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Fortune Magazine Names Nike President & CEO Mark Parker Businessperson Of The Year

Nike President & CEO MARK PARKER has been named FORTUNE's Businessperson of the Year, and the magazine's Adam Lashinsky in a cover story writes the decision stems in part because Parker has "ably carried [Nike co-Founder & Chair PHIL KNIGHT's] baton." Parker has "faced the trickier task" than that of Nike's competitors of "finding growth in a wildly successful mature company." Parker is "something of an oddity in a world of big-ego, headline-grabbing CEOs." His "meticulous approach to product development, known as 'design thinking,' is all the rage." Parker "equates his managerial style with being an editor, with his process focused on helping subordinates hone their ideas." Editing, in fact, "is a constant process for Nike, and Parker’s impulse-control struggle with art collecting suggests it’s hard to balance that with Nike’s seemingly all-encompassing ambitions for global domination." As Nike’s boss, Parker "is relentlessly inquisitive." Nike CFO ANDY CAMPION said, "Mark’s questions are often either leading or directive. What’s fascinating about his use of questions is that it leaves other leaders empowered to find the answers themselves and act on them." Lashinsky writes, "Nurturing the whole Nike forest is Parker's remit." Nike "is not purely a marketing operation." The company also "spends heavily on footwear technology, a point of pride for Parker." Nike even thinks that having replaced adidas by paying $1B to "slap its swoosh on all NBA jerseys for eight years will lead to new Nike-powered technological advances." Parker, who last month turned 60, "shows few signs of slowing down." Parker is on an "endless quest to discover other creative talent." He said, "When I travel I connect with creative people in all different fields and disciplines. It’s sort of just to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on. … I like bringing disparate kinds of creative people together to create some great work, even to share points of view on a new direction." Fortune also included Electronic Arts CEO ANDREW WILSON (No. 3) and Disney CEO BOB IGER (No. 13) on the list (FORTUNE, 12/1 issue).

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