Zara's Secret for Fast Fashion Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Zara's Secret for Fast Fashion - Case Study Example   Zara’s competitors in the fashion and industry were amazed at how the company was rapidly expanding both locally and internationally. It is important to note that all these stores were opened under the company’s brand but when the ventured into the Asian market, the company’s managers had different views of the market in that they decided to exercise the concept of Franchising. For instance, in Malaysia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the company operates as a B2B Company. Zara did virtually no advertising unlike its international clothing competitors such as Gap, Benetton, and H&M. Instead, the company places only two ads to promote its yearly sales and announce the opening of the new store. This decision has led Zara to realize 0.3% average revenue instead of 4%. Zara store managers have no discretion about the look and the feeling of their stores (Wikipedia, n.d). Zara does not aim to produce classic clothes that are always in style instead of the company intend ed to have its clothes to have fairly short life spans both in stores and customers wardrobe. In the year 2003, Inditex operated 1,558 stores in more than 40 countries of which 550 were part of Zara chain stores. The company has 90,000 employees of which 80% are female while the rest are male. Currently, Inditex is the biggest and fastest growing retailer while Zara is the biggest leading retail innovator in the world and that has established its place in the fashion industry by offering not only apparel and accessories for women fashion but also for children and men. More so, Zara Company had provided and established a unique environment for shopping by altering the manner others companies such as Gap and H&M store appear. The company changes its layouts often to incorporate artwork. Zara has realized how to expand and make a profit due to its capability to face the apparel challenges in the market. This paper aims to discuss the businesses model and key elements of disruptive busi ness, identify distinctive competencies of disruptive companies and discuss the competitive advantages of disruptive companies. Disruptive business model Disruptive innovation is a creation that aids establish a new market and value network, and it usually goes on to disrupt the existing market and value network by replacing or displacing an earlier technology. Disruptive model is used by a company to improve a product in a manner that the market does not expect by designing for a different segment of consumers in the new market and afterward by lowering the prices in the current or existing market. Businesses that adapt and applies disruptive model usually have a competitive advantage over its competitors in the market (Wikipedia, n.d). For instance, companies such as Dell and Zara have this model in order to remain in front of their competitors. Dell has survived the bust and now looks better for it since, in one of the worst PC industry history, Dell has gained enough share to be come the leading PC seller in the world.  

The Role of the Principal Officer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Role of the Principal Officer - Essay Example The position of Principal Officer has an expanding role through the implementation of shared service, NOMIS, the Phoenix Program, and contestability. These programs not only demand a greater accountability of our resources, but also allows us a vision of where we fit in the organisation. Ultimately it can reach beyond human resource management and allow us to see the Service as the single entity it has become by tying us together through technology. The Principal Officer has many responsibilities and obligations under NOMS. We have a primary obligation to offer the prisoners a safe and healthy environment while encouraging skills programs. We likewise have a duty to provide our employees with a safe workplace and the tools they need to accomplish their job. We're bound by our mission to provide the public with the assurance that released prisoners will make an easy transition back into the community. We additionally need to commit to assuring that prisoners will not re-offend. Our obligation extends to other departments such as health and safety, police, probation and court systems. We need to interact with these agencies to provide them with timely and accurate information and offer plans and proposals in a continuing effort to improve our service. We have a responsibility to the Service to follow policies and procedures and insure fiscal efficiency. The effective Principal Officer will be able to balance these responsibilities as they compete for time and resources. The competent Principal Officer must be a good listener. To facilitate change it is necessary to evaluate how the changes are affecting the people that work for you and with you. Employee feedback is a valuable tool to gain knowledge of what we are doing right or what we are doing wrong. Employees need to feel free to comment and offer suggestions or criticism in an open environment. A well placed trust in the workforce and a view of the staff as trained professionals who are motivated to do an outstanding job will insure open communication with the Principal Officer. Motivating our employees is a many sided endeavour. We first listen and then we take action as deemed appropriate. We need to be proactive in the areas of fairness and respect. Regular meetings with employees to insure that they have an in depth understanding of frequently changing policies will allow workers to perform their jobs with confidence. Encouraging diversity is a way to bring in new ideas and methods and is critical to our continued improvement. Timely and adequate assessment of job performance is also crucial to keeping employees striving to succeed and excel. People need to be recognised for their outstanding efforts and rewarded accordingly. Along with recognition and rewards, we need to offer our employees a clear career path with focused career goals. This helps the employees remain involved with their work and offers them a reason to excel and the motivation to meet our organisational objectives. This will not only aid in retention of our quality employees, but will also attract a higher quality workforce. By providing clear career objectives we will produce a climate that can offer improved performance and greater dedication. As important as it is to interact with other agencies, the Principal Officer also must interact with their employees and involve them in the day to day operation of the system.