Question

Assess the difficulty a competitor, such as Gap, faces trying to re-create the resources, capabilities, and core competencies that define Zara.

Answer 1

Answer-

Companies will have a hard time trying to compete with Zara and rebranding their own company. To begin with, Zara owns all of its facilities. This is a big factor that other companies would have to consider before thinking of doing anything else. How will Gap transition from outsourcing its production to trying to produce it? If Gap started producing their own clothing that would be the first step in trying to compete with Zara. Having things available and for a decent price might be difficult. For Gap, it might be more difficult than other companies. Gap has other brands underneath its umbrella. They would need to coordinate with the other brands in coming together to have the same strategy. Cutting costs would need to come from the production side. This is where it helps that they don’t outsource their production. They can pay whatever they want to get their clothes produced. On the other hand, Gap outsources all of their clothing, so they have to pay what the factories and Gap agreed upon. This hurts Gap on how they can price their clothing. Gap would really have to work on the primary activities to help its brand. How can Gap fix its production design, service, logistics, and operations? Gap has to reinvent the wheel for their company for this to happen. You have to start from the bottom up. Production design has to be at a lower cost and has to be fashionable. Gap has to find new vendors or go out and buy a company that can do it for them without having to outsources the production. How can Gap reduce the time that it takes to get from the factory to the stores? Gap can buy the factories that they store or produce the clothes in. This is a big ask but these are some of the challenges that they would be facing.