...the shadow of the most lucrative company of the 21st century Nike. Even though Under Armour has been working under Nike’s shadow they can't be considered to far back. Under Armour has worked itself up into becoming the second most popular athletic apparel in America, surprisingly beating Adidas in the market. Many would think that Adidas would be Nike’s only competitor but speaking statically Under Armour is right behind Nike eating into Nike’s market share. Under Armour was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank the CEO and chairman of Under Armour and it all started from his grandmother's basement in Washington, D.C. The company is now based in Baltimore,...
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...wicked perspiration off your skin rather than absorb it…that worked with your body to regulate temperature and enhance performance” . This promise to increase athletic performance differentiated it from competing sports apparel companies, but rivals have since implemented synthetic materials into their product lines. This case study seeks to analyze Under Armour ’s history, resources, capabilities, and core competencies, business and corporate-level strategies, as well as the general environment and competitive landscape. After careful inspection of these varying areas, the factors contributing to Under Armour’s current success and future challenges will become clearer. The conception for Under Armour began over a year ago when CEO Kevin Plank played on the University of Maryland football team. Frustrated with having to repeatedly change his cotton shirt during practice, he envisioned a shirt whose materials allowed the perspiration to dry quickly, causing the athlete to be quicker, faster, and stronger as a result of less burdensome water weight. he strived to develop a shirt using synthetic materials that handled perspiration better. He developed a shirt that used synthetic materials to handle...
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...success has to do with the decision making, creativity, and great entrepreneurship from their founder and CEO, Kevin Plank. Plank was very business savvy from day one, while juggling school and football in college he also had his own business, selling flowers which allowed him to save nearly $20,000 to start Under Armour. Plank’s creativity with Under Armour is stemmed from the fact that he was a college athlete so he understands exactly what athletes want from his products. Plank still uses his athletic instincts in the workplace during meeting, rather than just sitting around a table he calls a huddle which allows for a more fun and relaxed environment in the workplace. When plank was a football player at The University of Maryland he was proclaimed as the sweatiest man on the field and his cotton shirts held too much water which made him very uncomfortable during practice and games, thus Plank decided to try and create a shirt that would not hold water which would make him faster and lighter on the field. Plank had an edge that most sports apparel CEO’s did not have and that was that he was a college athlete, which meant that many of teammates and close friends went on to play in the NFL, allowing Plank to send his teammates his product and share them with their new teammates in the NFL. Many college and professional equipment managers, got word of Under Armour, asking Plank for products and giving him ideas for new products. Under Armour’s creativity sparked a trend that many other...
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...A football player named Kevin Plank had a problem playing football. His t-shirts were not fitted and absorbed water like a sponge. With a tailor he created the first dry compression t-shirt which would be the start of Under Armor. This new athletic shirt would become the start of a 2 billion dollar empire selling millions of units. Choice 1: the Company had to many competitors that were bringing down sales in the company. Bringing new products to the company in short time to match Nikes strategy was their new plan. The pros are that Under Armor would expand in athletic wear and not just stick to one product. This will target new potential customers that need different types of clothes and shoes. Expanding their product line also weakens competitors making the company get a better position in athletic wear. The cons are that the company only has a short timeline for new products and need to get their suppliers on point with mass production. Some companies do not have the resources to mass-produce after a limit was reached. Choice 2: Under Armor felt the problem was with marketing not the product. They kept the same products and looked for a new way to bring out a message that sells. The pros in this strategy are that under armor got customers by inspirational stories of athletes...
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...Case study: Kevin Plank, Founder, CEO, and Board Chair of Under Armour Weston Kish 5/11/16 Case study: Kevin Plank, Founder, CEO, and Board Chair of Under Armour Weston Kish 5/11/16 1. Plank’s motivation was to create a new category of performance apparel driven by extrinsic (hygiene) factors or intrinsic (motivator) factors, according to Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Intrinsic factors, or motivators, are higher-level needs such as esteem, self-actualization, and growth. These motivators come from the job itself. Extrinsic factors, or hygeines, are lower-level needs such as physiological, safety, Plank saw a need so he tried to fill it to keep dry during a football game. I do not think this was his only reason for making the under armour brand. He seemed to be a person made to do business. I think he, driven extrinsic factor. When he was younger, he took the bracelets he got from Guatemala. He sold them for $580. He knew he was very good at selling, He knew he would be good at business. Not everyone was with him on his venture about trying to start his business. His motivation when it came to getting his business going he was very passionate. 2. I believe Plank places the most weight out of these three on achievement. If ordered by significance to Plank, I believe first would be his need for achievement, second would be power, third would be affiliation. Even as the CEO, he still models his work ethic by his employees. He knows how to keep the motivation...
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...Every since the creation of the well known body wear Under Armour in 1996, Kevin Plank's formal University of Maryland football player. The band has under gone rapid expansion and popularity throughout the world today being that it all started in a basement. It has taken over the performance workout apparel market in the United States and worldwide, over the years it has began to outsell another well known sporting apparel such as Nike and Addidas. Under Armour Inc. has even expanded its market way beyond performance apparel line and brings products such as footwear and casual wear also workout wear. The company has prided itself on maintaining a competitive advantage by always having top-notch products and adopting new ideas to outcompete...
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...Kevin Plank, the Chief Executive Officer and President of Under Armour (UA), is an entrepreneurial hero that was recently added to the Forbes 400 list. He is also seen on other lists such as Forbes 40 under 40 and America’s 20 most Powerful CEOs 40 and Under. The youngest of five brothers, Plank always had the entrepreneurial spirit and a competitive drive to win. He started shoveling snow at the age of ten and held several jobs throughout his school days. He even had a small annual business, Cupid’s Valentine, which sold roses for Valentine’s Day. Plank says he put away $17,000 from the rose business, which was used as the start-up money for UA. Plank played football for Maryland, and as recalled by his teammates, he wasn’t the “biggest guy” or the “fastest guy,” but the one who “worked harder than anyone.” What he learned over the years on the football field is still used by him and has helped make him one of the most successful entrepreneurs today. In all the stories about Planks childhood, schooling, athletic, and professional careers, he is described as an outgoing, people person. On the Big Five Personality Trait chart, he would be high on extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. He always wanted to win, was good at motivating his teammates, he got along well with everyone and he was original and daring to take a risk and start up his own business. His internal locus of control probably contributed to him starting his own sports apparel...
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...The stable We lived on a farm with many animals there were pigs, horses, cows and hens. It was placed near to a friendly town, where people where good hearted and was always fond to help out on our farm. We had a big red silo for our corns, which we would harvest from our okras, and our many acres of fields. Our house is placed in the centre of our lands, and it is a big white wood house, which we have build by our own hands, with a ground floor and a first floor, and a big terrace to the backyard and a total of 137 square feet. We just finished it last year, which was the year of 2005, it has been in progress for 10 years. We just began our new project, which is a new larger stable, so we can fit our growing amount of animals. It was a bad wetter, the rain was purring down outside, so we were forced to stay inside the house. The temperature was high, because we were in the beginning of May; the sun was just starting to make its appearance in the horizon, the weather was very moist and the air was thick so it was obnoxious to stay outside. We lived 4 people on the farm; there were my foster parents Hanna, Rick, my uncle Billy, and myself Carl. Hanna was at the age of 50, Rick was 60, and uncle Billy was 50 years old and I was 9 years old. Hanna and Rick were nice people, they cared about me, they made sure I was well fed and had clothes to wear. Rick on the other hand, he was the sheriff of the small town close to the farm. He was a mean man, he talked down to me, he...
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...Worksheet 1 Unit 1 Principles of Performance Name: Date: Assessor/Tutor leading Session: What Performance activities did you explore within the Workshop/Session? Before we got given a specific task of today’s session, we warmed up our muscles and stretched the same as any other practical workshops, running , sprinting into different directions , making us spatial aware and preparing us for the task ahead, during the warmups we did also learn new ways of warming up different parts of the bodies such as the legs , calf muscles and building up our core strength, one example is that we did something called “plank and roll” this was fun but difficult when holding into the plank but I felt this got me warmed up and got me very fit, therefore I explored various warm ups and exercises that will help me in the future. Within this session I had explored a lot about the methods and elements of dance the task was on one of the methods of dance which is “Action and Reaction, from previously using action and reaction In acting sessions i had a bit of a clue in what it could be and it was basically reacting to one another by giving one person an action for them to react to. The second part of the task was to get into pairs and we did this with the second year dancers who we didn’t know that well but this gave us a chance to communicate and get to know each other as well as working together. Once we was in pairs we then got asked to name each other A or B , in this task...
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...wheel at a local fair. Looking at that looming monstrosity spinning the life out of its sardine-caged occupants, I was dumbstruck. It was huge, smoky, noisy and not a little intimidating. Ever since that initial impression became fossilized in my imagination many years ago, these rides have reminded me of mythical beasts, amazing dinosaurs carrying off their screaming passengers like sacrificial virgins. Even the droning sound of their engines brings to mind the great roar of a fire-breathing dragon with smoke spewing from its exhaust-pipe nostrils. The first ride on one of these fantastic beasts gave me an instant rush of adrenaline. As the death-defying ride started, a lump in my throat pulsed like a dislodged heart ready to walk the plank. As the ride gained speed, the resistance to gravity built up against my body until I was unable to move. An almost imperceptible pause as the wheel reached the top of its climb allowed my body to relax in a brief state of normalcy. Then there was an assault of stomach-turning weightlessness as the machine continued its rotation and I descended back toward the earth. A cymbal-like crash vibrated through the air as the wheel reached bottom, and much to my surprise I began to rise again. Each new rotation gave me more confidence in the churning machine. Every ascent left me...
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...Thanks to motion pictures and of such fictions as, “Treasure Island”,”Peter Pan” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”, the pirate of imagination is a romantic blend of many details. He is pictured as a swarthy ruffian with a black beard or a fierce mustache. He wears gold earrings and a large hat and he carries a dagger with a pistol on his belt. Often giving orders such as, “Burry the treasure” or “Walk the plank”. He is often depicted as a cavalier in high boots and an elegant over coat. The pirate of imagination and in that of motion pictures is that of a thief but the audience grows to like him though the movie as he is usually very good looking, sly ,stealthy while saving a “damsel in distress” and or there is a love story in the script. In actuality, pirates were more often desperate, drunken men who dressed in tatters, wasted food and money and were dishonest outlaws who rarely got the girl unless she was forced. Pirates often turned to piracy in protest against oppressive conditions at home or on merchant ships. The life of a free unrestrained outlaw is what they sought. While there aren’t very many real pirates left in the world today we do still have a major problem with piracy. Pirates no longer require war ships, daggers or swords just computers and advanced technology. People who rebel against the common laws of our nations and who only care about filling their pockets and about their own well-being. Today’s pirates are pirates of technology, stealing information from...
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...Kevin Durant Paper Pride matters in the NBA, but not more than skill. When Kevin Durant drops 40 on an opponent, they don’t begrudge him his talent. What kills them is that the kid looks like he’s 15! Actually, that’s not too far off. By taking the NBA by storm as a 19-year-old—and winning league scoring titles just a few years later—Kevin has given Oklahoma City fans a lot to get noisy about. Not bad for a player who considered quitting his high school team as a frosh and then spent all of one season in college. Kevin may be a young gun, but he is definitely gunning for greatness in Oklahoma City. This is his story… GROWING UP Kevin Wayne Durant was born September 29, 1988 in Washington, D.C. (Click here for a complete listing of today's sports birthdays.) He grew up with his older brother Tony in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capitol. They were raised by their mother Wanda Pratt and her mother Barbara Davis. Their father, Wayne Pratt, left the family before Kevin’s first birthday. He came back into his son’s life when Kevin was around the age of 13. Both parents worked for the government—Wayne for the Library of Congress and Wanda as a postal employee. Kevin was always the tallest boy in his class—and very self-conscious about his height. His mother asked his teachers to put him at the end of lines, so he wouldn't stand out as much. His grandmother Barbara consoled him, saying that his height was a blessing—just wait and see. Over the years...
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...Program (HIP), also known as the Pink Batts Scheme, was primarily designed to boost the domestic economy in 2009 following the GFC, but it was beset by controversy. The $2.8 billion job-generating scheme, offering free insulation to two million households, was scrapped prematurely in 2010 after it was blamed for the deaths of four insulation workers and more than 100 house fires. This essay will attempt to analyse the impact of the HIP and argue whether governments (Commonwealth or States) or business were responsible for the health and safety of workers involved with the HIP. In February 2009, the Rudd government (Government) unveiled the HIP as part of its stimulus package in respond to the GFC. This program may have been stemmed from Kevin Rudd’s (2009, pp 28-29) belief that “Labor, in the international tradition of social democracy, consistently argues for a central role for government in the regulation of markets and the provision of public goods”; and it has “acted to help the real economy, to stimulate economic activity by investing in targeted job creation”. The Hawke Review (Review) (2010, pp vi-viii) in its report stated that the HIP has two objectives which were to generate economic stimulus and support jobs and small business; and to improve the energy efficiency of homes. Any objective assessment of the HIP will conclude that, despite the...
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...[pic] Current events exercises Article/Source Details: ‘Toyota plans green and gold car’ by John Kerin, The Australian Financial Review, Tuesday June 10th, 2008, p. 4 Chapter/s in text article related to: Chapter 1 and Chapter 11. Article Summary: During a recent visit to Japan by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Toyota announced plans to produce a hybrid Camry at its Melbourne plant. The announcement comes after months of behind the scenes negotiations between Industry Minister Kim Carr and Toyota executives. Mr Rudd is anxious to have a locally built hybrid car available to the Australian market as soon as possible. There are two reasons behind Mr Rudd’s push for the hybrid car. Firstly, he believes Australians should have the option of buying a locally built hybrid car, and secondly, recent sharp rises in fuel costs have accentuated the need for more fuel efficient vehicles. As further incentive, Mr Rudd stated that government fleet purchases would include the Australian built hybrid car. Critical Thinking Questions: Question 1: In what way does this agreement underline the different strategic conditions at work in a smaller economy such as that of Australia? Question 2: Without government intervention and financial assistance, what would most likely be the trigger that would prompt a car manufacturer in Australia to produce a new model based on new technology? Question 3: Discuss the implications of the Federal Government making a commitment...
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...Australia seems to be stuck between its economic interests, which lie with China and Asia, and traditional ties with the America. General Peter Leahy warns of US-China collision FORMER Australian army chief Peter Leahy has urged Australia to tread warily in expanding its military ties with the US to ensure they do not "lead to increased tension and even conflict" with China. [pic] the Australian, 12 April, 2012 Warning against becoming "caught" between the US as its security guarantor and China as its economic underwriter, Professor Leahy has welcomed Australia's decision to play host to US marines, but noted that "too much of a good thing" could put unnecessary pressure on China. His comments, in an opinion piece in today's edition of The Australian, came as the China Daily state-owned newspaper hit out at Australia's expanding links with the US, warning they could spark a collapse of trust and endanger Sino-Australian economic ties. In a strongly worded editorial, the newspaper yesterday also warned that the Gillard government's decision last month to ban Chinese communications giant Huawei from bidding for work in the $36 billion National Broadband Network had created the perception in Beijing that Australia wanted to obstruct Chinese companies. But, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted her nation wanted close and peaceful relations with Beijing, Julia Gillard rejected the Chinese newspaper's suggestion that Australian foreign policy was...
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