Zara Founder Amancio Ortega: Master Of Changing The Wardrobe Of A Generation

Opened the first factory with 25 dollars.

Mention of Ortega, even Hispanics, knows little about it.

He is famous.

The founder of brand Zara.

Despite the turmoil in the Spanish domestic market, Ortega's personal wealth surged 11 billion 400 million US dollars this year, an increase of 32%.

By opening new stores in emerging markets like China, profit has achieved 12 consecutive quarters of profit growth.

Bloomberg reported that as the stock price of Ortega built up 3.8%, a record high, the wealth of the "hermit" increased by 1 billion 600 million US dollars (1 US dollars or 6.36 yuan) to 46 billion 600 million US dollars for the first time to surpass Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett has a net worth of $45 billion 700 million and has been ranked third in the world since the Bloomberg billionaire index was launched in March 5th.

In fact, in June 13th of this year, Ortega had surpassed IKEA's boss and Sweden's Ingvar Kamprad became Europe's first richest man.

Currently, he and his second wife live in a conspicuous apartment building in downtown La Coruna, northwest Spain.

La Coruna belongs to Galicia, Spain. It is Ortega's place of fortune.

This area has been a large number of private traders, pirates and medieval kings tailors.

Ortega, who was born in the cold, had three talents.

In 1936, Ortega was born in Leon, Spain. His mother worked as a servant, and his father was a railway worker.

Because of his father's working relationship, he moved to La Coruna at the age of 13 and began to work to help his family.

He worked as a handyman in several shirts factories and women's underwear stores to deliver goods to customers.

By the beginning of 1960s, he became manager of a clothing store.

These jobs not only give him the experience of dealing directly with customers, but also get them.

Purchasing experience.

He understood the importance of not sending goods directly to customers through middlemen.

The last step of product business is the biggest increase in price.

When he became a clothing store manager, he gradually had a clear vision of what he would do in the future.

It all started when he was in charge of selling a dressing gown with pink flowers and blue flowers.

He believes every woman in La Coruna likes this beautiful one.

It's just too expensive for most people.

One day, he came up with the idea that this idea became the core business idea of Ying Di de company, that is, to imitate popular fashions with cheaper materials and sell them at a lower price.

So Ortega bought a material that was quite cheap and cheap in Barcelona. He designed the sample and made a similar dressing gown on the dining room table of the sister-in-law's living room. The price could be reduced by half.

He spent several weeks thinking about how to fold and not wrinkle his collar.

Later, with the help of his elder brother and his wife, he began to make a cheap and fashionable dressing gown, and sold his morning dressing to his local shop. His first customer was his former boss.

As the business grew bigger and bigger, and he made a profit, he resigned from his job and opened his first factory with 5000 pairs of towers (25 US dollars), which was in 1963, and he was only 27 years old.

Soon after, Ortega shifted his business from production to retail.

In 1975, Ortega, another 39 year old, made the most important success in his life.

That year, ort opened a new retail store, named after it.

We sell high quality and cheap fashion imitation products.

The store is located opposite the most famous department store on central street in La Coruna.

Years later, Ortega's eyes for the location of the chain store and his simple and simple shop were praised by the world.

This shop is booming. It is popular with customers, and its business is booming.

This prompted him to open Zara chains in several large cities in Spain.

Later, Ying De group said in an annual report, "the purpose of Zara is to democratise fashion.

Different from fashion privilege, we are able to afford affordable fashion by the encouragement of modern men and women's tastes, pursuits and lifestyle.

Shrewd

Perhaps they are dismissive of Zara's cheap fashion show imitations, but they admit that Zara has cultivated a nation's fashion taste and has revolutionized the wardrobe of a generation.

However, as business grew more and more prosperous, Ortega realized that if he wanted to remain invincible in the fashion industry for a long time, he must adapt to the changing fashion trend.

The traditional garment industry has a long delivery cycle, from design to production, and then to retail outlets, which often take up to six months.

This model actually limits manufacturers and stores to produce and sell two or three sets of garments a year.

There are inherent difficulties in predicting customers' preferences and grades ahead of time. Producers and sellers have always had the risk of too much inventory.

In early 80s, Ortega tried to break this pattern and put forward the so-called "fast fashion", so that it could quickly respond to changes in customer tastes and new trends.

A new design and sales model began to take shape in his mind.

However, his vision did not come true until he met Jose Maria Castellano.

Castellano is a computer expert. In 1984, he joined Ortega to develop new sales mode and implement Ortega's idea of "fast fashion", thus revolutionizing the global garment industry.

With the computerized system designed by Castellano, Ortega's

The company will shorten the process of design to sale to 10~15 days.

Instead of putting the design burden on a designer, the company set up its own design team, and the number of designers developed to more than 200.

They design according to fashion fashion, and design according to the company's idea.

In this way, the design team can not only respond to the new fashion trend quickly and timely, but also meet the special requirements of the company's own customers, such as adding flowers or patterns.

The advanced production and warehousing procedures and the installation of computerized inventory system connect the fashion chain stores with the increasing number of factories, making the company avoid the risks and capital waste caused by the large inventory.

In 1985, Ortega set up a group company called Ying Di, and Zara became an enterprise under the group.

In 1988, Zara's first foreign chain store opened in Portugal and opened the prelude to the expansion of Ying De group.

In 2001, the listing of Ying De stock made the development of the group even more powerful.

Up to now, the company has more than 100 companies engaged in the design, production and sale of textiles, including 8 major brand chain stores including Zara and Massimo Duti, with over 90 thousand employees and 5618 chain stores in 84 countries and regions.

The group has become one of the largest fashion companies in the world.

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Although he thrive and thrive, Ortega has been working quietly behind the scenes. He is very low-key and does not like to show his face. He is just a hermit in the business world.

Ortega never interviewed and rarely took part in public activities.

In Spain, almost no one has not bought the cloth of his company, and almost nobody knows the name of Zara. Before the listing of the company's stock, few people know the name of the business owner, and few people know what the Spanish millionaire looks like.

By the end of 1999, he had taken an unprecedented step for the listing of the company, and released his annual report with his own photo.

Without a press conference, no startling news was announced and personal information was not disclosed.

When the company went public in 2001, it was reported that he did not celebrate anything but watched TV news for 15 minutes and had a lunch in the company cafe.

He refused to wear a tie, like T-shirts and blue jeans.

His subordinates say he is a man who avoids the upper class and the rich circles.

In 1998, Prince Felipe of Spain visited the company. His representative was Ortega, who did not see Ortega himself.

He did not like to deal with the financial circles in suits.

In preparation company

During the period, he was very reluctant to invest too much in investment bankers.

"We can see that this is absolutely a torture for him."

One banker said.

Jose Luis Nueno, a marketing professor at IESE business school in Barcelona, also revealed: "the Prime Minister of Spain convened 20 leading business executives to meet and discuss strategies for coping with the economic crisis. The result is that he has not gone."

Because he never interviewed, it was rare to have his words in newspapers.

It was only last year when he announced that he was about to retire.

He said he would soon invite Pablo Isla, the vice-chairman and CEO of surplus company, to take over the Empire of textiles.

"Dear friends, it is time for us to propose Pablo Isla as executive chairman for our next meeting."

He said in a text message.

He praised his successor as "energetic and experienced", but he did not explain why he chose this time.

This may have something to do with Ortega's old age and the company's good performance in the global economic downturn.

Marketing professor Nueno said: "this situation is most favorable for stepping down.

The company shows the ability to operate normally under any circumstances. Ortega is also 76 years old, but he is in good health.

Now is the right time to tell the market company to get another person to steer.

You don't want to make that decision when he suddenly falls ill or the company's performance is bad.

He believes that the 48 year old Isla was appointed chairman of the board to show that the highest position of Ying De would not be "hereditary".

But observers also pointed out that because of the age gap within the family, this could ensure that the family business thrived under the guidance of a loyal manager until Ortega's Pearl, the 27 year old daughter, Marta, was able to take over.

Ortega resigned as chairman of the board and was still a director of the company. He is said to be keen to participate in the company's production and design.

"I don't think Ortega will play golf any more. He is interested in the soul of the company.

I don't think he will stop working until he dies. "

Nueno said.

Nine magic weapons of Zara

1, targeting emerging countries: reducing dependence on Spain's domestic market.

2, set up shop next to the luxury luxury store.

3, "zero advertising": profit is only used for shop expansion.

4, "oil pollution mode": first open shop in the most prosperous section of the big city center, and then develop small towns.

5, "manufacturing shortage": implementation of limited edition clothing.

6 and more than 20 years old: the average age of Zara fashion designers

7 or two weeks: from design to store time, more than 10 times faster than competitors.

8 or three weeks: each store has all the styles of clothes updated all the time, and about 12000 fashions are launched in a year.

9 and 40 thousand: design launched annually