Oregonian Examination of John Capriotti: Capriotti: "Nike's hot-tempered track chief makes waves"

Capriotti exemplifies the Nike corporate culture since day one. He is no rogue employee. From top to bottom he is who they are.

Nike, and especially Phil Knight, who set the tone from the top, never figured out the line between being aggressively focused on being number one in their industry, and being boorish bullies who always have to win regardless of the cost. Like a lot of successful companies, they point to their results as justification that they are doing things right, and their arrogance won't allow them to change.

malmo wrote:

Capriotti exemplifies the Nike corporate culture since day one. He is no rogue employee. From top to bottom he is who they are.

Blanket Generalizations = Zero Credibility

Top to bottom Nike are vile sc*um; if ya'll choose to 'support' or 'tolerate' that, groovy. But the more they're vilified, on every level, the better all sports will be. Thanks.

He's in such a position of power that he can do no wrong. Whatever he does era swept under the rug because he essentially writes the athletes cheques.

Cap must be dipping into the Centro Sauce at the secret lab on their corporate campus to boost his testosterone.

Interesting that a no-name reporter wrote that story and not Ken Goe...who wouldn't ever risk losing his access to the U of O/Nike track & shoe mafia.

malmo wrote:

Capriotti exemplifies the Nike corporate culture since day one. He is no rogue employee. From top to bottom he is who they are.

Yep. How can anyone be surprised that Nike has douchey leaders like this? The company and its culture are terrible.

STheriot wrote:

Nike, and especially Phil Knight, who set the tone from the top, never figured out the line between being aggressively focused on being number one in their industry, and being boorish bullies who always have to win regardless of the cost. Like a lot of successful companies, they point to their results as justification that they are doing things right, and their arrogance won't allow them to change.

so much this

"I try to just laugh it off," said Mark Bossardet, sports marketing chief at Saucony. "But at some point, is it still a laughing matter? Is this the conduct of an executive of one of the most powerful brands in the world?" This is a quote from the guy who had John Capriotti"s job before he got "fired" from Nike. Of course no mention of this important "fact" in the article. Just another bias article against everything Nike.

Bias??? This is the paper that produced the propaganda for Nike and the NOP.

Take away everything anyone said, and stick with the evidence.

Would Cap have a job at a normal business?

He threatened to kill someone. His subordinate physically assaulted someone.

Stop there and you have enough to say, this guy would be fired or at least reprimanded.

the Nike Shills will be all over this thread, but take away the bias, and he's got some damning things that we know happened, before we even get to the conjecture.

I found it interesting Ken Goe was nowhere near the piece.

Mostly a nike hit job. little facts, mostly circumstantial and interviewed the usual nike haters.

What Goes around, ... wrote:

Interesting that a no-name reporter wrote that story and not Ken Goe...who wouldn't ever risk losing his access to the U of O/Nike track & shoe mafia.

Jeff Manning is the lead investigative reporter for the Oregonian. He's not a no-name reporter. But unlike Goe, he doesn't need to have a good relationship with track sources.

Two Steps Back wrote:

malmo wrote:

Capriotti exemplifies the Nike corporate culture since day one. He is no rogue employee. From top to bottom he is who they are.

Blanket Generalizations = Zero Credibility

No.

He is specifically speaking about Capriotti and then Nike's corporate culture. That is NOT a blanket statement.

If Nike allows this type of behavior, or maybe encourages it, then it is their culture. That does not mean that every single employ at Nike acts like Capriotti but that Nike will allow it. Large companies like Nike take culture seriously and will spend money cultivating the culture they want.

Two Steps Back wrote:

Blanket Generalizations = Zero Credibility

Zero Credibility = Nike Shills, like you

People like dat should be punched.

Seriously, though, I assumed the guy would be some big Italian hothead, not a little suburban pvssy man. He looks like someone who hires bigger guys to do his punching.

I'm still trying to ascertain why Llewelyn Starks isn't in jail.

The fact is you have the governing bodies USATF and USOC who are supposed to be in the best interest of the athletes who come from various backgrounds and have various sponsors. But unfortunately these governing bodies are working in the interest of themselves and their sponsorship partners to the detriment of the athletes. All about the money and staying in power.

If you read his book, Knight and many of the other early Nike employees were introverted skinny distance runners who were treated poorly by the banks, their suppliers, and competitors, which seems to have generated a huge corporate chip on the shoulder. Then they became successful, got rich, and started rubbing shoulders with all these alpha sports icons they signed, and started adopting the same swagger. And of course now they are the ones writing the biggest sponsorship & endorsement checks in all of sports, so now everyone grovels to them, including the athletes, teams, leagues, and media, which feeds the egos even further.

Two Steps Back wrote:

Blanket Generalizations = Zero Credibility

If I were the brojos, I'd take a closer look at this guy's posting history.