Faster Than Light Fashion - Zara

     Defiance - a hostile challenge. No one know this better than Zara International. All the way from the north-west tip of Spain - Arteixo, to over 410 stores across the globe including Australia, France, Italy and even Asia, no other clothing company defies these economic times with cheap and chic designs as Zara International does. With its Weber's-bureaucratic system and along with a mix of Fedrick-Taylor-Dynasty, Zara has become the leading retail store across the world surpassing competitors such as Gap and H&M.
     The Zara corporation has mastered a Weber-bureaucracy system where the clear division of labor has allowed for highly skilled workers to accelerate the logistical process in the corporation. Zara for example has a design team of about 200 professional who focus on the designing aspect of not just clothing, but also store designs. Over 8000 in-house skilled workers perform 85%  of in-season clothing and highly trained store managers keep track of trends, sales, and rush-orders. A clear hierarchical chain is present from the organization of Amancio Ortego, owner of Zara to the individual Arteixo workers that fabricate the clothing. A rigid and well-developed system has created success.
     Formal rules and procedures are the main key factors for Zara's success. Inditex (Industria de Diseno Textil) shortens time from the order to arrival by a highly complex system of just-in-time method of production and detailed inventory reporting. Store managers are able to identify fashion trends by tracking sales and can get out of stock merchandise back in their shelves in about 24 hours (in Europe) and 48 hours (in Asia and America). Zara is a specialist in lighting-speed turnarounds of the hottest fashion trends at fairly low prices that have attracted many customers. Even Louis Vuitton fashion director recognizes that Zara is one of the most innovative and devastating retailers in the world. This is due to the key factor that Zara produces in smaller bulks in Arteixo and ships them as fast as possible to distribution stores. The small bulk production methods creates an artificial scarcity since customers think that the hottest clothing piece on the block will no longer be on the shelf once its gone, creating a higher demand for it and elevating its price a bit high; also, this production method reduces the risk of surplus merchandise that for any given reason might not sale. Zara once again kills two birds with one stone.
     The other implementation of Taylor's scientific method in the Zara corporation show the high efficiency focus in the performance of the corporation as a whole. The designers focus on their area of expertise, the workers on theirs, and the managers on theirs, allowing a continuous flow to meet the demands of the customer. Zara spends very little in advertising and more money on responding to the fast-changing demand as it develops and evolves. The efficiency throughout Zara allowed the company to report a 1.9 Billion Euro profit in 2011 surpassing Gap and H&M. Zara has brought the "democratization of fashion," which is bringing higher fashion to lower income shoppers.
It is clear that Zara's culture of market orientation, which places the highest priority on the creation and maintenance of customers, along with Taylor's efficiency methods, and Weber's bureaucratic management style, has made Zara into the role-model-to-follow to dress the recession with glamorous profit-dollar signs.

Work Cited Pages:

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8589217/The-secrets-of-Zaras-success.html

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120322/business-news/Zara-clothing-group-reports-1-9-billion-net-profit-for-2011.412282

http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/free-fashion-industry-article/zara-the-driving-force-in-fashion/zara-the-driving-force-in-fashion1.asp

http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634500310480103