I have long admired Phil Knight for his business savvy, and for the decisions made to make Nike what it has become, but his blind spot for the past 50 years is his lack of accountability when something is called out about Nike's business practices. This was true with the CR issues, and true with Joe Paterno, and now true with the issues of bullying at Nike. The CBS article was a disaster IMHO and should further rock Nike morale when you consider this quote,
"Sales and earnings are growing, but we did have a shock within the last couple of months that certain number of managers were bullying employees and it was a shock to me personally and to a lot of the upper management. And it's disappointing as well as a shock. It's very disappointing, but I am proud of the company and the way it responded to the problems that it saw and it's basically cleaning house for those people," Knight said.
To suggest that this is a "certain number of managers" and a shock to "a lot of the upper management" is laughable and demonstrably not true. Either Phil is lying or simply out of touch with reality.
If Sprunk is still with the company by the end of Q1 than you know that this is a sham, and business at usual with the swoosh.