Competitive Position in Challenging Retail Climate - Case Study Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: How New Look maintain/improve its competitive position in challenging retail climate Introduction New Look clothing retailer has positioned itself as a force to reckon with in the turbulent and versatile clothing industry that is clouded with uncertainty and dynamism. Being such a competitive position, New Look faces the risks of loosing its competitive position of there is no any other mechanism that it can come up with to improve its position. New Look is credited as the third largest women’s wear brand in the United Kingdom behind Next and M & S. Superior flexibility, responsiveness, and speed in the chain of supply are critical to remaining ahead of the market and competitors. It is along this lines that New Look as to base on as it looks for ways of improving its performance. The success of the company is attributed to it being a proponent of ‘fast fashion’ which is a term that is applied in describing collections of clothing based on the catwalk but which are manufactured and designed quickly, are affordable and targets the mainstream customers (Meredith and Shafer 67-8). Competitive Operations for Global Arena Its ability to quickly respond to changes in the trends has culminated into the success of the company in the retail industry. New Look has to maintain this trend of being abreast to changes the fashion industry. This can only be achieved if there is a means of collecting information about the development of the latest fashion in the women wear. Provided that the company has acquired a global outlook and has subsidiaries in a sizeable part of the world, it is possible that any changes of fashion can not escape the eyes of the various management teams of the company spread out allover the globe. The company has to spread its wings further a cover more countries all over the world. The company enjoys a loyal customer base that is constituted majorly of women of younger age groups who make the bulk of the customer. Although the company sells a broad range of fashionable collections that includes footwear, accessories and clothing, and ensures a steady flow of customers in a market that is volatile, it is important that it differentiate its target market to increase its customer base. Apart from targeting the young women, the company can venture into men wear and baby wear that could be introduced into other new markets that have never been ventured into before. New Look maintains a competitive edge by means of internalizing the product design capability and aligning it better with its supply chain. This has to be enhanced to maintain and improve the delivery of the products on time without any delay. The company views itself as a trend follower which operates at the low priced end of the fashion retail industry with a vast range of products which falls into categories that include children’s wear, Teenage wear, Men’s wear, women’s wear, accessories and footwear. The company has to raise its gear from just being a trend follower to another level like an innovator and trendsetter. The company has to learn from the trendsetter and the innovators such as H & M and Morgan respectively and know what to do that makes the others to remain ahead (Waters and Waters 102). The company can also diversify to make clothes that are more long lasting and not only fast fashion that is becoming more unpopular to the environmentalists who have raised alarm over large quantities of clothing that is being disposed at a fast rate. Going global is a very appropriate strategy that can be employed by the company to make sure it maintains a growing customer base. Reducing the chances of being obsolete in one market is by diversifying into many more markets in various places in the world by means of globalization. When one market is hit by a common market the company can transfer its goods to be sold somewhere else but more importantly the other markets will still be doing well to cushion the affected market. New Look has a very good chance by going global to even Asian countries (Forrester and Bamford 23). Managing Supply Chain The successfully management of the supply chain is bound to give the company a competitive. Flexibility and speed in the supply chain has been realized by means of direct global outsourcing via strategic partners in China and Turkey, through the increasing utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the concurrent design and supply chain. The strategy of the design function of broadening its operations and taking into account product innovation is a critical issue that the company should hold onto. It is crucial that through product differentiation and product innovation there new products that can be invented to make New Look a leading inventor and consequently making the customers anticipate the best. To ensure that the customers get what they want on time should be the target of the company and always anticipating the changes that may occur in the clothing and fashion industry. The impressive financial performance of the company should allow it to invest more in the expansion of its chain of distribution. Expansion in the chain of distribution will allow the company to reach out to more customers and therefore increasing its customer base. So long as the customers are given what they want and the appropriate time they may end up being loyal to the company if in the first place they were not (Lowson 176). Having new distributions in the UK, Singapore and Turkey and a number of new stores across Europe gives New Look a chance of being more formidable abroad. It is just important for the company to move its operations or spread them to more regions such as Asia, America, the Middle East and Africa. To cushion the performance of the industry against unpredictable economic times, New Look has to develop its supply chain to cover these proposed new regions. The company has to increase the customer base by attending to more audiences and not just being viewed as a provider for young and trendy women. Sourcing and procurement problems should be overcome if enough research is done on the appropriate logistics to be followed (Lowson 78). Monitoring & Controlling Having worked so hard to achieve a competitive edge; it is essentials that all efforts ensure that nothing goes wrong or blows out of proportion. Having a monitoring and controlling unit and depart that overseas the functions and processes of the company is an important step among the strategies of the company. The processes and the quality of the company products have to be maintained or else improved on the make them better each time. Any investment for innovation and invention should not lead to loss to the company resources in any instance. Everything should be done in a calculated move that have already been forecasted to determine the viability of using company resources to pursue it. The company should put in place checks and balances to ensure that nothing blows out proportion. Monitoring and controlling unit is there to ensure the previous set standards of the performance of the company do not fall below but rather are improved on. The department is there to ensure that the company maintains growth and has a competitive advantage over other retail clothing companies that may pose a threat to its expansion. Through monitoring and controlling the company is able to detect any deformities within its production and therefore ensure that only quality products are the ones that are being produced. The essence of having a monitoring and control unit is to make sure that everything is superbly with utmost precision. Forecasting In order for the company to deal with rising demand it is very appropriate for the various departments to engage in predicting what is expected of them through forecasting. The marketing department has to project how much it needs for carrying out promotions and advertising. The manufacturing or production department has to know the amount of the materials that will be needed to produce the adequate products to cater for all the customers’ demands. It is also vital for the company to carry out market research to determine the various parameters that affect the market demand of the company’s products. Modern technologies through ICT applications should be used to stay in touch with the emerging trends in the market and also to anticipate any other change in the market. The fast and flexible approach to fashion of New Look Company can only be enhanced if there is a reliable method of forecasting the trends in fashions. The company can only introduce new styles fast enough at a cost that is low by predicting the viability of the project through forecasting. Sales and purchases should be anticipated so that at no one time there shall be a shortage in the company. The company should be kept informed of the rate of growth in order for it to adjust its production accordingly to cater for the needs of the customers satisfactorily. Capacity building to meet customer demand is very important in the operation of the company (Meredith and Shafer 89) The turbulent and volatile market needs a mechanism that will be able to shade some light on what is expected in future. The ability to quickly transform to the latest trends on the fashion catwalk into affordable clothing for the masses can only be maintained if predictions are done correctly and at the right time. The modern technology like the internet should be used to track the latest trends in the catwalk. There should be people employed just to track the emerging trends in the fashion and clothing industry. The company should take advantage of increasing popularity of fast fashion in Europe and provisions of clothes at a cheaper price. The company also has to assess the environmental impact of its activities. To appeal to more customers the company should be seen as putting up a spirited effort to ensure that the environment is conserved (Hitt et al. 77-9) Conclusion New Look Company has placed itself in a position of being formidable clothing retail. With good planning its status and performance can only become better. More should be on the plans of the company to be global company and the supply chain management should be perfected to eliminate problems concerning procurement and sourcing to make sure that sure that the operations of the company run smoothly. This paper gives an insight of what should be done by the New Look management to make sure it improves its competitive position. It is in the interest of the business to see that it grows from one level of performance to the other which is better and sufficient. Works Cited Meredith, R. Jack & Shafer M. Scott. Operations Management. Edition4, London: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Verdict, as at June 2006, (New Look as at March 2007, source: TNS). Lowson, R.H., Strategic operations management: the new competitive advantage. Routledge, 2002. Waters, D. & Waters, J., Operations management. Kogan Page Publishers, 2000. Forrester, P. & Bamford, D., Essential Guide to Operations Management: Concepts and Case Notes. John Wiley and Sons, 2005. Hitt, M.A., Ireland, D.R. & Hoskisson, R.E., Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization: concepts & cases. Cengage Learning, 2006. Read More