Zara Boss Ortega: From Tailoring To Europe'S Richest Man

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Born in Spain in 1936, he started working in a clothing store at the age of 13 and opened the first place in 1975.

In 1985, I n d i t e x group was set up in 2001, and was announced to retire in 2011.

One day in 2006, Marta Ortega, who was only 22 years old, was sitting in the classroom, and the teacher was talking about the Zara marketing mode that was quickly criticized by the marketing class.

Marta took notes as seriously as everyone else, and thought that the assignment was sure to get a high score because she knew the brand better than anyone else.

After class, Marta hurried to work in Zara store in downtown London, counting shelves, replenishment and pportation.

No one knew that the childish girl was going to be the hostess here because her father was the one.

The founder of Oman Theo Ortega.

"I must do something!"

In this year's Forbes's list of global richest figures, otter ranks third in assets of $64 billion and has been sitting on the richest seat in Europe for 3 consecutive years.

The media all over the world were trying hard to spy on his private life.

"The old man has not accepted any media interviews now," said the head of public relations at Inditex group, the parent company of Zara.

Before 1999, the media could never capture a picture of him.

It was not until the first publication of the annual report after Inditex was published in 2001 that he had his first official portrait.

The more low-key Ortega is, the more insane the media is.

After all, in a country dominated by the old family business in Spain, the story of a small tailor from scratch to become the richest man in Europe is really fascinating.

In 1936, when Ortega, the fourth child of the family, was born, the Spanish Civil War broke out and the civil war broke out.

At that time, his father was a railway maintenance worker, a family of 6 basic food and clothing are difficult to solve.

At the age of 8, Ortega moved his family to La Coruna.

This is a poor fishing port city. Because of smuggling and piracy, the media called it a "chaotic little fishing village".

Ortega recalls that one afternoon in 1948, his mother took him to buy some candy for him.

The grocer said to his mother, "I'm sorry, madam, but I can't give you any more credit."

Ortega was ashamed of his young age, so he dropped out of school at the age of 13 and worked as an apprentice in a clothing store for pporting clothes.

A nearby bar owner recalled that at that time there was always a young clothing delivery man in the bar saying, "I must do something!" this person is Ortega.

In the 60s of last century, Ortega fell in love with Sariya Mela, a similar school dropout.

At that time, the clothing store owner asked Ortega to sell a lady's pajamas.

Ortega found this exquisite and gorgeous.

Widely loved by women, the most expensive price prohibits most people.

So the couple decided to open up a new market, so that women could buy the most high-end design at ordinary prices.

Ortega designed the most popular style at that time, and bought a lot of cheap cloth produced in Barcelona, and produced a lot of cheap and cheap nightgowns in his living room, which was a great success in the market.

In 1975, two couples opened their first Zara store.

It is said that the inspiration for the name Zara came from the movie "the Greek left," because a bar preempted the name "Zorba" and the couple had to replace it with Zara.

I didn't expect this brand of mistake and collision to finally be able to take pride in the apparel retailing industry.

Love cheap potatoes

In May 2011, Ortega announced his resignation from CEO and appointed Pablo Ira, vice president of Inditex, to take over.

But we think his retirement is just symbolic.

Jose Reno, a friend and marketing professor of Ortega, once said, "Ortega will not play golf after retirement.

He liked the cause from his bones, and he would not give up his job to death. "

Indeed, Ortega will often visit companies and factories after retirement.

At Inditex headquarters, there is a "no man" President's office. Ortega will never sit down in his office and report on his subordinates' work. He will go through various departments directly to supervise the work himself.

The company's employees broke the news, Ortega not only dedicated, but also very frugal.

His lunch is always settled in the company's staff restaurant, and his favorite food is cheap potatoes.

The European richest man began to implement the CD program very early. Every time he ate, he would eat all the food on the plate and never waste it.

Among the 3 children of Ortega, he liked Marta, the youngest daughter, because he thought the little girl was most like herself, low-key and steadfast.

In 2002, he asked Marta to work in her own retail store, asking her to use alias and work in the most ordinary employee status.

In this way, Marta has been buried in name for 4 years.

At the end of 2006, Ortega appointed Marta as vice president of two subsidiaries.

Just when everyone thought that the "little princess" was going to be in full swing, Ortega arranged for Marta to start a long journey abroad in 2011.

Starting from the retail stores in London and Paris, it is possible to go to Shanghai, China.

Although the focus has been placed on training successors, Ortega is still the soul of Inditex. His success has attracted the attention of the Spanish apparel industry and provided employment opportunities for 500 thousand people.

In the eyes of Spaniards, he was a self-made business hero.

The most valuable brand in Europe

In the 2014 Forbes global brand value 100, Zara ranked fifty-first.

Harvard Business School even rated Zara as the most valuable brand in Europe.

"We spent a week reading the Harvard Business Review" the Zara supply chain, "a student at Harvard marketing told reporters.

The reason why Zara has become a marketing model is closely related to its rocket expansion.

For more than 30 years, Zara has always adhered to the strategy of "zero advertising", and Ortega prefers to spend more money on additional shops.

In the 90s of last century, the expansion of Zara from Europe to America to Asia, has opened more than 6500 stores in 88 countries.

The expansion process of Zara is like an oil dripping slowly on the fabric surface, so people call this strategy "oil pollution pattern".

Ortega also caught the consumer's showing off mentality and always chose the most expensive place to open a shop.

In New York, he set up shop in Fifth Avenue; in Paris, he chose Champs Elysees street; in Shanghai, he aimed at Nanjing road.

Therefore, Zara's neighbors are all luxury giants such as LV and Chanel.

Zara's models are also the best. The most popular models in the world have appeared on the poster of Zara.

This greatly satisfies the consumer's vanity: shopping on Champs Elysees street is no better than spending the money on the most fashionable models.

In addition to spreading the net widely, Ortega is also known as "the first copy in the world".

He hired more than 260 designers to shuttle all kinds of fashion conferences to quickly feed back the most popular design concepts to headquarters, then summarize and reorganize these styles, and inject Zara's own characteristics to form a brand new Zara design.

Daniel Pat, LV's former fashion director, once said, "Zara may be the most innovative enterprise, but it is also the most destructive."

Another magic weapon for Ortega is fast.

From design to production, he controls the garment manufacturing process in 4 to 5 weeks, which makes Zara products update very rapidly, and consumers will have a sense of urgency that they will not buy shelves now.

At the same time, Ortega deliberately made scarce products and sold only the most popular medium price clothing on Tuesday and Friday.

This "fast fashion" mode threatens all fashion brands.