Zara Macro Environment Analysis

Q 1. With respect to lean manufacturing, what do you see as “next steps” for Daktronics? Should Daktronics extend lean techniques to non-manufacturing areas? What are the pros and cons? Answer: The implementation of lean manufacturing principles is reinforcing Daktronics commitment to efficiency and building high-quality, reliable products. Lean practices help manufacturers to continuously eliminate any resource expenditure that doesn 't create value for the customer. As a result of their lean efforts, Daktronics have seen a 60 percent increase in factory efficiency. Standardizing the processes across the company empowers them to build a higher-quality product in all their factories. As a final quality check, the company tests the entire display

Oligopoly is a market structure whereby a few number of firms owns a lion’s share in the market. This market structure is similar to monopoly, except that instead of one firm, two or more firms have control in the market. In an oligopoly, there are no upper limits to the number of firms, but the number must be nadir enough that the operations of one firm remarkably influence and affects the others (Investopedia, 2003).

Boots UK Limited is a pharmacy chain operating in United Kingdom and Ireland which sells health and beauty products along with operating an optician service. It was first established in 1849 by John Boot, and was formerly known as ‘Boots the Chemist’. Boots ( the trading name of the company) has achieved many successes throughout its career that it can be called a very successful, pharmacy-led health and beauty company, despite its ups and downs which are going to be mentioned further in this assignment. Boots UK is officially branch of a multinational company, Alliance Boots GmbH which operates in over 25 countries around the world.(Boots-uk.com, n.d.)

Started in 1990, Ulta Beauty has grown to hold 4% of $127 billion beauty market by providing customers with ‘All Things Beauty, All In One Place’. Ulta Beauty offers different services and products ranging from cosmetics, fragrances, salon, and skin. Altogether, Ulta has over 20,000 products, 500 brands, and 400 vendors. With this. Ulta beauty has become the largest beauty retailer in the U.S. and plans to expand each year by adding 100 new stores until they reach their goal of around 1,700 stores in the US. Ulta Beauty works to target all different age and income groups by pricing with the high-low strategies and keeping up with their main competitors like Macys and Amazon. They also are expanding their e-commerce business to fit the growing

When the stock market crashed, wealthy people had all their saved money wiped. People couldn’t really take loans out because they were in debt owing money to the bank. After banks shut down, then local stores, factories, and restaurants all shut down. This then escalated into unemployment. Over 600% of citizens were unemployed and had no income. They had to start selling items to make enough change to buy food each day.

Increased consumer prices, driven by companies offsetting increased labor cost (Econo-mist and public policy experts).

Some of the issues discussed in this chapter include the fall in standard employment and rise in nonstandard employment, low-paid workers, the risk of increasing income volatility, the increase in economic insecurity, and the effects of demographic changes on

Sandel’s paper What Isn’t for Sale?, discusses inequality and corruption in the market economy,and its movement into nonmarket areas. Sandel proclaims, “in hopes of avoiding sectarian strife, we often insist that citizens leave their moral and spiritual convictions behind when they enter the public square. But the reluctance to admit arguments about the good life into politics has had an unanticipated consequence. It has helped prepare the way for market triumphalism”(394). Today almost anything can be bought or sold, and because of this the market has become corrupt . Easy accessibility to goods and services allow productivity to flourish, which in turn bolsters our economy. However, in order to keep up with the ever increasing demand for

Zara can be identified as one of the largest international fast-fashion organizations which is owned by the fashion group Inditex. Their first store was opened in 1975 and from that point of time, they have had an unstoppable growth throughout the years as up to now. After 42 years of operations, today Zara has been able to expand themselves with 2169 stored over 82 countries all over the world. Rather than they were a high fashion brand in the country, Zara has focused themselves as a fast fashion brand where they will change their fashions at a great pace where no one can reach them. Also, the most attractive thing is that all those latest fashion designs are introduced to the public at an affordable price. This generates

Political factors internationally have effect on Starbucks businesses and their profits . Taxes to business environment is affected by politics, but the main political factor is about sourcing the raw materials and so it has gathered a lot of attention from politicians from the source countries. For the reason company wants to obey the social and environmental standards also there is a deep link between political and economic stability. More the politically stable the nation is the more economic environment. They also have tax policies and regulatory pressure on them. Aim is to take convenient decision on firm’s progress. Political decision affects the economic, social, environmental and technological issues

In terms of differentiation, ZARA’s “fast fashion” philosophy is unique, which create demands and lead the trend in the garment market. They respond very quickly to the demands of target customers and focus on young fashion. In production, they design quickly, production quickly and update quickly. They are always the fastest compared with their competitors. In cost leadership aspect, ZARA conducts little advertising and vertically integrated manufacturing operation and distribution system based on information system. Inside the company, their organization structure is simple and employees work with high participation, so that the whole company runs efficiently. All above allow ZARA to provide products with lower price. ZARA has a flat organization structure, which emphasizes a decentralized decision making approach; The design team are relatively independent; Store managers have more responsibilities. Team structure is important for operating organization

The activity of LVMH is mainly focused in luxury industry and its spectrum of products is divided into five generic fields:

Growing customer expectations result in shorter life cycle of products and this means that companies should make their processes more and more flexible adopting modularity and product platforms in order to overcome competitors. Companies who fail to meet dynamic customer needs are doomed to fail.

Amul as a brand name is familiar to almost every individual in India, Amul is known for its quality products purity and hygiene. It is a Dairy Cooperative of Gujarat, also known as The Gujarat Cooperative milk marketing federation Ltd established in 1946. Gujarat as a state of India is a leader in organizing dairy cooperatives and its success is not only limited in India but acts as a model for rest of the World.

The best companies in the world are discovering a powerful new source of competitive advantage. It's called supply chain management and includes all onboard activities that bring products to market and satisfied customers.