do It! This type of mythical brand image has allowed Nike to not only enter but also often

Oscar Pistorius (left) and Lance Armstrong (right), some of Nike's past celebrity endorsements.

dominate one sport after another, from running to ice hockey. It spends more than $1 billion a year sponsoring athletes. Nike picks athletes that succeeded against the odds—cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, double amputee "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius, and other athletes hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Nike astutely focuses on its core competency in athlete sponsorship and design, while it outsources noncore activities such as manufacturing and much of retailing. To create heroes, Nike has to engage in a number of activities: Find athletes that succeed against the odds; identify them before they are wellknown superstars; sign the athletes; create products that are closely linked with the athlete; promote the athletes or teams and Nike products through TV ads and social media to create the desired image; and so on. Each activity contributes to the relative value of the product and service offering in the eyes of potential customers and the firm's relative cost position vis-å-vis its rivals. Over time, Nike developed a deep expertise in creating heroes. More importantly, having consistently better expectations of the future value of resources allows Nike not only to shape the desired image of the athlete, but also to capture some of the value these athletes create.

When Heroes Fall

Although this core competency made Nike highly successful, it has not been without considerable risks. Repeatedly, Nike's "heroes" have become unmasked as cheaters, frauds, and criminals, some of whom have committed serious felonies, such as (culpable) homicide. Long-time CEO and Chairman Phil Knight long ago declared that scandals surrounding its superstar endorsement athletes are "part of the game."3 So Nike appears to be comfortable in tolerating those risks, at least in some cases.

Sometimes Nike continued to sponsor its athletes involved in various scandals; other times it terminated its lucrative endorsement contracts. Nike continued to sponsor NBA star Kobe Bryant who was cleared of alleged rape charges. After Tiger Woods was engulfed in an infidelity scandal, Nike continued to sponsor the golf superstar. In 2007, Nike ended its endorsement contract with NFL quarterback Michael Vick after a public outcry and his subsequent felony conviction of running a dog-fighting ring and engaging in animal cruelty. In 2011, after serving a prison sentence and restarting his career at the Philadelphia Eagles, Nike signed a new endorsement deal with Vick. In 2012, Nike terminated its long-term relationship with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. Just before Armstrong's public admission to doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Knight answered, "Never say never," when asked if Nike would sponsor Armstrong again in the future. In 2013, Nike removed its ads with Oscar Pistorius and the unfortunate tagline "I am the bullet in the chamber," after the South African track and field athlete was charged with homicide.

In 2014, Nike got entangled in the FIFA (the world governing body of soccer) bribery scandal. It began 20 years earlier when Nike decided to gain a stronger presence in soccer after the 1994 World Cup was held in the United States. In 1996, Nike signed a long-term sponsorship agreement with the Brazilian national team worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This was a huge win for Nike because soccer has been the basis of adidas' success, much like running and basketball has been for Nike. Moreover, Brazil won the tournament five times (more than any other nation) and is the only team to have played in every tournament, which is only held every four years.

Nike is now alleged to have paid some $30 million to a middleman, who used that money for bribing

soccer officials and politicians in Brazil. This middleman—Jose Hawilla—has admitted a number of crimes including fraud, money laundering, and extortion related to the FIFA soccer investigation by U.S. prosecutors.

Time and time again Nike's heroes have fallen from grace, and the company itself has fallen under suspicion of wrongdoing. Clearly, Nike's approach in building its core competency of creating heroes is not without risks. Too many of these public relations disasters combined with too severe shortcomings of some of Nike's most celebrated heroes could damage the company's reputation and lead to a loss of competitive advantage. As Nike veers from one public relations disaster to the next, disappointment with the brand and its promise may eventually set in, causing customers to go elsewhere.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.     The MiniCase indicates that Nike's core competency is to create heroes. What does this mean? How did Nike build its core competency? Does it, for example, identify and leverage the potential identified in a VRIO analysis (are its competencies valuable, rare, inimitable, and organized to capture value) in a resource-based view of the firm?

2.     What would it take for Nike's approach to turn from a strength into a weakness? Did this tipping point already occur? Why or why not?

3.     What recommendations would you have for Nike? Can you identify a way to reframe the competency of creating heroes? Or a new way to think of heroes, teams, or sports that would continue to build the brand?

4.     If you are a competitor of Nike (such as adidas, Under Armour, New Balance, or Li-Ning), how could you exploit Nike's apparent vulnerability?

Provide a set of concrete recommendations.

(Must be atleast 2 pages long)

(The answer to this question must be atleast 2 pages long and must not be copy and pasted from previous answers)

Case Study:

Nike's Core Competency: The Risky Business of Creating Heroes

DURING THE LAST DECADE, Nike's annual revenues doubled and by 2018 attained some $35 billion. With its globally recognized brand, Nike is the undisputed leader in the athletic shoe and apparel industry. Number two adidas has some $22 billion in sales, while recent entrant Under Armour reports revenues of $5 billion. Nike is tremendously successful, holding close to a 60 percent market share in running shoes and nearly a 90 percent market share in basketball shoes and apparel. Yet one of its greatest strengths can also be seen as one of its greatest vulnerabilities. Before we introduce that strength, it helps to know how Nike started.

Nike Co-founders:

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight

The Beaverton, Oregon, company has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It was founded by University of Oregon track and field coach Bill Bowerman and middle-distance runner Phil Knight in 1964 and was first called Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1971, the company changed its name to Nike (Greek mythology's goddess of victory) with the now iconic "swoosh" designed by a Portland State University student.

BOWERMAN'S ROLE. Coach Bowerman was a true innovator because he constantly sought ways to give his athletes a competitive edge. He experimented with many factors affecting running performance, from different track surfaces to rehydration drinks. Bowerman's biggest focus, however, was on providing a better running shoe for his athletes. While sitting at the breakfast table one Sunday morning and absentmindedly looking at his waffle iron, Bowerman had an epiphany. He poured hot, liquid urethane into the waffle iron—ruining it in the process but coming up with the now famous waffle-type sole that not only provided better traction but was also lighter than traditional running shoes.

ENTER KNIGHT. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon and serving in the U.S. Army, Phil Knight entered the MBA program at Stanford. One entrepreneurship class required him to come up with a business idea. He wrote a term paper on how to disrupt the leading athletic shoemaker, adidas. The research question he came up with was, "Can

Japanese sports shoes do to German sports shoes what Japanese cameras have done to German cameras?"

At that time, adidas athletic shoes were the gold standard. They were also expensive and hard to find in the United States. After several failed attempts to interest Japanese sneaker makers, Knight struck a distribution agreement with Tiger Shoes. After his first shipment arrived in the United States, Phil Knight sent some of the running shoes to his former coach, Bill Bowerman, hoping to make a sale. To his surprise,

Bowerman replied that he was interested in becoming a business partner and contributing his innovative ideas on how to improve running shoes, including the waffle design. With an investment of $500 each and a handshake, the venture commenced.

Creating Heroes

Nike had already reached a level of success by the late 1970s. Based on a highly successful string of innovations including Nike Air, by 1979 the company had captured more than a 50 percent market share for running shoes in the United States. A year later, Nike went public. Even so, the company had yet to establish one of its most effective marketing tactics.

In 1984, Nike signed Michael Jordan—still early in his career, before he was hailed by many as the greatest basketball player of all time—with an unprecedented multimillion-dollar endorsement deal. Rather than spreading its marketing budget more widely as was common in the sports industry at that time, Nike made the unorthodox move to spend basically its entire budget for a specific sport on a single star athlete. Nike sought to sponsor future superstars that embodied an unlikely success story. Michael Jordan did not make the varsity team as a junior in high school, and yet he became the greatest basketball player ever. Nike's Air Jordan basketball shoes are all-time classics that remain popular to this day.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Nike continued to sponsor track and field stars such as Marion Jones as well as Kobe Bryant in basketball. With the help of major celebrity endorsements, Nike was also able to move on to different sports and their superstars, including golf with Tiger Woods, cycling with Lance Armstrong, soccer with Wayne Rooney, and football with Michael Vick. If some of those names trigger memories of scandals as well as athletic achievements, you see the problems that Nike risks with its endorsement program. Before going into the negatives, let's examine the powerful message behind such endorsements.

Nike is less about running shoes or sports apparel than about unlocking human potential. This is captured in Nike's mission to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world (and if you have a body, you are an athlete). ² Nike uses its heroes to tell a story whose moral is that through sheer will, tenacity, and hard work, anyone can unlock the hero within and achieve amazing things. Nike will help everyone become a hero. Just Do It! This type of mythical brand image has allowed Nike to not only enter but also often

Oscar Pistorius (left) and Lance Armstrong (right), some of Nike's past celebrity endorsements.

dominate one sport after another, from running to ice hockey. It spends more than $1 billion a year sponsoring athletes. Nike picks athletes that succeeded against the odds—cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, double amputee "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius, and other athletes hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Nike astutely focuses on its core competency in athlete sponsorship and design, while it outsources noncore activities such as manufacturing and much of retailing. To create heroes, Nike has to engage in a number of activities: Find athletes that succeed against the odds; identify them before they are wellknown superstars; sign the athletes; create products that are closely linked with the athlete; promote the athletes or teams and Nike products through TV ads and social media to create the desired image; and so on. Each activity contributes to the relative value of the product and service offering in the eyes of potential customers and the firm's relative cost position vis-å-vis its rivals. Over time, Nike developed a deep expertise in creating heroes. More importantly, having consistently better expectations of the future value of resources allows Nike not only to shape the desired image of the athlete, but also to capture some of the value these athletes create.

When Heroes Fall

Although this core competency made Nike highly successful, it has not been without considerable risks. Repeatedly, Nike's "heroes" have become unmasked as cheaters, frauds, and criminals, some of whom have committed serious felonies, such as (culpable) homicide. Long-time CEO and Chairman Phil Knight long ago declared that scandals surrounding its superstar endorsement athletes are "part of the game."3 So Nike appears to be comfortable in tolerating those risks, at least in some cases.

Sometimes Nike continued to sponsor its athletes involved in various scandals; other times it terminated its lucrative endorsement contracts. Nike continued to sponsor NBA star Kobe Bryant who was cleared of alleged rape charges. After Tiger Woods was engulfed in an infidelity scandal, Nike continued to sponsor the golf superstar. In 2007, Nike ended its endorsement contract with NFL quarterback Michael Vick after a public outcry and his subsequent felony conviction of running a dog-fighting ring and engaging in animal cruelty. In 2011, after serving a prison sentence and restarting his career at the Philadelphia Eagles, Nike signed a new endorsement deal with Vick. In 2012, Nike terminated its long-term relationship with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. Just before Armstrong's public admission to doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Knight answered, "Never say never," when asked if Nike would sponsor Armstrong again in the future. In 2013, Nike removed its ads with Oscar Pistorius and the unfortunate tagline "I am the bullet in the chamber," after the South African track and field athlete was charged with homicide.

In 2014, Nike got entangled in the FIFA (the world governing body of soccer) bribery scandal. It began 20 years earlier when Nike decided to gain a stronger presence in soccer after the 1994 World Cup was held in the United States. In 1996, Nike signed a long-term sponsorship agreement with the Brazilian national team worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This was a huge win for Nike because soccer has been the basis of adidas' success, much like running and basketball has been for Nike. Moreover, Brazil won the tournament five times (more than any other nation) and is the only team to have played in every tournament, which is only held every four years.

Nike is now alleged to have paid some $30 million to a middleman, who used that money for bribing

soccer officials and politicians in Brazil. This middleman—Jose Hawilla—has admitted a number of crimes including fraud, money laundering, and extortion related to the FIFA soccer investigation by U.S. prosecutors.

Time and time again Nike's heroes have fallen from grace, and the company itself has fallen under suspicion of wrongdoing. Clearly, Nike's approach in building its core competency of creating heroes is not without risks. Too many of these public relations disasters combined with too severe shortcomings of some of Nike's most celebrated heroes could damage the company's reputation and lead to a loss of competitive advantage. As Nike veers from one public relations disaster to the next, disappointment with the brand and its promise may eventually set in, causing customers to go elsewhere.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.     The MiniCase indicates that Nike's core competency is to create heroes. What does this mean? How did Nike build its core competency? Does it, for example, identify and leverage the potential identified in a VRIO analysis (are its competencies valuable, rare, inimitable, and organized to capture value) in a resource-based view of the firm?

2.     What would it take for Nike's approach to turn from a strength into a weakness? Did this tipping point already occur? Why or why not?

3.     What recommendations would you have for Nike? Can you identify a way to reframe the competency of creating heroes? Or a new way to think of heroes, teams, or sports that would continue to build the brand?

4.     If you are a competitor of Nike (such as adidas, Under Armour, New Balance, or Li-Ning), how could you exploit Nike's apparent vulnerability?

Provide a set of concrete recommendations.

If the company expands its product selection, what types of new customer categories should be considered? Will the new customer constituents resemble the existing ones? Perform a hypothetical customer profitability model analysis on the new customers.

You are considering adding a new product to your firm's existing product line. It should cause a 10 percent increase in your profit margin (i.e., new PM = old PM x 1.1), but it will also require a 25 percent increase in total assets (i.e., new TA = old TA x 1.25). You expect to finance this asset growth entirely by debt. If the following ratios were computed before the change, approximately what will be the new ROE if the new product is added and sales remain constant? Ratios before new product were Profit margin=0.10, Total assets turnover=2.00, and Equity multiplier=2.00.

• A. 44%
• B. 48%
• C. 25%
• D. 28%
• E. 34%

M+V Growth: 8%

Long-Run Growth: 4%

Expected Inflation: 4% Large and unexpected increase in government spending

Carefully draw the three curves (AD, LRAS, and SRAS in long run equilibrium at the point indicated above). Label that triple intersection LR1.

• Using a new color draw a new curve or curves consistent with your Scenario.

• Label that new intersection SR1, indicate on your graph a reasonable level of GDP growth and inflation for this new equilibrium.

• What happens to Unemployment at SR1 (does it go up, down, or stay the same)?

• Find the new Long Run equilibrium and label it LR2, indicate on your graph a reasonable level of GDP growth and inflation for this new equilibrium.