nickshanagher

How does a man whom poverty drove into work at the age of 12 and who is now the fifth richest man in the world think? And what can you learn from him? Amancio Ortega is worth $31 billion according to Forbes but The Man from Zara , Covadonga O’Shea’s often brilliant story of his business career unpicks his retail secrets. There are two reasons to read this book: ·         Firstly if to be inspired by a retail genius ·         Secondly to imitate his ideas on being a successful leader. O’Shea structures the book around a series of interviews with Ortega and many of his key staff. A highly secretive man, Ortega commands loyalty from all who know him well. O’Shea writes clearly and layers detail across the book so that you need to engage with every chapter. Doing so is worthwhile as you build an understanding of how to be successful. Ortega’s career was sparked by a grocer refusing his mother credit wh...

At the Newsagents Federation conference in Birmingham this week, Imperial Tobacco, the UK's market leader, suggested to retailers that they should focus less on cigarette margins, at 6.6 per cent, and more on stockturn, at 183 times a year. Using a simple model, general manager Amal Pramanik, showed that the 50 per cent margin offered by toothbrushes which turned over four times a year, offered a cash return of £200 a year for every £100 invested. Cigarettes, in contrast, would earn a retailer £1,200 for every £100 invested. It is a simple illustration and holds true even when retailers add on investment in assets, such as the space occupied by the product. In order to measure how well you are doing, you need to understand what return you get when you multiply your margin by your stockturn. Mr Pramanik's purpose in reminding retailers of this fact is to head off increasing pressure from retailers for a rise in the margin that they get on cigarettes. However, his reminder ...