Nike’s and Dell's Supply Chain Strategy

NIKE’S ‘DIGITAL FIRST SUPPLY CHAIN’ TO SUCCEED IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
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Essay 1: Nike’s ‘Digital First Supply Chain’ to Succeed in Digital World of Supply Management
Introduction
The changing dynamics of global business require organizations to achieve a competitive edge in the market. Due to intense competition in the industry, companies are taking extensive measures to achieve an advantage over their competitors. The supply chain is considered an essential business component reshaping how businesses operate. Organizations are adopting new trends in technology, digitization, customization, and strategic integration of processes to achieve the greater benefits of supply chain management (Mohsen 2022). Nike’s supply chain management is integral to its business growth strategy. The company ensures highly effective supply processes to stay ahead of its competition. The digital-first supply management is the strategy employed by Nike as a response to challenges faced by the company during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast customer base has shifted toward digital platforms in the last few years, so the company has shifted toward digital supply management. The supply management strategy directly links the customers to the organization, eliminating distributors and suppliers and making the supply chain faster and more efficient. Nike’s new supply chain program is focused on enhanced consumer experience, offering the experience of the digital world using highly advanced technology and strategies.
The supply chain management of Nike revolves around three main principles: outsourcing its products to minimize cost (Chen & Liu 2021), diversifying its products to make them available in new markets through supply chain processes, and aligning its corporate practices to socially responsible corporate behavior. Nike outsources 100% of its production from independent suppliers globally. Nike diversified its outsourcing to a wide range of suppliers, which reduced the risk of over-reliance. The company has diversified its outsourcing through the redesign of its global supply chain processes (Xu et al. 2022). The company uses digital platforms to connect with all its suppliers and customers for direct sales through digitization (Qureshi et al. 2023). The sustainable practices of Nike are part of its CSR policies, engaging in sustainable activities to effectively pack, ship, and recycle its products (Modak et al. 2020). The environment-friendly raw material and ground shipping method ensures less carbon emission than air freight.
The digital-first supply chain strategy focuses on providing direct, quick, and more precise services to its customers by