1. In a fast pace industry, with rapidly changing trends, Zara’s sought to “respond quickly to the
demands of the target customers, who were young, fashion-conscious city dwellers.” (p.3) In order to
meet these demands, Zara would need to “produce and deliver styles while still hot” and “keep abreast
of fast changing trends”. For the business model to be successful, they needed to know what items were
selling and what target customers were wearing and they needed to have confidence in the decisions
made by the product managers. Questioning or second guessing the decisions would compromise the
company’s speed (p.4). In order to operate effectively, Zara relied to three cyclical processes. The three
processes included ordering, fulfilment, and design and manufacturing.
Ordering was completed twice a week and was the most precisely defined of the processes.
Inventory information was gathered by store managers and employees then relayed to the information
systems at La Coruna. Offers made to each store were unique and based on demographics, sales
patterns, and inventory availability. Following the offer, orders were then based on the need for
