Assignment 2: Integrating Culture and Diversity in Decision Making: The CEO and Organizational Culture Profile

Zappos is an online shoes retailer that started its business in the year 1999. Later on the company had expanded its business to include the beauty products, clothing and even the housewares within its leading e-commerce website. This case emphasizes on the customer service department of Zappos Company and initially the business focused only on the drop ship method. Later on the company also increased the variety of the products. The company had also created a bricks and mortar storefront to expand the business and increase the sales of the business.

Executive level support is important because grassroots movements rarely inspire change. Without executive commitment attention to diversity any programs will likely fall by the wayside.

What particular elements of each organization’s culture, processes, and management systems and styles work well to support innovation?

The owners of Zappos did an amazing job coming up with the idea of selling shoes to from online. There was a market that was created by Zappos. Zappos has been able to continue to grow due the advancing in technology that has made it must easier for customer to shop online. A lot of people know what kind of shoes they like and what size shoes they wear. If a customer does need a product in the next few days and can be patient then Zappos is a great store for that customer. Zappos makes it very easy for the customer because of it policies and customer service. Zappos offers free shipping. Zappos also give

Founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, Zappos.com, initially named ShoeSite.com, has grown from an inventory-less, “drop-ship” shoe sales website that connected customer orders with shoe suppliers to an Internet shoe mega-retailer that recorded a reported $2.1 billion in revenue in

The threat of new entrants into the online shoe/apparel market is relatively small due to the fact that Zappos is such an established brand and has specialized their business model. It would be far too expensive for a new company to copy the characteristics of Zappos including their next day delivery and large overhead. The fact that Zappos was losing money initially illustrates this difficulty. Another issue that would create a high barrier to entry is Zappos commitment to the consumer through overnight shipping. Zappos stated that the overnight shipping caused them to leave their warehouses open for the entire day. Any other company would

Macy's is one of the premier retailer franchises within the United States. To begin, Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isadora, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. Macy's, with its ride array of assortments and products continues to grow as it attempts to capture market share from failing competitors. Macy's is also unique as it operates in a unique market demographic. It is upscale, but not to the extent of Saks Fifth Avenue or a Nordstrom. It is also not as low scale as a JC Penny

Notably, in 2009 the company was acquired by the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com. In the agreement, Amazon promised that Zappo’s operations and governance would remain intact, independently run as if a wholly separate company. The mutual alliance was ostensibly made because the customer service-centric culture was found to be co-inspired and compatible. Another reason was likely because Amazon could help the company expand gracefully and in orderly fashion as Zappo’s sales to that point were largely doubling every year creating strain within the company to grow alongside their sales. Fruits of this “acquisition” were likely present when Zappos restructured the organization into 10 separate companies under the Zappos brand, listed below:

Zappos started out by selling shoes online to become the world’s largest online retailer of shoes. Subsequently, in their quest to boost sales, they moved beyond footwear to become an E-tailer that sells ‘anything and everything’.

An additional method Zara utilizes to ensure the right product is produced is to constantly monitoring the sells at every store in real time through the use of computers. Sells managers are the individuals that play out this strategy. When the clothing sells well or does not sell well, they can quickly let the designers know to swiftly create new designs (“Case 3-4. Continued Growth for Zara and Inditex”, 2013). However, the competition is changing their strategies in an attempt to successfully compete with Zara. The methods that Zara has implemented to ensure fast fashion is truly fast has pressured the competition into reducing their lead times on stocking their stores (Hayes & Jones, 2006).

Zappos.com, established in 1999, has rapidly become a strong competitor in online apparel and footwear sales. With the original corporate vison of offering the absolute best selection in shoes; the vision has evolved over the past several years to include the goal of being the retailer that “provides the absolute best service online -- not just in shoes, but in any category” (Zappos, 2014). The online retailer stocks millions of reasonably priced footwear products; carrying thousands of hard to find brand named shoes, handbags, apparel and accessories via the company website and 7,000 affiliate partners. In recognizing their rapid success, Zappos credits it to their commitment to the customer, stating,

According to Entergy.com, the company’s goals are to improve customer satisfaction and create a healthy and safe lifestyle for its employees. Entergy strives to treat its employees with respect and dignity while creating an atmosphere of integrity and achievements. Entergy is a very large company who has its own unique culture that strives to be diverse and inclusive. This paper will talk about Entergy’s culture, how change effects that culture, how members are brought in and socialized, and how the spirit of our Lord is integrated.

Zara is a modern day fashion business that takes an unconventional approach in their business model. Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies which belongs to the distribution group called inditex. They sell well made relatively cheap pieces of clothing that is always cut according to the latest fashion designed. Their customers are the heart of their designs, productions, distribution and sales. Just like all fashion companies, their primary goal is to be the number one fashion retailer. To obtain that success, their new business model challenges the industry and pushes them ahead of their competitors. Zara unique approach to fast fashion pays off as many other brands are trying to follow their success. What sets Zara apart from other modern businesses is that, their business model is to react to fashion trends as quickly as possible. Zara adapt quickly to current trends and fashion that the public demand. Their goal is create fresh new trendy design almost every one to two weeks that will be ready to be produced and shipped. Their primary goal in creating these new sketches is not only to identify trends but to evolve and never repeat their designs. Zara’s company’s strategy involves stocking their inventory very little and updating their collection often. This benefits them because it makes the shopper feel like they have to buy the item, or else it would be sold out later on. Zara’s risk taking strategy has proven to work because according to

Organizations have been becoming increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality. This diversity brings substantial potential benefits such as better decision making, greater creativity and innovation, and more successful marketing to different types of customers. But, increasing cultural differences within a workforce also bring potential costs in higher turnovers, interpersonal conflicts, and communicational breakdowns. The utilities of diversity training and the essential managerial skills required for effectively managing diversity will also be discussed.

The fashion retailer has become one of the most successful fashion companies in the world – based on their unique way of manufacturing and distributing their clothes. As opposed to most fashion companies, Zara never manufactures lines of clothing and hope that the market will like it. Instead, they have highly efficient method for tracking what the market wants to buy, getting it into their factory, biasing their line of production accordingly, and distributing back to the stores.  This behavior/technology differentiates them, as they are able to meet their marketers’ needs rather than promoting