Zara International

Zara International

Zara International was a retail shop originated in La Coruna, Spain in 1975. It was clothing and accessories shop and imitated the latest fashion trends and sold them at a lower cost. It became Zara International after entering Portugal in 1988 and then the United States and France in the 1990s. The distributor for this brand is Inditex and is considered the most successful retail chain in the world. Zara has a business strategy that is very different from the retailers nowadays. If a customer orders a product Zara’s distribution centers can have the items in the store within 24 to 48 hours of receiving the order, depending upon the country. The business plan that Zara’s executives made was very innovative and played a great part in the success of this retail chain. Not only has it been successful and profitable in the past, they are successful in the present and have been expanding their brand all over the world

Zara International’s business strategy has elements of classical management approach. Classical Management approach has the assumption that people at work act in a rational manner that is primarily driven by economic concerns. This approach has three major branches: Scientific management, administrative principles and bureaucratic organization.

Scientific Management

Frederick W. Taylor used the concept of time study which is to analyze the motions and tasks required in any job and to develop the most efficient ways to perform them. His first principle was motion study which is the science of reducing a job or task to its basic

physical motions. This concept was clearly evident in Zara International’s case. Time is the main factor that is considered by Zara International as opposed to production costs and advertisements. According to Schermerhorn (2010), “Parent company Inditex Group shortens the time from order to arrival by a complex system of just-in-time production and inventory reporting that keeps Zara ahead (p.54)” It is only possible if Zara has skilled workers and the required training to train these workers with the ability to send the product within 24 hours of receiving an order in the European store and 48 hours in American and Asian stores. This is evidence of using the principles two and three of Scientific Management. All this requires careful planning which is the fourth principle of scientific management.

Administrative Principles:

Henri Fayol’s administrative principles are also clearly seen in Zara International’s case. Zara had a foresight of what it was doing will create profit. It did not spend any money on advertising but instead on being efficient and on time on its production. With no advertising the company made a profit of $10 billion in sales which were overwhelming. The CEO of Inditex Pablo Isla seems