The Basics of Islam - 1816 Words

The religion of Islam is primarily centered on achieving peace and surrendering the self to the will of God or Allah and His Law. Islam began forming into the religion it is today under a prophet named Muhammad who became the final prophet of God, The Seal of the Prophets. Although known as The Seal of Prophets, Muslims believe that he was only a man chosen by Allah, as a messenger and teacher of living for God. Before faced with a mission from God, Muhammad saw his society collapse and social order being built upon corruption, so he spent fifteen years pondering the divine and laying down the spiritual groundwork for his own ministry. After much studying, he concluded that Allah is the one and only creator, and provider of the world; â€Å"there is no God, but Allah.† The new ministry of Muhammad began with the journey to a mountain in Mecca, where Allah asked him to cry out the His name and teachings to the people, therefore leading to a ministry of praise and reform by the final prophet. Through various times throughout Muhammad’s life, he began to hear and convey messages that would later be orally passed down and formed into the Koran; he was to teach the revelation, speak the revelation put into practice, so that others may see God as the one and only. Muhammad would continue to proclaim that the Koran was the only miracle performed through him. Like other prophets, Muhammad faced difficulties and rejection during his ministry by the government; first, only mockery ofShow MoreRelatedThe Basic Beliefs Of Islam1660 Words   |  7 PagesOne of the basic beliefs of Islam is that God has sent his revelation through a series of communications to humans in many ways and times. The recipients of these communications are referred to as both prophets (to specific communities) and messengers (with a universal message). Jews and Christians recognize many of the prophets and messengers mentioned in the Qur’an, the sacred scripture of Islam, for their role in Old Testament history. In Islam, Jesus generally is considered to be the greatestRead MoreThe Basic Teachings of Islam3603 Words   |  15 PagesTopic: the basic teachings of Islam Introduction Religion is one way of helping people establish a meaningful way of life, ground on promoting humanity’s personal growth and the concerns of others. Religion is not a simple term to define because different people from different societies, cultures and contexts may give different meanings and interpretations of religion. Roger Schmidt in his book, Exploring Religion, comments that, â€Å"religion is a set of beliefs, practices, and social structures, groundedRead MoreThe Basic Message Of Islam757 Words   |  4 PagesWhat was the basic message of Islam, and why was it able to expand so successfully? The basic message of Islam was that there was one God who ruled over the other Gods and whose name was Allah. Muslim Prophet Muhammad was the last and greatest prophet of Allah. He believed that Allah had exposed himself in Moses and Jesus and thru the Hebrew and Christian traditions (203). The last revelations were given to him. These revelations were written down in a holy book that became the Qur an. TheRead MoreIslam Is Based On Three Basic Fundamentals2746 Words   |  11 PagesIslam is based on three basic fundamentals which is essential for the directing the life of its followers: 1. First principle is the Religious Beliefs which is also known as Usul al-Din which means Roots of Religion. This is the very fundamental core of the religion and gives it a basic tenet of life for the followers. 2. Second principle is called as Religious Practice which is also known Furu al-Din which means Branches of Religion and this defines the peripheral aspects of the religious practicesRead MoreUniversity of Phoenix: Islam Worksheet1148 Words   |  5 PagesUniversity of Phoenix Material Islam Worksheet When studying Islam, it is important to understand the essential elements of the faith, how they are practiced, and the distinctions among the three branches: Shiite Islam, Sunni Islam, and Sufism. Write a 1- to 2-paragraph response for each of the following directives and note where there are differences among the three branches of Islam. Explain the meaning of the name, Islam. The Islamic religion is a Middle Eastern, Arabic Peninsula,Read MoreReligious Worksheet.1034 Words   |  5 PagesUniversity of Phoenix Material Islam Worksheet 1. Explain the meaning of the name, Islam. To understand the religion Islam the most important thing is to understand the meaning of the name. As one can see that Islam is not named after a person like in Christianity after Jesus Christ. Islam is the true religion of Allah and as such, its name represents the main principle of Allah â€Å"God† religion the total submission to the will of Allah. Islam means the submission or surrender of one’s willRead MoreEssay on Islam: A Religion and Culture1630 Words   |  7 PagesIslam: A Religion and Culture Islam is one of the oldest religions in history dating back to about 600 AD. It began when a man named Muhammad heard a voice from the heavens instructing him to proclaim the word of god. Currently there are over 800 million followers of the Muslim religion. The main text of the religion is the Quran which is said to be the word of God, or Allah as called in Muslim. Within the Quran, The five pillars of Islam are proclaimed along with many other concepts very uniqueRead MoreIslam : A Religion Of Discipline And Devotion1298 Words   |  6 PagesIslam: A Religion of Discipline and Devotion Islam is the second largest monotheistic religion in the world that comes under Abrahamic faith. It consists of one point six billion followers that cover approximately twenty three percent of the world’s population, and adherents of this faith are known as Muslims. The ideal fundamentals and principles of Islam is often misunderstood in the western society. Eventhough it is one of the most powerful growing religion in the world, it is percieved toRead MoreEssay Muslims and the Religion of Islam1078 Words   |  5 Pagesdecided to choose the religion of Islam. I decided to pick this religion because of its fast growing rate. It is also different from what I am used to growing up with, so I was interested in learning more. I had learned some basic facts after the 9/11 event, but the Muslim religion and culture was still a mystery to me. Picking this topic has helped me learn more about Muslims and will help me better relate to them in my future work. Background and History Islam is the religion for about a fifthRead MoreIslam vs. Christianity Essay608 Words   |  3 PagesOn the surface, Islam and Christianity appear to have very little in common, however, as you get deeper into areas such as rituals, beliefs, ethics, founders, and sacred objects, the two show strong mutual similarities, particularly in the fundamental areas, while being totally different. In this essay I will compare and contrast many of the facets that make up the worlds largest and most recognized religions, Christianity and Islam.

Washington Is being remembered for the address of “Atlanta...

Washington Is being remembered for the address of â€Å"Atlanta Exposition† In this particular speech, Booker T called on the Whites to provide Industrial, agricultural education and job for the Negroes. In return the African Americans will stop the demanding for civil rights and social equality. The message he passed to the Negroes was that social equality and politics were not really important as the immediate goals than independence and respectability of the economy. Washington had this belief that if blacks gained a foothold of the economy, and also proved how useful they can be to the Whites, then they will achieve social equality and civil rights because it will eventually be given to them in the long run. African Americans were urged and†¦show more content†¦Northern whites believed that Washington possesses a doctrine of formula for peace between the southern races. Southern whites got to like the program because it didnt involve politics, civil, and social as pirations and would also cosign the blacks to a status that is inferior. Washingtons program stopped Whites from being discontented, outstanding contributions from White philanthropists were sent to other institution and Tuskegee institutes that accepted the philosophy of Washington. Washington had a prestige which continued to grow to the point that he was being known as the spokesman for the entire Black community. Because the White supported him strongly, he became outstanding African American leader not only in the areas of philanthropy and education, but in the areas of relations, business, public affairs, and all politics. Several Black leaders expressed their opposition to Washingtons â€Å"Atlanta Exposition† with its authoritative to work and wait. They ended up not toppling Washington from power, but one of them won recognition as an opposition leader and he was W.E.B Dubois. W.E.B Dubois spent most of his time conducting series of studies sociologically on the co nditions of African Americans in the South at the time Booker T. Washington was developing his program of industrial education. During the years Dubois transitioned in his philosophy, he grew to to find WashingtonsShow MoreRelatedThe Most Controversial American Presidents9333 Words   |  38 PagesContents Argument 2 Chapter I. George Washington 4 I.1 Early life 4 I.2 Presidency 5 I.3 Retirement and death 6 Chapter II. Abraham Lincoln 7 II.1 Early life and education 7 II.2 Presidency and the Civil War 8 II.3 Assassination 13 Chapter III. J. F. Kennedy 15 III.1 Early life and education 15 III.2 Presidency 17 III.3 Assassination 19 Chapter IV. Richard Nixon 21 IV.1 Early life and education 21 IV.2 Presidency 22 IV.3 Death and funeral 23 Chapter V. Theodore Roosevelt 24 V.1Read MorePropaganda by Edward L Bernays34079 Words   |  137 Pagesis an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning societyRead MoreCommercial Liens - a Potent Weapon Essay32374 Words   |  130 Pages | |Common Law Copyright, 1995 by Build Freedom Holdings | |All Rights Reserved. | |Notice: This document is free for personal use only. No part of these materials may be reproduced in any form -| |except for personal use - without permission from the copyright holder. | Table of Contents ChapterRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pages. Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of workRead MoreMerger and Acquisition: Current Issues115629 Words   |  463 Pages copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable

Kids Should Be Paid for Good Grades free essay sample

Money can be a motivation to encourage students to study hard. The students will feel that their effort is worthy when they are remunerated. Compensation for children’s good grades can also nurture children’s concept about money. And the last, parents can refuse their kids’ unreasonable request of purchasing and let them earn it. In general, kids should get paid for good marks. First, if kids get paid for good grades, they will be motivated to get high marks. As they grow up, their demands on variety things will increase as well. However, their parents will not always satisfy their children’s needs with everything. At this point, some children might be disappointed because they cannot get what they want even though they attain good grades. For instance, if a child wants an iPhone and the parents refuse the request because it is too expensive, the child will concentrate on the iPhone rather than study hard. We will write a custom essay sample on Kids Should Be Paid for Good Grades or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Instead of saying â€Å"no† to the child, the parents can reward good grades so that the child will maintain good marks in order to buy the phone. Of course, when the child has enough savings due to good performance, the child will eventually received what he or she desired. Thus, money can be a great incentive for children to study hard. Second, children will form financial concepts about the real value of money. They hardly know the purpose of money except it could be used to exchange with the goods they want. They did not know the value, power or even the amount of money. The perception of kids about money would probably be â€Å"money comes out from mommy’s or daddy’s pocket. Therefore, paying children based on their grades allows them to know the concept of â€Å"all pays deserve gains. † Kids will soon realize that money comes from their effort and is for good reasons. Third, due to the modern society that we live in, kids are attracted by lots of fancy and luxury products and they might have unreasonable demand. Parents can refuse the unpractical demands of their children. The children will not unde rstand their parents since they are immature. In order to establish a balance between â€Å"buying what they want† and â€Å"they cannot have it†, paying for good grades is a better solution. If kids get paid, they will keep studying hard. Paying for good school work does not only benefit the children, but also the parents. Kids will be motivated by the appeal of money, while their knowledge of finance will be developed simultaneously. In addition, kids will understand that they harvest what they plant. Therefore, kids should get paid for their good marks.

Zara and Its International Expansion Essay Example

Zara and Its International Expansion Essay Zara is one of the largest and the most internationalized retailers that Inditex Group owns. Inditex Group is based in Spain, which is a global specialty retailer that designs, manufactures, and sells apparel, footwear, and accessories for women, men and children around the world. Zara’s history The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, opened the first Zara store in 1975 in a central street in La Caruna, Spain. It was first featured as low-priced look-alike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. The first store proved to be a success, hence Inditex Group started to open more Zara stores in Spain.In order to reduce the lead time and also react to new trends in a faster way, Ortega decided to change the design, manufacturing and distribution process during the 1980’s. This is what Ortega called â€Å"instant fashion†. The company made their improvements by the use of information technologies and using a group of designers instead of individuals. The core co ncept of Zara is they sell â€Å"medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices†, and the vertical integration and quick-response are also keys to Zara’s business model.Zara started to expand internationally in late 1980’s. The first Zara store outside Spain was opened in Portugal in 1988. Then they entered New York in 1989 and in Paris in 1990. The expansion of Zara stores keeps growing, and until now, it presents in seventy three countries, with 1,341 stores in prime locations of major cities. Business environment The apparel market is a consumer-driven industry, and globalization and new technologies have allowed consumers to have more access to fashion.Due to these reasons, consumer tastes are changing rapidly, competition is fierce, and companies are evolving to meet these demand. There are two types of considerations for Zara to successfully enter into the international market- internal factors and external factors, as will be explained in detail lat er in this paper in the section of international strategy. Market Structure for Clothing Industry ZARA is in a monopolistic competitive market. There are many competitors in this industry such as GAP and HM. The clothing industry is facing high ressure of reducing costs as they try to have a lower price than their competitors, and aggressive price wars, initiated by competitors working to improve their supply chain management, have slowly removed less efficient makers out of the business. Due to the global financial crisis, the clothing industry slowed down in profit growth from the beginning of 2008, and because of this huge negative impact to the global economy, there are downward pressures on price for clothing makers. The worldwide sluggish economy has decreased the demand since previous affordable prices may not be affordable now.Company such as Old Navy has been able to take over some of Zara’s market shares by offering lower prices. Competitors Gap, HM, and Benetton ar e considered three closest comparable international competitors. Zara is relatively more fashionable than all three competitors, and prices are less than Gap and Benetton but higher than HM. Among these three competitors, HM is considered the most closest competitor to Zara with some similarities and some differences. HM differs from Zara in the way they outsource all of their productions and spend more money on advertising, while Zara does little outsourcing and virtually does no advertising.Also, Zara sells only trendy products and not trying to produce â€Å"classic† clothes which would always be in style while HM does produce some â€Å"classic† clothes in addition to trendy products. The similarities are they both are European based companies, are fashion forward at low price retailers, and both have a strong international expansion strategy. Strategy and Core Competency Zara uses a combination of cost leadership strategy and product differentiation strategy to su pport its business model’s core concept of selling the latest style, medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices.This is achieved through its core competencies of a vertical integration, a vast range of products, and a unique instant fashion system, creating speed and flexibility to the market that provides the chain with a competitive advantage over traditional retailers in the industry. Vertical Integration Since the global apparel industry is high-labor intensive, most retailers and manufacturers seek to lower costs by outsourcing productions to developing countries with cheap labor.However, instead of relying on outsourcing and offshoring, Zara owns great control of its factories, stores, and distribution network because it believes it can minimize the time to market by carefully coordinate the entire production process. The company’s employees make about 50% of its finished garments, with a majority of them being the most time and fashion sensitive produc ts, in any of its 20 fully owned factories, 18 of them clustered around its headquarters. Zara has a centralized distribution facility in Spain, it is cost-effective and time efficient as the distribution center is close to the factory.Also, for Zara the distribution center is a place where products are moved rather than stored, and products shipped to farther destinations or of larger quantities are shipped by air. As a result, not only inventory cost is decreased but the delivery speed is increased. In contrast, most large fashion manufacturers rely on low cost manufacturing in Asia or South America but have to pay higher inventory costs and it takes longer time for the products to move to market. Product Variation By owning its in-house production, Zara is also very flexible in the variety, amount, and frequency of the new styles they produce.Instead of creating a few styles with mass quantity, Zara uses the style greater than quantity concept, launching new collections in increa singly shorter cycles, as it produces approximately 1000 new styles per month while producing in small batches. This creates a rapid product turnover and an environment of scarcity and exclusivity, prompting the customers to buy the product now in case it is gone tomorrow and visit the stores frequently, as said by the Toronto store manager of Zara â€Å"We receive shipments on Tuesday and Saturday, which means that we have different items in the store at least twice a week.While each shipment replenishes items that sell well, each also includes new items. That’s why our customers come in often. † On average, Zara’s customers return to the store 17 times a year, compared to 3 times a year of most of the competitors. The vast range of styles also enables Zara to cope with the changing customers’ demand and to sell more items at its full price. Instant Fashion The instant fashion system, another core competency of Zara, permits Zara to respond to the demand of its consumer better than its competitors.Compared to the conventional idea of spring and autumn clothing collections, Zara is in favor of â€Å"live collectionsâ€Å" that can be designed, manufactured, distributed, and sold almost as quickly as its customers’ fleeting tastes. Instead of predicting the trend for the next season, Zara’s designers react to what they see in the current fashion, identifying and catching a winning fashion trend while the competitors are struggling to catch up. Zara is able to do this because it has a vertical integrated supply chain that reduces lead time as explained above.While it takes 60 to 90 days in order to design and deliver a new fashion style in a traditional value chain, it only takes 12 to 15 days for Zara. The fast fashion system also depends on the constant exchange of information throughout every part of Zaras supply chain. To speed the information flow of consumer desires to their designers, Zara has teams in the manuf acturing environment responsible for attending high-fashion fairs and exhibitions to provide the designers with the latest trends. Research on market and travels to the universities and clubs around the world are also conducted throughout the season.On the other hand, in the retail environment Zara’s managers and sales associates are responsible for providing sales analysis, product life cycles, and store trends to aid the designers. This communication system is further accelerated by the IT software for stores to report directly to the production centers and designers in Spain. For example store managers use PDA to check on the latest clothes designs and place their orders in accordance with the demand they observe in stores, while all salespeople are equipped with wireless handheld organizers that let them punch in trends, customer comments and orders.Value Chain Zara has a vertical integrated supply chain owning control of all of its retailing, designing, and manufacturing operations. As mentioned above, unlike most of its competitors that outsource their production to factories around the world, Zara has approximately 80% of its production carried out in Europe, with its various business elements such as the design and production centers in close proximity to each other, around its headquarter in La Coruna, Spain. Purchases: Zara purchases materials from external suppliers.It has purchasing offices in Barcelona and Hong Kong which gives Zara the competitive advantage towards the cost of goods sold as it can purchase from the region with lower prices. About half of the fabrics are purchased in grey to allow for flexibility in manufacturing a variety of colors and patterns, and by owning Comditel, a subsidiary to Inditex responsible for dyeing, patterning, and finishing the fabrics, Zara can always provide the necessary fabrics to the new styles of its products.As explained by Jose Maria Castella, Inditex’s executive, â€Å"We have the ability to scrap an entire production line if it is not selling. We can dye collection in new colors and we can create a new fashion line in days. † Design and manufacture: There is one design center for each of the women’s, men’s, and children’s lines with separate design, sales, and procurement and production-planning staffs. Though it is more expensive to operate three channels, the information flow for each channel is fast and direct, making the overall supply chain more effective.The designers work their designs on a computer system called CAD while communicating with the store managers to receive feedback. Once the patterns are finalized, they are made available to the computers that would guide the high tech cutting tools in the factory. Zara’s factories are heavily automated, specialized by garment type, and focused on the capital-intensive parts of the production process. Inditex owns 20 factories for internal manufacture that apply the just-in-ti me production system, making the production process fully under its control.Assembly: The assembly of the cut pieces is done by a network of small workshops that are not owned by Zara. They are provided a set of easy instructions to follow for the purpose of quickly sewing up the pieces and provide a constant stream to Zara’s garment finishing and packing facilities. Distribution: All garments, both internally and externally made, go into Zaras distribution centers in La Coruna or smaller satellite centers in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to be distributed. Since Zara stores around the world receive new products regularly, Zara’s distribution center s a place for moving the products rather than for storage, therefore no style sits around very long at head office as products are shipped to stores within 48 hours. As mentioned before, this significantly reduces inventory cost and risk. Marketing: Zaea relies heavily on word-of-mouth to market its products to deliver its b rand image of high fashion, reasonable quality goods, and rapidly changing product lines instead of using the ordinary retail marketing practices. Zara spends 0-. % on advertisement investment as compared to traditional retailers of 3-4% , because instead of spending on collaborating with big-name designers and advertising campaigns, the money saved is spent on purchasing prime real estate locations around the world, for example Fifth Avenue, Tokyo’s Ginza, and Rome’s Via Condotti. Great emphasis is also placed on the store’s interior design and image by having frequent refurbishing of store layouts and common window display for all of its global stores, as shown as exhibit 1, that position Zara with a prestigious and elegant image.Service: Zara has been growing by looking to its customers for innovations. Instead of viewing the employees as costs, Zara’s in-store staff is young and very sensitive to fashion who serves as trend spotters. Through providing services to the customers, Zara’s employees can understand the constantly changing demand of the customers and transfer this information to the designers to find better way to meet the needs of the customers. IT: The most important support activity in Zara’s value chain is the information and communication technology, which provides speed to the market and exists in every stage of the chain, as shown in exhibit 2.In the upstream supply chain, IT is needed for managing the inventory of supplies, design specifications, and trim specifications. In the downstream supply chain, it is used for managing distribution and collecting information on consumer needs. International Business For international companies, globalization radically influences their production and business model. More importantly, it provides growth opportunities for them to enter foreign markets and thus gain larger market share and increase revenue.Also, it has forced global companies to improve and upg rade themselves through increasingly fierce market competition. Zara has been taking advantage of the globalization to expand its global footprints all around the world. As of August 2009, there are totally 1,560 Zara stores around the world. About 80% of its stores are located in Europe. In North America, there are only 60 stores. In Asia, there are about 91 stores . Currently Zara is still planning to aggressively plot its global expansion though at a slower pace than before mainly due to the global economic slowdown.More new stores are set to open mostly between Europe and Asia . International Strategy To establish such globally diversified presence, the highly successful international strategy Zara has been implementing a strategy with a mixture of standardization and customization. There are three steps associated with Zara’s international strategy: market selection, marketing entry, and marketing approach. Market selection: there are many key considerations involved lik e labor cost and productivity, distribution cost, shipment cost of raw materials.Characteristics or behavior of consumers, for example the people in France are more fashionable and quality oriented while the people in Germany are more price sensitive, and income per capita are also important considerations. By carefully considering these elements and following a systematic procedure to insure extensive market testing before expanding its operations, Zara so far hasnt retreated from any selected markets. Market entry: the related considerations include economics factors, government regulations, and entry barriers.More specifically, the economic factors include macroeconomic factors such as tax, political condition, and export tariff, and the microeconomic factors which include local competitors, demand, and location of stores. Zara adopted three modes of market entry- joint venture, franchise, and company-owned stores that depended on local factors. However, Zara would always make su re it has the most control to its stores no matter what forms they take. Marketing approach: Zara customizes its marketing approach according to the unique conditions of each country.For products, the local stores would place order on products that reflect the local preferences and trends. For price, different pricing strategies are used for each country, for example prices in Italy and France are higher because the people there are less price sensitive but are fashion oriented while prices in Germany is lower as it is more price sensitive. For placement, Zara stresses on efficient distribution and ensures all the stores are located in the best locations. Offshoring and Outsourcing By definition, offshoring means outsource their works to another foreign country.In global apparel industry, the general trend for global fashion retailers is to totally offshore their manufacturing to tens of thousands of small apparel makers in developing countries and mainly focus on design and marketi ng. However, counter-intuitively Zara is taking a different path. It still produces some of its products by itself. 50% of the Zara’s products are manufactured by factories fully owned by it in Spain, 26% in the rest of Europe, and 24% in Asian and African countries and the rest of the world.Only long shelf life clothes like T-shirts are mostly offshored to Asia and Turkey. Due to international expansion, Zara may consider more production out of Spain or Europe in the future, as the high transportation cost from Spain to other far foreign markets like Asia and North America is still a big concern especially when oil prices continue to remain high. Zara has purchasing offices in Beijing, Barcelona, and Hong Kong. Zara also purchases clothing materials from numerous suppliers in Spain, India, Morocco, and the Far East.Under Zara’s inter-connected network, suppliers are coordinated with Zara’s sales projection. Therefore, Zara’s production demand can be quic kly met on time. Problems Encountered in International Expansion As Zara continues its ambitious global expansion, there are still some problems that exist. One major problem is the increase of transportation cost and time for Zara as the company is expanding globally while trying to retain a centralized distribution system. In order to meet the global demand, Zara has been increasing its production through outsourcing and offshoring at a higher level.However, this raises the transportation cost and time since all of the products have to go through the distribution center in La Coruna or smaller satellite centers in Brazil and Mexico before being sent to different stores around the world. As a result, international customers have to pay higher prices to bear the transportation cost, as this goes against Zara’s principle of providing quality and fashion at a low price. Also, increasing outsourcing and offshoring means less control, which s one of the fundamental factors in ach ieving a successful vertical integrated value chain. Another problem regarding Zara’s global expansion is related to the North American market. North America is a highly competitive and vast market, with people living in different parts having different profiles and thus different fashion needs. Moreover, consumers in North America are price sensitive and less trendy. Many fashion retailers there are simply competing on price and discount which is not Zara’s favorite marketing strategy.Also, it is quite difficult to grow business in the North America without advertising. As earlier mentioned, Zara rarely advertises. These problems cause Zara to still not have a major presence in North American. Conclusion Trading higher production cost for competitive competency, Zara has been a successful retailer in the apparel industry; it also has been doing fairly well in expanding globally. It has been able to penetrate foreign markets by producing trendy clothes that satisfy mos t of the customers around the world with low prices.Zara however can still raise its global market shares by expanding more in North America. To do this, Zara has to conduct more research on North American markets. Another way to increase global market shares is to develop a second central distribution center or production center, perferably in the Americas, which will not only allow Zara to deliver goods in a faster manner, but the close proximity to the American market will also allow them to effectively interpret the particular American fashion.Zara has been increasing its production through outsourcing and offshoring to meet the global demand; they have to also be careful on these outsourcing and offshoring activities since they may have less control. Zara has to make sure that they keep their core competencies in order to maintain its competitiveness in the highly competitive clothing industry.BIBLIORGAPHY CUC, Tripa, Strategy and Systainable Competitive Advantage- The Case of Zara Fashion Chain, Oradea University, Volume VI, 2007, p. 2522 Craig A. , Jones C. , Nieto M. ZARA: Fashion Follower, Industry Leader(4/2/2004) Craig, Jones, Nieto, Zara: Fashion Follower, Industry Leader, Philadelphia University, 2004 Mukherjee, Sujit, Janmeja, Mohata, Rani, Shinde, Supply Chain Practices of Zara, Institute of Management Technology, 2009, p. 12 http://www. mbanerds. com/images/3/3b/ZARA. doc http://www. enotes. com/company-histories/industria-de-diseno-textil-s http://www. mbanerds. com/images/3/3b/ZARA. doc http://www. inditex. com/en/who_we_are/concepts/zara, INDITEX Group website http://www. banerds. com/images/3/3b/ZARA. doc, http://www. csus. edu/indiv/w/wilsonm/MBA%20209_sp%2007/scm/Zara_CASE. doc http://drillingfordiamonds. com/blog/2008/05/30/react-rather-than-predict/ http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Zara_(clothing) http://www. chinapost. com. tw/business/company-focus/2009/03/26/201780/Zara-owner. htm http://freepresentationslides. blogspot. com/2008/09/za ra-case-study. html http://www. tx. ncsu. edu/jtatm/volume5issue1/Zara_fashion. htm http://www. businessweek. com/magazine/content/06_36/b3999063. htm Zara and Its International Expansion Essay Example Zara and Its International Expansion Paper Zara is one of the largest and the most internationalized retailers that Inditex Group owns. Inditex Group is based in Spain, which is a global specialty retailer that designs, manufactures, and sells apparel, footwear, and accessories for women, men and children around the world. Zara’s history The founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, opened the first Zara store in 1975 in a central street in La Caruna, Spain. It was first featured as low-priced look-alike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. The first store proved to be a success, hence Inditex Group started to open more Zara stores in Spain.In order to reduce the lead time and also react to new trends in a faster way, Ortega decided to change the design, manufacturing and distribution process during the 1980’s. This is what Ortega called â€Å"instant fashion†. The company made their improvements by the use of information technologies and using a group of designers instead of individuals. The core co ncept of Zara is they sell â€Å"medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices†, and the vertical integration and quick-response are also keys to Zara’s business model.Zara started to expand internationally in late 1980’s. The first Zara store outside Spain was opened in Portugal in 1988. Then they entered New York in 1989 and in Paris in 1990. The expansion of Zara stores keeps growing, and until now, it presents in seventy three countries, with 1,341 stores in prime locations of major cities. Business environment The apparel market is a consumer-driven industry, and globalization and new technologies have allowed consumers to have more access to fashion.Due to these reasons, consumer tastes are changing rapidly, competition is fierce, and companies are evolving to meet these demand. There are two types of considerations for Zara to successfully enter into the international market- internal factors and external factors, as will be explained in detail lat er in this paper in the section of international strategy. Market Structure for Clothing Industry ZARA is in a monopolistic competitive market. There are many competitors in this industry such as GAP and HM. The clothing industry is facing high ressure of reducing costs as they try to have a lower price than their competitors, and aggressive price wars, initiated by competitors working to improve their supply chain management, have slowly removed less efficient makers out of the business. Due to the global financial crisis, the clothing industry slowed down in profit growth from the beginning of 2008, and because of this huge negative impact to the global economy, there are downward pressures on price for clothing makers. The worldwide sluggish economy has decreased the demand since previous affordable prices may not be affordable now.Company such as Old Navy has been able to take over some of Zara’s market shares by offering lower prices. Competitors Gap, HM, and Benetton ar e considered three closest comparable international competitors. Zara is relatively more fashionable than all three competitors, and prices are less than Gap and Benetton but higher than HM. Among these three competitors, HM is considered the most closest competitor to Zara with some similarities and some differences. HM differs from Zara in the way they outsource all of their productions and spend more money on advertising, while Zara does little outsourcing and virtually does no advertising.Also, Zara sells only trendy products and not trying to produce â€Å"classic† clothes which would always be in style while HM does produce some â€Å"classic† clothes in addition to trendy products. The similarities are they both are European based companies, are fashion forward at low price retailers, and both have a strong international expansion strategy. Strategy and Core Competency Zara uses a combination of cost leadership strategy and product differentiation strategy to su pport its business model’s core concept of selling the latest style, medium quality fashion clothing at affordable prices.This is achieved through its core competencies of a vertical integration, a vast range of products, and a unique instant fashion system, creating speed and flexibility to the market that provides the chain with a competitive advantage over traditional retailers in the industry. Vertical Integration Since the global apparel industry is high-labor intensive, most retailers and manufacturers seek to lower costs by outsourcing productions to developing countries with cheap labor.However, instead of relying on outsourcing and offshoring, Zara owns great control of its factories, stores, and distribution network because it believes it can minimize the time to market by carefully coordinate the entire production process. The company’s employees make about 50% of its finished garments, with a majority of them being the most time and fashion sensitive produc ts, in any of its 20 fully owned factories, 18 of them clustered around its headquarters. Zara has a centralized distribution facility in Spain, it is cost-effective and time efficient as the distribution center is close to the factory.Also, for Zara the distribution center is a place where products are moved rather than stored, and products shipped to farther destinations or of larger quantities are shipped by air. As a result, not only inventory cost is decreased but the delivery speed is increased. In contrast, most large fashion manufacturers rely on low cost manufacturing in Asia or South America but have to pay higher inventory costs and it takes longer time for the products to move to market. Product Variation By owning its in-house production, Zara is also very flexible in the variety, amount, and frequency of the new styles they produce.Instead of creating a few styles with mass quantity, Zara uses the style greater than quantity concept, launching new collections in increa singly shorter cycles, as it produces approximately 1000 new styles per month while producing in small batches. This creates a rapid product turnover and an environment of scarcity and exclusivity, prompting the customers to buy the product now in case it is gone tomorrow and visit the stores frequently, as said by the Toronto store manager of Zara â€Å"We receive shipments on Tuesday and Saturday, which means that we have different items in the store at least twice a week.While each shipment replenishes items that sell well, each also includes new items. That’s why our customers come in often. † On average, Zara’s customers return to the store 17 times a year, compared to 3 times a year of most of the competitors. The vast range of styles also enables Zara to cope with the changing customers’ demand and to sell more items at its full price. Instant Fashion The instant fashion system, another core competency of Zara, permits Zara to respond to the demand of its consumer better than its competitors.Compared to the conventional idea of spring and autumn clothing collections, Zara is in favor of â€Å"live collectionsâ€Å" that can be designed, manufactured, distributed, and sold almost as quickly as its customers’ fleeting tastes. Instead of predicting the trend for the next season, Zara’s designers react to what they see in the current fashion, identifying and catching a winning fashion trend while the competitors are struggling to catch up. Zara is able to do this because it has a vertical integrated supply chain that reduces lead time as explained above.While it takes 60 to 90 days in order to design and deliver a new fashion style in a traditional value chain, it only takes 12 to 15 days for Zara. The fast fashion system also depends on the constant exchange of information throughout every part of Zaras supply chain. To speed the information flow of consumer desires to their designers, Zara has teams in the manuf acturing environment responsible for attending high-fashion fairs and exhibitions to provide the designers with the latest trends. Research on market and travels to the universities and clubs around the world are also conducted throughout the season.On the other hand, in the retail environment Zara’s managers and sales associates are responsible for providing sales analysis, product life cycles, and store trends to aid the designers. This communication system is further accelerated by the IT software for stores to report directly to the production centers and designers in Spain. For example store managers use PDA to check on the latest clothes designs and place their orders in accordance with the demand they observe in stores, while all salespeople are equipped with wireless handheld organizers that let them punch in trends, customer comments and orders.Value Chain Zara has a vertical integrated supply chain owning control of all of its retailing, designing, and manufacturing operations. As mentioned above, unlike most of its competitors that outsource their production to factories around the world, Zara has approximately 80% of its production carried out in Europe, with its various business elements such as the design and production centers in close proximity to each other, around its headquarter in La Coruna, Spain. Purchases: Zara purchases materials from external suppliers.It has purchasing offices in Barcelona and Hong Kong which gives Zara the competitive advantage towards the cost of goods sold as it can purchase from the region with lower prices. About half of the fabrics are purchased in grey to allow for flexibility in manufacturing a variety of colors and patterns, and by owning Comditel, a subsidiary to Inditex responsible for dyeing, patterning, and finishing the fabrics, Zara can always provide the necessary fabrics to the new styles of its products.As explained by Jose Maria Castella, Inditex’s executive, â€Å"We have the ability to scrap an entire production line if it is not selling. We can dye collection in new colors and we can create a new fashion line in days. † Design and manufacture: There is one design center for each of the women’s, men’s, and children’s lines with separate design, sales, and procurement and production-planning staffs. Though it is more expensive to operate three channels, the information flow for each channel is fast and direct, making the overall supply chain more effective.The designers work their designs on a computer system called CAD while communicating with the store managers to receive feedback. Once the patterns are finalized, they are made available to the computers that would guide the high tech cutting tools in the factory. Zara’s factories are heavily automated, specialized by garment type, and focused on the capital-intensive parts of the production process. Inditex owns 20 factories for internal manufacture that apply the just-in-ti me production system, making the production process fully under its control.Assembly: The assembly of the cut pieces is done by a network of small workshops that are not owned by Zara. They are provided a set of easy instructions to follow for the purpose of quickly sewing up the pieces and provide a constant stream to Zara’s garment finishing and packing facilities. Distribution: All garments, both internally and externally made, go into Zaras distribution centers in La Coruna or smaller satellite centers in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to be distributed. Since Zara stores around the world receive new products regularly, Zara’s distribution center s a place for moving the products rather than for storage, therefore no style sits around very long at head office as products are shipped to stores within 48 hours. As mentioned before, this significantly reduces inventory cost and risk. Marketing: Zaea relies heavily on word-of-mouth to market its products to deliver its b rand image of high fashion, reasonable quality goods, and rapidly changing product lines instead of using the ordinary retail marketing practices. Zara spends 0-. % on advertisement investment as compared to traditional retailers of 3-4% , because instead of spending on collaborating with big-name designers and advertising campaigns, the money saved is spent on purchasing prime real estate locations around the world, for example Fifth Avenue, Tokyo’s Ginza, and Rome’s Via Condotti. Great emphasis is also placed on the store’s interior design and image by having frequent refurbishing of store layouts and common window display for all of its global stores, as shown as exhibit 1, that position Zara with a prestigious and elegant image.Service: Zara has been growing by looking to its customers for innovations. Instead of viewing the employees as costs, Zara’s in-store staff is young and very sensitive to fashion who serves as trend spotters. Through providing services to the customers, Zara’s employees can understand the constantly changing demand of the customers and transfer this information to the designers to find better way to meet the needs of the customers. IT: The most important support activity in Zara’s value chain is the information and communication technology, which provides speed to the market and exists in every stage of the chain, as shown in exhibit 2.In the upstream supply chain, IT is needed for managing the inventory of supplies, design specifications, and trim specifications. In the downstream supply chain, it is used for managing distribution and collecting information on consumer needs. International Business For international companies, globalization radically influences their production and business model. More importantly, it provides growth opportunities for them to enter foreign markets and thus gain larger market share and increase revenue.Also, it has forced global companies to improve and upg rade themselves through increasingly fierce market competition. Zara has been taking advantage of the globalization to expand its global footprints all around the world. As of August 2009, there are totally 1,560 Zara stores around the world. About 80% of its stores are located in Europe. In North America, there are only 60 stores. In Asia, there are about 91 stores . Currently Zara is still planning to aggressively plot its global expansion though at a slower pace than before mainly due to the global economic slowdown.More new stores are set to open mostly between Europe and Asia . International Strategy To establish such globally diversified presence, the highly successful international strategy Zara has been implementing a strategy with a mixture of standardization and customization. There are three steps associated with Zara’s international strategy: market selection, marketing entry, and marketing approach. Market selection: there are many key considerations involved lik e labor cost and productivity, distribution cost, shipment cost of raw materials.Characteristics or behavior of consumers, for example the people in France are more fashionable and quality oriented while the people in Germany are more price sensitive, and income per capita are also important considerations. By carefully considering these elements and following a systematic procedure to insure extensive market testing before expanding its operations, Zara so far hasnt retreated from any selected markets. Market entry: the related considerations include economics factors, government regulations, and entry barriers.More specifically, the economic factors include macroeconomic factors such as tax, political condition, and export tariff, and the microeconomic factors which include local competitors, demand, and location of stores. Zara adopted three modes of market entry- joint venture, franchise, and company-owned stores that depended on local factors. However, Zara would always make su re it has the most control to its stores no matter what forms they take. Marketing approach: Zara customizes its marketing approach according to the unique conditions of each country.For products, the local stores would place order on products that reflect the local preferences and trends. For price, different pricing strategies are used for each country, for example prices in Italy and France are higher because the people there are less price sensitive but are fashion oriented while prices in Germany is lower as it is more price sensitive. For placement, Zara stresses on efficient distribution and ensures all the stores are located in the best locations. Offshoring and Outsourcing By definition, offshoring means outsource their works to another foreign country.In global apparel industry, the general trend for global fashion retailers is to totally offshore their manufacturing to tens of thousands of small apparel makers in developing countries and mainly focus on design and marketi ng. However, counter-intuitively Zara is taking a different path. It still produces some of its products by itself. 50% of the Zara’s products are manufactured by factories fully owned by it in Spain, 26% in the rest of Europe, and 24% in Asian and African countries and the rest of the world.Only long shelf life clothes like T-shirts are mostly offshored to Asia and Turkey. Due to international expansion, Zara may consider more production out of Spain or Europe in the future, as the high transportation cost from Spain to other far foreign markets like Asia and North America is still a big concern especially when oil prices continue to remain high. Zara has purchasing offices in Beijing, Barcelona, and Hong Kong. Zara also purchases clothing materials from numerous suppliers in Spain, India, Morocco, and the Far East.Under Zara’s inter-connected network, suppliers are coordinated with Zara’s sales projection. Therefore, Zara’s production demand can be quic kly met on time. Problems Encountered in International Expansion As Zara continues its ambitious global expansion, there are still some problems that exist. One major problem is the increase of transportation cost and time for Zara as the company is expanding globally while trying to retain a centralized distribution system. In order to meet the global demand, Zara has been increasing its production through outsourcing and offshoring at a higher level.However, this raises the transportation cost and time since all of the products have to go through the distribution center in La Coruna or smaller satellite centers in Brazil and Mexico before being sent to different stores around the world. As a result, international customers have to pay higher prices to bear the transportation cost, as this goes against Zara’s principle of providing quality and fashion at a low price. Also, increasing outsourcing and offshoring means less control, which s one of the fundamental factors in ach ieving a successful vertical integrated value chain. Another problem regarding Zara’s global expansion is related to the North American market. North America is a highly competitive and vast market, with people living in different parts having different profiles and thus different fashion needs. Moreover, consumers in North America are price sensitive and less trendy. Many fashion retailers there are simply competing on price and discount which is not Zara’s favorite marketing strategy.Also, it is quite difficult to grow business in the North America without advertising. As earlier mentioned, Zara rarely advertises. These problems cause Zara to still not have a major presence in North American. Conclusion Trading higher production cost for competitive competency, Zara has been a successful retailer in the apparel industry; it also has been doing fairly well in expanding globally. It has been able to penetrate foreign markets by producing trendy clothes that satisfy mos t of the customers around the world with low prices.Zara however can still raise its global market shares by expanding more in North America. To do this, Zara has to conduct more research on North American markets. Another way to increase global market shares is to develop a second central distribution center or production center, perferably in the Americas, which will not only allow Zara to deliver goods in a faster manner, but the close proximity to the American market will also allow them to effectively interpret the particular American fashion.Zara has been increasing its production through outsourcing and offshoring to meet the global demand; they have to also be careful on these outsourcing and offshoring activities since they may have less control. Zara has to make sure that they keep their core competencies in order to maintain its competitiveness in the highly competitive clothing industry.BIBLIORGAPHY CUC, Tripa, Strategy and Systainable Competitive Advantage- The Case of Zara Fashion Chain, Oradea University, Volume VI, 2007, p. 2522 Craig A. , Jones C. , Nieto M. 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