Zara

"As I waited, it all came back to me. Tobin and Jessica Ordovas, our manager for Spain and Italy, in an epic instance of clutching at straws, had caught the first flight in the morning to Madrid. It was Jessica’s idea to call her brother, the executive assistant to Martin Varsavsky, one of Spain’s most successful entrepreneurs. Varsavsky ran Jazztel, a Spanish telecoms company. ‘I can’t promise that Martin will see you,’ Jessica’s brother had said. ‘But if you get over here I should be able to set you up with his advisers.’ He was true to his word, Tobin explained when he called back a few minutes later. Over lunch with the advisers, he and Jessica had given a presentation on boo’s latest sales figures and calmly asked for several million dollars — by the end of the day. The advisers explained that Varsavsky himself was unlikely to be interested, but that they also had connections with Zara, the Spanish retailing chain, which had been thinking about developing an online presence. How boo it would be, I thought, if we’were saved like this."

""Inditex has a department of 40 people—how many are there today?, I wonder—dispersed in New York nightclubs, shopping areas of Paris, trendy bars and hotspots in Spain... This trend tracking is known as market testing to target audiences". In the search for more reasons for their overwhelming success, I add one that I think is fundamental: the constant renewal of stock, which changes by 40 percent every week and every three days new batches of clothes arrive at the stores. This means that, while other firms make their collection at once for the whole season, Zara continuously modifies its products according to what people are asking for."

"In 1979 Amancio Ortega gathered all his companies under the Inditex label. During the eighties, he took his stores to all regions of Spain and, before the end of the decade, he dared to compete in the fashion capital, setting up in Paris, and cross the Atlantic to open stores in New York. In the nineties, in line with the globalisation that was beginning, expansion turned into an explosion. Zara set foot in the most important European cities, the Far East, and several Latin American capitals."

""The goal of the German-American billionaire is to preserve, revive, and rejuvenate the ‘cult brand’ Karstadt." The department store chain should focus on the segments fashion ("Fashion"), home accessories ("Living"), sports, and personal accessories as well as jewelry and cosmetics ("Personality") in the future. The restructuring experts have identified clear weaknesses here compared to relevant competitors such as Douglas, Peek & Cloppenburg, C&A, H&M, or Zara."