Strategy Learnings

   https://www.cascade.app/studies/how-zara-strategy-queen-fast-fashion Despite Zara’s success (or because of it), Amancio Ortega created – or bought – multiple other brands that he included in the Inditex group, each one with a specific purpose. Zara  was targeting middle-class women. Pull&Bear  was targeting young people under twenty-five years old with casual clothing. Bershka  was targeting rebel teens, especially girls, with hip-hop-style clothing. Massimo Dutti  was targeting both sexes with more affluence. Stradivarius  was competing with Bershka, giving Inditex two major brands in the teenage market. Oysho  was concentrating on women's lingerie. Zara Home manufactures home textiles and decor. Pull&Bear  was initially targeting young males between the ages of 14 and 28. Later it extended to young females of the same age and focused on selling leisure and sports clothing. It has the slowest stock turnaround time in t...

   https://www.cascade.app/studies/how-zara-strategy-queen-fast-fashion Humble beginnings: How did Zara start? Most people date Zara’s birth to 1975, when Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera, his then-wife, opened the first shop. But, it’s impossible to study the company’s first steps, its initial competitive advantage, and strategic approach by starting at that point in time. When the first Zara shop opened, Amancio Ortega already had 22 years of industry experience, ten years as a clever and hard-working employee, and 12 years as a business owner. Rosalia Mera also had 20 years of industry experience. As an employee , Ortega worked in the clothing industry, first as a gofer and then as a delivery boy. He quickly demonstrated great talent for recognizing fabrics, understanding and serving customers, and making sound business suggestions. Soon, he decided to use his insights to develop his own business instead of his boss’s. As a business owner , he started  GOA C...

 https://www.supplychain247.com/article/zaras_fashion_retail_supply_chain_strategies   Produce in small lot: small lot is the unique characteristics of lean manufacturing which is not the case here. The logic behind this is that small lot creates the sense of exclusivity. Customer need to make a quick decision otherwise the next day the products they want will be gone. So customer visits Zara’s stores to see new products more often and this creates the huge amount of traffic and revenue. Centralize design and product development: the norm in the apparel (and some other) industries is to develop new products by both in-house staffs and through merchandisers. In the latter case, suppliers need to send samples (through merchandisers) to buyers many many times. Elimination of this back-and-forth communication reduces the time to market drastically. Utilize work cell organization: each new product development team has its own designers, sales, procurement and produc...