Strategic Management and Leadership Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : General Management

Critical Assessment of The Strategic Management Process

Introduction to Strategic Management and Leadership

Zara offers stylish and reasonable clothing by incessantly presenting style and trendy for different seasons. It is one of the most popular Spanish fashion and accessories retailers. The company was established in 1975 by Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera. The company pays a lot of attention to the design process of production and distribution of its goods. Furthermore, the company always focuses on what the customer wants and desired and then focuses on one direction of making the best possible products and services. 

Value Proposition

 Zara delivers worth to its loyal patrons by providing unique customizing designer clothes as well as accessories at reasonable prices. All these products offered sentimental and emotional values to the customers (Waghmare and Golhar 2017). It has also been identified that the brand is delivering value to its designer by providing them with a stage to present their quality creations to the customers. Furthermore, the brand satisfies the needs of its customers by providing them with large choices of styles and fashionable products. 

Competitive Context

PESTEL Analysis

Economic Factors

It has been identified that Zara is a Spanish brand. Furthermore, the level of financial activity in any country has a major influence on how business is going. It has been identified that Zara has an effective strategy that focuses on affordable pricing. Furthermore, an affordable pricing strategy helps the company to cope with the issue of low economic activity (Murray 2016). Economic activity reduces the purchasing power of the customers which has a direct influence on the overall profitability of the company. Also, the rising labour cost, the production cost of raw material can increase the financial burden of the business. Another major economic factor includes the fluctuating economy. It specified that Zara has been observing fluctuations in the last few years but the company is drawing its revenue productively for the last years. 

Social Factors

The country has a well-established support of the widespread trade conformity which assist Zara to import raw material and export complete products. Furthermore, the monetary system of the country has a major impact on the smooth performance of any company (Waghmare et al.2017). Also, Asian country like India and China post main challenge in front of the business in the form of red-tapism. Another major political challenge includes political disturbance as it may influence the wealth and affect the supply chain. However, Zara may overcome this difficulty by restricting its supply chain procedure in the home country. Dynamic social tendency has a major impact on demand as well as the supply of the company's goods. It also has an enormous influence on the accessibility and readiness of persons to work. Zara has a gigantic market and create an assortment of products. It is quite improbable that there will be a transfer concerning such societal factors. Also, the company must focus on improving the presence of online channels

Technological factors

 The brand has the finance and loyal customer base to extract much information about the trends. The company invests a huge amount of money to recognize and evaluate data sets to find competent ways to attract new customers. Zara utilizes information technology to support its international logistics systems and online store (Xuejie et al. 2019). The online platforms give the opportunity customers to buy its product through in-house apps. It is one of the few brands which use innovative technologies to enlarge its reach. As one of the most accepted fashion retailers, the company is using big data to analyze data sets to find superior ways to reach and appeal to the customers. 

Environmental factors

 In the current scenario, sustainability has become a major Trend. Zara has also invested in sustainability to enhance its goodwill and reduce its impact on the environment. The company is highly committed to the elimination of all types of those wastes and other materials. To achieve this aim, the company is investing time and effort in green business. To demonstrate the concern for ecological matters, the parent brand Inditex has explicitly published a sustainability oath. On the website, the company shares its promise to climate change, water, energy, sustainable materials, and many more (Aabed 2017). Also, the brand must comply with guidelines to cope with sustainability challenges and guidelines.

Legal Factors

Legal compliance is an important part of any business and the brand has spent in observance throughout its systems including the supply chain. The company makes sure that the brand sticks on to the local laws in the local market wherever it functions. It has been identified that the company put a major emphasis on ethics and sustainability (Murray 2016). The business provides livelihood wages to its worker for which they have developed separate laws. Also, the concurrent losses arising obligation for the product and the businesses advance for the same through its supply chain management. To set up new clothes in line with the newest trends the brand has run into some patent breach issues in the past. The brand has been blamed for stealing plan and clothing idea from Adidas and Balenciaga. The outmoded lawful doctrine was one of the cause brands can copy Each Other without facing any selecting noteworthy consequence. To deal with these issues the company must strongly use copyright laws so that they can launch a new product line in the market. 

Reference for Strategic Management and Leadership

Aabed, A., 2017. Supply chain in the readymade garments industry (Zara case study). International Design Journal, 7(4), pp.245-253.

Aftab, M.A., Yuanjian, Q., Kabir, N. and Barua, Z., 2018. Super responsive supply chain: The case of Spanish fast-fashion retailer Inditex-

Murray, K.B., 2016. The American Retail Value Proposition: Crafting Unique Experiences at Compelling Prices. University of Toronto Press.

Waghmare, R.B. and Golhar, D., 2017. Knowledge Creation at Incubation for Business Model Innovation: The Conceptual Understanding. Journal of Commerce and Management Thought, 8(4), pp.673-683.

Xuejie, C., Chang, Q. and GuangHao, Z., 2019, August. Research on Innovation supply chain Management in Fast Fashion Industry——A comparative analysis of ZARA and H&M. In 2019 3rd International Conference on Education, Culture and Social Development (ICECSD 2019). Atlantis Press.

Zara. International Journal of Business and Management, 13(5), p.212.

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