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Zara Operational Performance

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Zara Operational Performance
Essay Question: Identify the corporate strategy of the clothing retailer Zara and discuss how the five operations performance objectives support Zara’s corporate strategy. In addition explain the external benefits of these five objectives.

Words: 2597
ZARA
INTRODUCTION

Zara is Spanish clothing and accessories retailer part of the holding group Inditex which is one of the world’s largest fashion groups. At the close of 2012, Zara had 1,925 stores in its eight sales formats in 86 markets in five continents with turnover 10.541 million euros (FY 2012 Annual Reports). Ultimate success of the company lies in the unique business model that is to provide fast and affordable fashionable clothing lines. According to Amencio Ortega founder of Indetix, the key to success is simple, to offer the latest fashion in medium quantities at affordable prices. He though that consumer would regard clothes as a perishable commodity in and they are to be consumed rather quickly than stocked in the cupboard, hence company 's strategy is about stocking very little and updating collections often. In this context this paperwork aims to examine how 5 operational performance objectives contribute to the global success of Zara corporate strategy.

ZARA CORPORATE STRATGEY

Strategy is one of the most common words in the business vocabulary, yet there have been many different interpretations of the concept and entire books have been given over to considering the nature of the strategy. A strategy is regarded as ‘the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term, which achieves advantage in changing environment through its configuration of resources with the aim of fulfilling stakeholders expectations’, this widely accepted definition is offered by Johnson et al. (2005). Operations Management is in principal connected with managing of the organisational resources, it implements, drives and supports business strategy. Zara created unique recipe for the success, Amenciano



References: Zara - FY 2012 report (accessed on 31.01.2014), available at:http://www.inditex.com/en/shareholders_and_investors/investor_relations/annual_reports Andy Nelly (2007) Business Performance Measurement, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press Enrique Badia (2009) Zara and Her Sisters, Palgrave Macmillan Case study - Retail the speed of fashion by Davangshu Dutta (accessed on 01.02.2014), available at: Nigel S., Robert Ch., Robert J., (2010) Operations Management (6th edition) Prentice Hall Campanella, J., and Corcoran, F.J Gaetano Aiello and Raffaele Donvito, Retail innovation across retail brands and product brands, International Journal of Business& Economics (2008) Haley, M Tungate, M. (2005) Fashion Brands: Branding Styles from Armani to Zara. London and Sterling, VA: Kogan Page Stalk, G Ghemawat P, Nuenoz J (2006). Zara Fashion: Case Study, Harvard Business Review. Monden, Y. (2011). Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-In-Time, 4th edition, Productivity Press Catoni Luciano, Larssen Nora F., Naylor James and Zocchi Andrea, Travel Tips for Retailers, The McKinsey Quarterly, 3, 126- 133 (2002) Nebath T. (2007), Global Sourcing: Insights from the global clothing industry – the case of Zara, a fast fashion retailer. Journal of Economics and Geography 8 (2008) pp. 21-38 Ferdows, K., Lewis, M., & Machuca, J., (2004)

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