Today our media trip to Zara Headquarters in A Coruna, Spain, involved going to the main offices for an over arching introduction from the Chief Communications Officer, followed by a visit to one of the factories, the logistics station and then back to see all the designers, buyers and trend forecasters in the white, wide, minimalist open plan offices. Oh and the totally accurate mock stores. And the top secret window dressing sanctuary.
All I can say at this stage is that it totally blew my mind. There is a jolly good reason why Zara's parent company Inditex was named the top international retailer of the year at the World Retail Congress in Berlin recently. And today we saw it all. The efficiencies gained in production. The incredibly detailed and personalized delivery mechanisms to the stores. The committed and professional staff — and by this I mean the factory workers who are silent, focused and critical to every stage of the process. And while they are unionized, they never strike, as they are treated well and appreciated for their role in the process.
We also came to understand the various reasons why Zara is the top retail brand on the high street. Both from a profitability angle, and from a trend and customer service one. Now we understand how they have got it so right. But how do we apply these learnings to our lives? I will probably spend the next five years figuring that out. But I did learn the following:
1. No one is having a crisis or shouting around the office. Everyone knows what they contribute and gets on with delivering it. If they can, so can we.
2. All the development to market leadership is incremental, pragmatic and logical. This is not a scattergun, anything is possible, success story. It was deliberate and focussed on improvements big and small as they went along, till it was perfected. Till it got brilliant.
3. The shop windows are big. And beautiful. And vital. This is how they advertise, so it is supremely important to get right. This is literal and metaphorical.
4. Pricing is and will always be affordable in every market, relative to that market. This was the answer to every question regarding price points. No amount of digging got us anywhere else. Because it is a fundamental building block of the company. No matter what. Affordable.
5. Investing to succeed can work. Even if you don't make a profit on the first go, invest in the right approach and it will pay off. In spades in their case. So use the good fabric. Soon you will have enough volume to justify a lower price and then you have higher quality at an affordable price. Simple, really.
And so at the end of this long and incredible day, I have written pages of notes. I go to sleep safe in the knowledge that every work related debate will be trumped by the words, "well when I was at Zara, they did it like this..." for the foreseeable future. I will be annoying, but I will be right. Brilliant.