Today I learned that the spanish entrepreneur Amancio Ortega got again on the 1st place ranking by Forbes and while it is again shifted Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, time to have time to write a post. The fact is, the richest man in the world with assets of $85 billion is Ortega (known for the chain of stores Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, etc.).
A few years ago, when I was studying MBA, one of my intermediate works were built on trading strategies Zara, the business model which was influenced by Ortega personally. According to him, the most important people, without effort, professionalism and motivation which neither the goal would not be achieved completely!
Like some other well-known businessmen, he is a symbol of the victory of perseverance over all difficulties in life. Growing up in a poor family (a railway worker and a maid), with 12 years left school and began working as a courier in a clothing store. It was there that he got a lot of experience, met my wife, I learned cutting and sewing and being noticed by the guide - went to work as a tailor to the designer.
Knowing all the intricacies of the profession and postponing possible means, he decided to buy a more affordable cloth. Hires people and at home begins to sewing clothes (not buying designs from designers and using your own). He is able to agree with trading networks to the realization of their fashionable, but cheaper products.
One day, from a large consignment which had invested almost all the funds Ortega, the German partners decided to give up, and he is trying to sell on their own. So there is the first shop Zorba (which runs from 1975 to this day), and the registration of the brand was renamed Zara.
After a few years, and open new sales points in Spain, and Ortega, along with his wife creates a Corporation Inditex Group, which is the conquest of the world (more than 6,500 shops and about a billion of sales of pieces of clothing in the year to date).
The principles of success Zara (in my opinion):
- lightning attention to trends
- regular (2 times a week) update the model range
- lack of warehouses/inventory due to production in small batches
- reasonable pricing (for fashionable clothes)
- daily response of the shops (on the wishes of the customers, who have in the morning are discussed with the designers)
- saving millions on advertising in favor of window dressing and stands
In addition, from the beginning he took up a position to trade both wholesale and retail (both direction + production = needs to supervise one person). It is a pity that Ortega remains in relative anonymity disclosure of his experience, but not for nothing do they say, "don't tell about your first million" :)
Today Inditex is an international giant in the field of clothing, with a market capitalization of more than $100 billion. In Europe it is already possible to use the interactive fitting room and show Zara that I would like to see otherwise (the information is transferred to the processing centre proposals, designers are refining).
And even now, retired in 81 Ortega receiving stable dividends from shares in Inditex, continues to invest (banking, tourism, real estate) around the world.