Clear and Simple as the Truth in Dressing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Clear and Simple as the Truth in Dressing - Essay Example Meaning (p.59) that writing is thinking about the paper and thought is writing on the mind.   Before the ideology of the war tragedy come to be on the paper, it must be concrete in the writer’s mind, thus the time comes when the stylistic ability of the writer brings the war tragedy already written the mind to be as concrete as it should be. In what seems practical, thought proceeds speech, meaning that writing is not thinking, but rather the reverse is true. Keagan's war tragedy is written as a stylistic output of the written story in the mind of the writer that it becomes more concrete and tangible. Truly, a classic writer presents the concrete diamond and its aesthetic beauty as if both are visible, clear, and exact. Before the ideology of the war tragedy come to be on the paper, it must be concrete in the writer’s mind, thus the time comes when the stylistic ability of the writer brings the war tragedy already written the mind to be as concrete as it should be.

FINANICAL MANAGEMENT IN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION Term Paper

FINANICAL MANAGEMENT IN NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION - Term Paper Example The report is prepared with the sole intent to study the various financial management practices in a non-profit organization. The author of the study will highlight the various financial management practices that ensure smooth operations of the business. It also highlights the difference in the financial management practices between profit and nonprofit organizations. The author of the study will also provide certain inputs which will help in the betterment of the nonprofit organization and help in achievement of goals and objectives. It was essential to conduct this study to understand the impact of financial management practices on the organizational performance of NPO. Introduction: Financial Management in Non-Profit Organization Nonprofit organizations form an essential part of the society and exist to provide certain benefits for the members of the society. They actually vary in size from large to small clubs and the operations are based on receipt of grants, donations, fundrais ing or receipt from members as the principal source of income. In certain instances nonprofit organizations (NPO) supplement income with the trading activities. Although, NPO operate on a nonprofit basis suitable practice of financial management ensures that there are sufficient resources and cash meant for operations of NPO. Attaining profitability is not the main objective of NPO it is necessary to ensure that it is sustainable, capitalized and funded. It should be ensured that the NPOs should have an adequate cash flow to support their technical operations over the duration of the lives and help in contribution to the achievement of goals and objectives. Sound practice of financial management is needed to ensure that the human resource of NPO utilize the resources effectively. The operations and activities of NPO vary and organizations where trading activities are not present stock management practice will not be relevant. Implementation of effective management practices will ena ble in attainment of strategic goals of the organization easily. Implementation of sound financial management practices would require understanding the current financial position of the NPO which is important for the provision of NPO services. Sources of Funds in NPO Gifts and Donations: The donations in NPO usually come from companies, charitable trust, foundations after a fundraising appeal. Gifts and donations are regarded as an important source of income and also attract tax reliefs (Green, 2013). Fund raising activities are time consuming and expensive. Grants: The grants are made by charitable trust and public sector. The donated money is not returned and is usually exempted from tax (KnowHow Non Profit, 2013). Loan financing & equity capital: Loan is the sum of money borrowed to be repaid back with interest and loan financing is potentially used widely in NPO. Equity capital is provided by external investors in return for a stake in the organization (KnowHow Non Profit, 2013) . Contracts: A form of trading activity which involves agreement between two parties and each party has to abide by the terms and conditions failing which will attract penalty or fine (KnowHow Non Profit, 2013). Trading: Many NPO generate income by selling goods and services to the members of the organization (KnowHow Non Profit, 2013). Financial Management Practice in NPO Analyzing the financial position of the organizations will enable the smooth operations of NPO and also help in providing excellent services. Firstly, sound

The Elements of a Contract

The Elements of a Contract 1.0 Introduction I am the Human Resource Manager for a recording company. My director who name Mr. Abu requested me to rent an apartment accommodation for three employees who came from oversea to stay in my state. So I am as the Human Resources Manager, I am expected to deal with the landlord. I need to find out the main element for binding a valid house rent contract. Apart from that, I need to brief the main element to my directors Mr. Abu and design a contract to show to Mr. Abu. Then, to assume that the landlord claim that my employees was damage the kitchen cabinets after one month they have stay in the rented apartment, so I am expect to write a report to Mr. Abu on what kind of legal solution that might can be taken by the landlord and how I am go to solve the situation and I need to justify my answer to avoid my legal liability on such damage to property in apartment. Apart from that, I need to describe the nature contractual liability arising from the damages that found in the house and whether tenants are partially or wholly liable for damages done to the premises. 2.0 The Main Element for Binding a Valid House Renting Contract 2.1 Offer An offer or proposal for the creation of an agreement is necessary. Section 2(a) Contract Act 1950 provides that if a person means another who is willing to do or omit to do something to the consent of the other as the act or abstinence could be obtained, it is said, on to make a suggestion. The first part of the Section 2(c) in the Contracts Act 1950 calls the person who make the proposal promisor. Under the contracts Act 1950 and English Law, an offer or proposal is something which is capable of being changed into the agreement by its acceptance. The proposal should be a definite promise to be bound provided certain specified terms that are accepted. The promisor or also called as the offeror must have stated his willingness to an obligation to undertake certain specific terms, leaving the option of its refusal or acceptance to the offeree, the person to whom that offer is made. Then contract is complete once the offeree is accept the offer. (GILLIES, P, 2004). Thus, offer is one of the parties made a promise to do or prevent from doing some specified action in the future. (Jec.unm.edu, 2015). Apart from that, the offeror may make the offer to a particular person or to the whole world. 2.2 Acceptance To form a binding valid house renting contract, the offer must have an acceptance. Acceptance of an offer is the offer was accept unambiguously. The acceptance must be an agreement to each of the terms of the offer. Section 2(b) of the contract Act 1950 provides that when a person made signifies his assent thereto to whom, the proposal is said to have been accepted. When a proposal was accepted, it will become a promise. Apart from that, the person that who is accepted the proposal is called promisee. In additional, acceptance must be communicated to the offeror. The communication of acceptance may be express or implied. (Gulshan, Kapoor and Paliwal, 2008). Furthermore, acceptance of any promise which is made in performance or words that could say to be express. In contrast, acceptance that made other than words and performance is say to be implies. For proposal to be changed in a promise, the acceptance of the proposal must be absolute and unqualified, so that the acceptance is complete consensus. Then, if the parties are still bargaining, agreement is still not yet formed and the proposer cannot prescribe silence as a manner of acceptance. 2.3 Intention to Create Legal Relations A statement to be an offer, it must be made with the intention that it be binding upon acceptance. It is also necessity that all the parties to an agreement have an intention to create legal relations which is meaning the parties intend the legal consequences attach to their agreement. (JONES, L, 2013). In short, the parties intend that the agreement will be binding with recourse to some external judge for this enforceability. In determining whether the parties intend their agreement to be legally binding, the courts are guided by two presumptions such as parties to a domestic or social agreement do not intend to be legally bound and parties to business agreement intend to be legally bound. These are presumptions only and can be rebutted by sufficient evidence to the contrary. 2.4 Consideration Considerations is something of legal value that each party gives to the contract to bind the agreement. (Goldman and Sigismond, 2014). So, the consideration is especially important where the agreement involves a promise to the act in a particular way in future. In exchanges where there is an immediate, simultaneous transfer of, for example, good for money, the doctrine of consideration applies in theory but rarely will causes practical problems. An agreement without consideration can consider is void. Apart from that, consideration need not be adequate and not be too vague. The words consideration defined as when, at the desire of the promisor, the promisee or any other person has done or refused from doing, or does or refused from doing, or promises to do and refused from doing something, such act or abstinence or consider as promise is called a consideration for the promise. 2.5 Certainty Certainty is the terms of a contract are certain when each of the provision is described or explained properly and clearly set forth. (Definitions.uslegal.com, 2015). The terms of an agreement cannot be vague but must be certain. An agreement which is not capable of being made certain or uncertain is consider as void. An enforceable contract requires certainty of terms. Which means for an agreement to be a contract, it must be apparent what is the terms of the contract are. If the important term in the agreement is not settled, the agreement is not a contract. 2.6 Capacity Capacity to contract is legal and mental ability to understand the nature of an enforceable agreement. (Goldman and Sigismond, 2011). Furthermore, capacity is mean that the legal competence of a person to enter into a valid contract. The parties entering into a contract should be also competent to contract, that is to said, they must have the legal capacity to do so. Capacity refers to the ability of the parties to a contract to fully understand its terms and obligations. For example, a contract made with person mentally unsound, a bankrupt person and person under age 18 in Malaysia is void. Every person is competent to a contract if who is of the age of majority which is eighteen years old to the law to which he is subject, and who is healthy and not disqualified from contract by a law which it is subject there. However, there are some exceptions to this rule which are Contracts for necessaries, Contracts of scholarship and Contracts of insurance as well. 3.0 The Damaged level of kitchen by Alex Recording Sdn Bhd employee Alex Recording Sdn Bhd employees have damaged a part of the premise which is kitchen’s cabinet. The damaged cabinet has been left for a long period without any maintenance or repair. 3.1 Legal action take by landlord Due to Alex Recording employee Sdn Bhd employees had damaged the kitchen’s cabinet and left for a long period without any maintenance or repair. Therefore, the landlord is going to take legal actions towards Alex Recording Sdn Bhd based on the rental agreement’s conditions as follows: (Please refer to Appendix 1.1 Rental Agreement number 11 and 12) 3.2 Landlord takes action to against Alex Recording SdnBhd The landlord will takes civil action to against Alex Recording Sdn Bhd due to Alex Recording Sdn Bhd is breach of contract cases. According to wiseGEEK (no date) has reported that a civil action is usually brought for the purpose of resolving private legal issues that arise between business, people, or other entities. There also mentioned some of the most common kinds of civil actions include family law proceedings, civil rights violations, breach of contract cases, and personal injury lawsuits. Landlord can’t takes criminal action to against Alex Recording Sdn Bhd due to criminal action is brought by government (society) to determine whether the guilty person committed the unlawful act and to determine the accused person’s punishment reported by NDSU (no date). NDSU also reported that criminal action punishment will be imprisonment or a fine paid to the government, and the case of criminal action such as Armed Rubbery. 3.3 The Argument to against landlord According to Alex Recording Sdn Bhd employees said that the kitchen’s cabinet was broken before they move in. However, Alex Recording Sdn Bhd employees still used the cabinet but without repair it. That mean that the cabinet is not broken by Alex Recording Sdn Bhd employees and it should by someone else who had rented the premises before. Basically, Alex Recording Sdn Bhd is not liable to pay the repair fee to the landlord due to the cabinet is not broke by their employees and also the Rental Agreement didn’t notice or mention that the RESIDENT should check all the items is on the good condition before move in the premises. 3.4 Element of the contract between Alex Recording Sdn Bhd and landlord Offer Is a proper offer. Acceptance Is a proper acceptance. Consideration The agreement have consideration. Certainly The agreement is certain. Capacity Both parties have legal capacity. Intention to create legal relations -The agreement is intention to create legal relations. (Please refer to Appendix – â€Å"2.1 Case law† to check the similar case) 4.0 Contractual Liability for the damages of house The employees of Alex Recording have damaged the kitchen’s cabinet. Hereby, there are several elements of contract which has existed in this case. The elements are offer, certainty, consideration, capacity, intention to create legal intention as well as acceptance. 4.1 Offer There’s a valid offer which offered by Alex Recording, which proved by the signature of Director of Alex Recording. Moreover, terms and condition has written down in the contract by offering the landlord to have the signature. 4.2 Acceptance The acceptance in this situation is valid. We assume that the landlord has read the terms and condition only the landlord sign the contract. Meaning to say that the landlord has agreed to the contract before the landlord sign and accept this offer by Alex Recording. 4.3 Consideration There’s consideration in this contract which state in the first terms and condition in the contract, that the Alex Recording will pay RM1300 in advance for the first month as well as the security deposit of RM300, in total is RM2050 are to be paid to the landlord, Lim Wei Shang. 4.4 Certainty This contract is definitely certainty and there’s no vague terms and condition written, and labeled neatly. 4.5 Capacity The offeror and offeree has been officially 18 and above. Apart from that, both of the parties are not mentally unsound. Furthermore, they’re not in bankrupt. Thus, this is a valid contract. 4.6 Intention to create legal relation In this case, there’s an intention to create legal relation which is business relation between landlord and director. Our party will only agree to take the responsibility of partially liable since the cabinet in the kitchen is already not in a good and well condition before we starting the agreement contract and entered into rented the room. We will only take half of the responsibility as we are only partially liable for the damage of kitchen cabinet. The cabinet is too old can be see it was use many year and it is the landlords responsibility in change of a brand-new or a well-fixed cabinet before renting the room out. The landlord should also be partially liable for the damage as the landlord should take care of the safety of the customer. The landlord had already broken a condition called contributory negligence. As such, we will only be partially liable of the damage as we should not be the only party that should be responsible for the damage. As the supported by judicial precedent which is previous case law. (Please refer to Appendix 3.1 Case Law to check the similar case) 5.0 Conclusion Law can define as the body of customary rules recognized by a community as binding. Apart from that, law is defining as a body of rules which are enforced by the state. Contract may be defined as an agreement enforceable by law. Contract is an agreement which is legally binding between parties. The main element of law of contract is offer, consideration, certainly, capacity, acceptance of an offer and intention to create legal elations. In conclusion, Alex recording Sdn Bhd only partially liable on the damages of kitchen cabinet because of the kitchen cabinet is already damages before employees of Alex recording is starting the agreement and entered the rental apartment. The landlord should also be partially liable for the damage as the landlord should take care of the safety of the customer.

Common People in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men :: comparison compare contrast essays

Common People in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck’s novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men reveal and confront the struggles of common individuals in their day-to-day lives. The Grapes of Wrath creates a greater verisimilitude than Of Mice and Men as it illustrates the lives of Oklahoma farmers driven west during the Dustbowl of the late 1930’s. Of Mice and Men deals with a more personal account of two poor men and the tragic ending of their relationship. Steinbeck expresses his concern for multiple social issues in both The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Tightly-knit relationships appear prominently in both books and provide the majority of the conflicts that occur. The decency of common people is written about to a great extent in The Grapes of Wrath and is also prevalent through numerous examples in Of Mice and Men. As in all effective writing that bares the soul of the author, each novel reveals Steinbeck’s core beliefs. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses the relationship between George and Lenny to express the decency of common people. Lenny is mentally disabled and George is his companion because Lenny is too incompetent to live on his own. Throughout the book, it becomes increasingly apparent that Lenny is incapable of interacting appropriately with people (other than George) without unknowingly causing some sort of trouble. Even George is sometimes overcome with the hassles of taking care of Lenny. ‘â€Å"God, you’re a lot of trouble,’ George said. ‘I could get along so easy so nice if I didn’t have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a girl†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (7). Yet, George looks beyond the ways in which Lenny irritates and inconveniences him and realizes that Lenny is as human as he is. He believes that regardless of Lenny’s disability, he should be treated as respectfully as anyone else. Contrary to his earlier remarks, George has great affinity for Lenny. George understands that Lenny necessitates a watchful-eye, and he is willing to be that caretaker. Ultimately, if George did not love and care about Lenny, he would have most likely abandoned him. However, George’s fundamental decency did not allow him to do this. In The Grapes of Wrath, the overall struggle of the Okies, while on their mass exodus to California, is Steinbeck’s platform to examine human beings’ innate goodwill.

Arguments for and Against the Minimum Wage in the Uk

Arguments for and against the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the UK: stop employees being taken advantage of by being paid unfair wages by their employers. set a standard of the minimum worth of a worker. This benchmark was set so that employers would be unable to hire any staff for less than the suggested hourly rate. reduce pay differentials between genders. What is the new minimum wage? : In October 2009, the NMW for workers increased from: ?5. 73 to ? 5. 80 per hour – aged 22 years and older ?4. 77 to ? 4. 83 per hour – aged 18 to 21 years ?3. 53 to ? 3. 7 an hour – aged 16 and 17 years As of October 2010, the adult minimum rate will start from 21 years. Who qualifies for the Minimum Wage? Home workers, agency workers, part-time employees, pieceworkers†¦ most adult employees working legally in the United Kingdom with a written, verbal or implied contract, qualify for the NMW. The relationship between Demand and Supply: Arguments in favour of the NMW: Dia gram showing potential earnings from the NMW: {draw:frame} Diagram showing increasing demand for Normal goods: {draw:frame} Reduced labour turnover, raised productivity: Economic benefit for the country: Monopsonistic labour markets: A monopsony occurs when one buyer faces many sellers in a market. The buyer thus controls a large proportion of that market share. In the diagram below, a monopsonistic business maximises its profits at Q2, paying a wage at W1. (Demand = Marginal Revenue Product and supply =Average Costs). If the minimum wage increases to W2, demand for labour will increase to Q1. The level of unemployment will not increase until the minimum wage increases to an amount higher than W3. Diagram showing NMW effects on a Monopsony: draw:frame} Arguments against the NMW: Law not properly enforced: The NMW is not a properly enforced law. The result is that is has merely become a guideline to which employers are expected to adhere. It is estimated that 5% of the UK workforce receives less than minimum wage (WordPress 2009). If an employee reports his employer for paying less than the minimum wage, the employee pays a nominal fine. Fines are not severe enough (HM Revenue and Customs 2009). Low-skilled workers suffer: Many opposed the NMW when it was first introduced. Some believed that it would increase unemployment and cause wage inflation. They argued that if the minimum wage was high enough to be effective, unemployment among the inexperienced and handicapped would escalate. The workers with lesser skills would be harmed to the benefit of those who were more highly skilled. The demand for jobs at the higher wage levels would be greater than the supply of jobs available. Businesses could therefore afford to be more selective in the employees they chose, and workers with limited skills and experience would typically be excluded. Cost of production increases, leading to higher prices for consumers: Another argument is that an increase in the minimum wage willincrease production costs, thus increasing the overall cost of the product. The result of this would be reduced profits for the business, due to: producers absorbing the extra costs, leaving less money for re-investment. Diagram showing how an increase in the price of a product affects supply and demand: {draw:frame} The original price of product X is ? 35, and the demand for the product is 320 units (E1 representing Equilibrium between demand and supply). Product X then increases in price to ? 4 due to an increase in the NMW, resulting in a drop in demand for the product to 120 units. This drop in demand then results in an oversupply of goods from the producer, who is then forced to reduce his supply to the new demand level, or goods may sit on the shelf. E2 represents the new Equilibrium level between supply and demand. If the good was perishable and th e supplier did not adjust his supply, there would be a lot of wastage. Not everybody qualifies: Those who are exempt from receiving the NMW include; Apprentices under 19 years of age, and apprentices 19 years or older in their first year of their apprenticeship. Students on a work placement, forming part of a higher- or further education course, where the placement is for less than one year. The self-employed Those on a Department for Workers and Pensions back-to-work scheme The Recession: A recession is characterised by a period of at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth. During a recession, demand and supply of goods and services in the economy contracts. The UK economy contracted by 1. 5% in the last quarter of 2008 and the Gross Domestic Product experienced its biggest fall since the second quarter of 1980 (Kowelle 2009). This is the first time since the inception of the NMW that employment has fallen. Unemployment is rapidly on the increase. A reduction in output means that the need for labour is reduced. In the early stages of a recession, companies tend to cut back on employee hours, rather than making workers redundant. If companies are forced to reduce their employee numbers, they will initially attempt to do this through natural wastage, putting a hold on hiring, and not replacing workers who leave the company of their own accord. Thus the demand for new entrants to the market is very limited. The current recession has caused a very limited availability of credit and reduced demand worldwide. It is expected that high levels of debt and the fall of housing prices and equity prices will affect the UK more than many other nations (Bain 2009). What if there were no minimum wage in place? : Without a set minimum wage, the quantity of labour supplied will continue to change according to price, until the level of labour demanded is equal to the level of labour supplied. That is to say, an equilibrium price will be reached, where supply and demand curves intersect. {draw:frame} Deepak Lal, criticises the minimum wage, stating that it is â€Å"an inefficient, well-intentioned but inexpert interference with the mechanisms of supply and demand.. † References: DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION & SKILLS. , 2007. National Minimum WageGuide for Employees [online] United Kingdom. Available from: http://www. berr. gov. uk/files/file53059. pdf [Accessed 23 November 2009] eHOW How To Do Just About Everything. How Does The Minimum Wage Affect The Economy [online video]. Available from: http://www. ehow. co. uk/video_4974004_minimum-wage-affect-economy. html? cr=1 [Accessed 20 November 2009] NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE COMMISSION. , 2009 National Minimum Wage. Low Pay Commission Report 2009. (Chairman George Bain). United Kingdom: The Stationery Office. WORD PRESS. , 2009. New Deal Scandal: UK Unemployment Course Scandal and Welfare Reformconcerns [online] 20 August. Available from: http://newdealscandal. wordpress. com/2009/08/20/national-minimum-wage-nmw/ [Accessed 23 November 2009]

Supply Chain Management and Zara

Zara Case Analysis Operations Management MBM1110 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Outstanding Operational strategies Layout 4 Forecasting 5 Product life cycle 5 Product Design and Supply Chain Management Marketing 5 Just in time 6 Vertical Integration 6 Incorporation of Bershka Conclusion 7 Bibliography 8 Executive Summary Zara, a flagship chain store of the Inditex group owned by Spanish business tycoon Amancio Ortega is one of the top names in the mid-priced fashion industry. Zara was established in 1975 in Acoruna, Galicia, Spain and has expanded to 1395 stores all across the globe.It is said that Zara, unlike any other retail organization in the clothing industry takes just two weeks to design, develop and get a new product into the stores. However, the retail industry has a six month average to do so. By using its operational strategies in a very successful manner, Zara is able to launch 10,000 new products every year. This report will discuss the operational strategies that Zara uses which works as order winners and order qualifiers. It also discusses the strategies that they use which makes them one of the top names in the fashion industry.Introduction Zara uses very innovative strategies for its business. By doing so, Zara is able to avoid outsourcing its manufacturing proce ss to low cost and developing countries like most of the other companies in the industry. Zara does not even spend a lot of money on marketing, hence increases its profit margin. It however does spend on the layout of its stores. Unlike many of its competitors, Zara is a vertically integrated retailer since it controls most of the step in it supply chain by designing, producing and distributing itself.This unique business model has resulted in the emergence of one of the most successful retailers in the fashion industry. Terry Hill in 1993 came up with the terms ? order qualifiers? and ? order winners? , against which it is believed that manufacturing strategy should be determined (Add Reff. Hill, T. (1993), Manufacturing Strategy: Text and Cases, 2nd ed. , Macmillan Press, London. ). Order Winners are characteristics that serve as a competitive advantage for one firm over others.Order winners enable the customers to choose a particular firms goods and services over the competitors. Order winners in this case for Zara are: y High-end fashion at a reasonable price Even though Zara ¶s products are highly fashionable, they comparatively cost way less compared to other big names in the fashion industry Supply Chain Management y As discussed below in the report, due to Zara ¶s outstanding SCM, it is able to order order the latest in fashion every two weeks for a reasonable price. Thus, are able to offer something to their clients that none of their competitors can.Order qualifiers are the competitive characteristics that a firm must take advantage of in order to be a viable competitor in the market place. To provide order qualifiers, companies need only to be in par with the competitors, however, in order to provide with order winners, companies need to be way better than its competition. Having said that, order qualifiers are in no way less important than the order winners, in fact, they both complement each other. In Zara ¶s case the order qualifiers are: y Quality They offer good quality products at relatively cheaper price compared to the competition.Outstanding Operational strategies While Zara maybe a very successful high end retailer, the main facet of Zara that has got academics buzzing is its completely novel approach to its operations and supply chain for a retailer in high-end fashion. Layout The main intention of a layout strategy is to develop an economically viable layout that will be in line with the company ¶s Competitive requirements (Render & Heizer, 2005). Zara invests a lot in their store layouts to make sure that their store maintains the fresh and trendy look.They have a testing facility close to their head office in Spain, where they test different types of store layouts on a regular basis. Zara remodels each of its stores every five years in order to keep up with the current trends (Zara ¶s Business Model, 2010). The entire layout, including the furniture and the window displays are all designed at the testin g facility in order to maintain a standardized image globally. A flying team from the head office usually flies down to a new location to set up the store. Their motto is that they want the store managers to focus more on sales than anything else.Zara can afford to do this since they do not spend lot advertising and marketing campaigns. Forecasting One of Zara ¶s major competitive advantage over other retailers is it technique of forecasting. Unlike, other retailers, Zara has developed its business model around reacting promptly. Zara focuses heavily on its forecasting effort on the amount and the type of fabric it will purchase. Zara tends to do this since it ¶s usually cheaper to rectify mistakes on raw fabric as compared to a finished product. It also uses the same fabric to produce something else (Render & Heizer, 2005).Zara usually buys un-processed fabric and colors it according to the season based on market ¶s immediate need. By doing that, and by combining it with a hi gh-speed garment design & production process, it ¶s able to the deliver what the market is actually looking for at that time. Product life cycle In a typical Product Life Cycle Curve of the fashion retail industry, sales decreases as products move across the times line. However, Zara ¶s Product Life Cycle Curve is totally the other way round since it is in a high fashion industry and it offers products that are of the latest trends and designs with a life of maximum 5-6 weeks.Product Design and Supply Chain Management The entire process of product design is very unique compared to its competitors. Commercial managers and designers at Zara start working on the design of the fabric, the costs, raw material, selling price etc as soon as they receive the instructions from the Zara stores. Instructions are issued to cut appropriate fabric as soon as approvals are received. All the raw materials are distributed for assembly to a network of small family owned businesses that are mostly in Glacia and in Northern Portugal.Unlike its competitors, Zara ¶s high-tech distribution services system ensures that there is no style lying around at the head office. The finished products are quickly cleared through the distribution centers and are shipped to the stores within 48 hours. Deliveries ¶ are received twice a week by each store. This entire process of product design and supply chain management gives Zara a huge edge over its competitors. Marketing Zara has a very unique approach to marketing compared to the other big players in the industry.Unlike its competition, which spends 3-4 % of total revenues on marketing and advertising campaigns, Zara spends 0. 3%. This is a major competitive advantage over its competitors. Zara strategically locates all of their stores in prime retail districts for  µvisibility marketing ¶. As mentioned earlier about the product development cycles, customers are rendered immune to visit Zara stores very often since new items are st ocked weekly and are often not re-stocked. Zara creates a feeling of scarcity within the customers, and this makes them come back to the store frequently and make purchases.Just in time Just-in-time (JIT) is a strategy that is used for inventory management in such a way that it helps a business improve its return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and the associated carrying costs (Shingo, 1989). Zara follows a true JIT inventory system. Its inventory system is influenced by the pull of the customer instead of a push from the designer. This helps Zara to have a competitive advantage over the competition since it has a very low inventory to sales ratio. Vertical IntegrationZara is a very vertically integrated company by working through the whole value chain and is highly capital intensive. This is a unique model that let the company develop a strong merchandising strategy that led it to create a unique model of fast fashion system (Craig, Jones, & Nieto, 2004). Incorporat ion of Bershka Most big brands in the world regardless of the industry they are in usually have more than one brand name. In the fashion retail industry, Gap Inc. Owns few big names as Gap itself, Old Navy, Club Monaco, etc. It is a strategy used to penetrate different segments of a market and to increase the market share.It also tries to give consumers an impression that different brand names have something different about them. Companies also use the is strategy to create a specific brand for each and every market they try to target. Inditex has also used the strategy of penetrating different segments of the market by creating a different brand name for each segment (Inditex Annual Report, 2008). Inditex owns different brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear and Bershka which tends to cater to different markets. Merging all of these brands or any two brands into one name would not make a lot of business sense for Bershka.The brand Bershka was launched by Inditex in the y ear 1998 with an aim of targeting the young fashion-conscious crowd. Incorporating Bershka into Zara ¶s operations would not be a very good strategic move for Inditex. Bershka currently owns 638 stores in 41 different countries, hence incorporating that in to Zara ¶s operations would raise lot of challenges for Inditex. Since Bershka and Zara both have a very different target market, formulating strategies for both of these firms combined will definitely effect the operations of the company in whole. Both brand names have established different clientele for themselves.Bershka currently targets the young and fashionable and Zara targets the fashionable crowd as well, however it has different demographics for it. Combining these two brands into one will result in loss of loyal customers and might also impact the company negatively. There ¶s no guarantee that Bershka ¶s existing clientele will shift to Zara, in fact they might just end up losing majority of that segment. Zara ¶s market share might increase by a very small percentage; however Bershka might end up losing a major chunk of its current clientele, which in turn will not be good for Inditex in whole. Conclusion Read also: Advantages and Disadvantages of Administrative Management