Phan Hồng Linh - 20213153

TEST 75 MINUTES
1. Summarize innovation activities/mechanism/strategy:
a) Zara:
- Timing (First-mover advantages): The idea of “fast fashion” was first coined by Zara.
- Innovative information system strategy: Zara’s high-speed flexible response is due to an efficient
use of information systems. Data of customers’ demand and feedback is transmitted up-to-the-
minute so the stores can be highly responsive to customer preferences.
- Add/extend range of competitive factors:
+ Speed: their fast fashion model has been able to move from idea to store in as little as 2 weeks.
+ Variety of product.
+ Flexibility: Zara is associated with new trends in the industry. They have the ability to keep up
with rapidly changing fashion trends and to change clothing designs quickly.
- Reconfiguring the parts of the process:
+ Outsourcing: Zara has a network of small workshops spread across villages and small
communities in Spain and northern Portugal
+ Coordination system: Their production process is the combination of old model and 21st century
new technologies (Highly automated and with extensive in-line quality checking, automated
distributed centre)
- Novelty in product and process:
+ Zara stands out in the industry by offering a wide variety of clothing models, demonstrating a
commitment to product innovation.
+ Zara has developed a unique model for manufacturing which helps Zara to be able to stay
efficient and avoid wasteful over-stocking.
→ This combination of product and process innovation allows Zara to offer a diverse range of
clothing options and respond quickly to changing consumer preferences.

b) Threadless:
- The idea of “crowdsourcing”- put some work out to a community: the company does not create
designs but instead sources them from its users and sells them.
- Novelty in process: the idea of “co-creation” - Threadless allow customers to be a part of the
production process:
+ Design process: everyone can design their own T-shirt. Threadless support artists in their
creative process by offering a huge and attractive package of benefits →It attracts a high volume
and variety ideas
+ Market research: Threadless use the voting system – asking users which of the designs on
display are popular - to forecast customer preferences instead of recruiting market researchers.
- Robust/platform design: Threadless’s crowdsourcing and co-creation online platform has managed
to create an online creative community that not only make art but also can support and buy it.
2. Compare Zara and Threadless innovation:
Zara Threadless
- Innovate new ways of serving existing markets
Similarities - Product innvation: they both focus on the variety of products
- Customer-oriented strategy: Zara’s main objective that is responding to the needs
of their customers while Threadless’s core is its engagement with its users.

- The main innovation is closed - The main innovation is open

innovation (internal innovation):
Central to the Zara innovative strategy is
the close linkage between design,
manufacture, and retailing, and their
Differences network of stores constantly feeds back
information about trends that are used to
generate new designs.
- Process innovation: Zara has used
creative approaches to streamline and
optimise manufacturing, supply chain
management, data tracking and
inventory management.
innovation: Central to the Threadless
innovative strategy is the use of co-
creation and crowdsourcing, exploit the
crowd’s capabilities and knowledge
within the innovation process to solve
problems.
- User-led innovation: Threadless
integrates users into the important
business processes of ideation, market
research and product development.

3. Conclusion and learning deductions from these innovative cases:

Both companies were succesful with their innovative strategies; Zara has become one of the largest
fashion retailers in the world and Threadless also has grown to be a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
However, imitating the practices and decisions of successful firms can be totally ineffective because
each business is unique and different contingencies will demand different innovation strategies.
Therefore, firms should consider carefully about their position in the industry, their products,
processes, technologies, competitors… before choosing which strategies to apply.