Employee Creativity and Innovation in MIU MIU - Essay Example

? MIU MIU Table of Contents Miu Miu: The chosen Brand Miu Miu, a subsidiary of Prada House of Fashion is a high fashion brand that targets the ultra-modern, sensual, provocative yet classy women. It was founded by Ms. Miuccia Prada, the founder designer in the year 1993 in Milan, Italy. Presently Miuccia Prada is the president of the brand. The company has an employee strength of 250- 500 and makes a revenue of about $ 3.75 billion. The market segment, that the brand targets, is the premium brand market across the world. The brand has established stores across major cities in the world like London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Melbourne, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bangalore, Sydney and also in various other locations across continents. The portfolio of products of this brand includes Apparel, Jewellery, Accessories including eyewear, Bags and shoes though the main focus is on apparel. The collections portray the strong and autonomous identity it has created for itself (Jackson and Shaw, 2006, p.69). The brand aims at evoking a lavish sense of intimacy and liberty with an attention to intricacies and superior quality. The brand targets those women who would explore and experiment with their choices in fashion. Thus liberty, freedom and autonomy are the key words that drive their business. Miu Miu had the opening fashion show in Paris in 2006. In 2011, it also started retailing its products online. The concept in which the Miu Miu boutiques were designed had a liberty aspect to it in the most dramatic way possible and a combination of archetypal material and futuristic facets were incorporated in the style to highlight the unfailing courage of the modern opulence and sensuality in the style of Miu Miu (Tungate, 2012, p.192). The flagship store was also shifted to a building of historic relevance in Milan, in order to incorporate this taste and the fashion shows were conducted in Paris rather than Milan which the brand believed went better with the image of the brand. The uniqueness was maintained also by eliminating men from their target of customers. In its efforts to promote the brand in times of recession, the brand launched “The Women’s Tales” a project in which five prestigious women film directors were asked to shoot silent films which would have a focus on the Miu Miu line of clothing and accessories and the first four were screened at the Venice International Film Festival. The fifth one is on the making. The theme around which the brand revolves is ultra modernity, style and luxury (Liu, 2010, p.47). The products are designed by the specialists after thoughtful observation of the recent developments around the world, the changing society and shifting cultures. Thus the brand has moved out of the limitations of the showrooms and boutiques in order to interact with the rest of the world full of diversity. All these have led the family business to a becoming a successful fashion brand operating in more than 70 nations. History of the parent company: the Prada Group The Brand Prada came into existence in 1913, when Mario Prada set up a store selling luxury items including bags and jewellery in Milan. The goods were handmade and exclusively designed with materials of first class quality. Immediately the brand became a status symbol for the aristocratic population of Europe. In 1919, the brand started supplying merchandise to the Italian Royal Family (Prada, 2012, p.5). In 1977, the granddaughter of the originator, Miuccia Prada, restructured the brand with Patrizio Bertelli, a Tuscan businessman, and sustained the business in a new way. Over the years, opened stores in various other places and met success. The brand still targeted the elite of the society and produced apparel, shoes and other accessories. The brand Miu Miu was the brainchild of Miuccia Prada who started this new brand as a form of diversification strategy targeting the ultramodern women. Employee Creativity and Innovation in MIU MIU The distinctive feature of Miu Miu comes from the typical process of management which enables the company in offering top quality, exclusive and creative products to its customers (Cordon, Hald, Seifert, 2013, p.76). The company focuses on the quality of product and this ideology is infused into the minds of every employee working in the company. The identity and the heritage of the brand are kept unharmed by regularly keeping challenge in front of the designers and the craftsmen and encouraging them to invent and reinvent. This process is monitored with special care in order to assure the customers of a quality which would not be compromised at any cost. It has led to an excellent relation between the customers of the brand and the products, its designers, the advertisements and the stores. Thus there is a personal touch to each and every product that the brand has to offer and the customers can express themselves by using the products in a positive manner. Since independence was the theme of the brand the young and the modern crowd was attracted to the brand as it reflected their personal preferences (Saren, 2013, p.222). Thus there was a mix of traditionalistic as well as a modern approach to the management of organisation culture. A detailed analysis of the strategic process would provide an insight to the company’s objectives of providing customer contentment with the final product. Design Aspects: The first step that is taken for the successful delivery of the product is designing. The person who heads the brand believes that it is a necessary combination of intellectual curiosity, unconventional ideas and the socio cultural interests that leads to the perfection in the production. Along with these components, a strong affinity towards fashion and precision would lead to a contemporary brand building. The brand has also incorporated integrity and discipline in the work culture, which helps in the day to day business proceedings. This method is unique to the brand which has helped it in the prediction and setting up of trends. The designers are encouraged to experiment and share new ideas in terms of design, use of fabrics or materials and the techniques of production. In doing this a lot of exchange of ideas take place among the employees and this translates into the final product of Miu Miu that preserves in it the hidden stories of this experimentation (Okonkwo, 2007, p.123). The employees are encouraged to spend considerable time in the “Fitting rooms” or the “Drawing Boards” so that they can allocate enough time of their work to research and development of styles which would define an entire range of clothing. The CEO of the company takes special efforts to get the best creative talents across the globe to discover the multiple facets of the fashion business by working in different areas. This had led to the formation of various design teams within the organisation who render their knowledge and expertise in the different segments of the brand like interior design, architecture, photography and all the variety of projects that the brand may undertake. Production and Distribution of the products In the second phase of the final product preparation, comes the production process in which the materials that are used for production are carefully assorted and are made exclusively. There company makes use of fabric of 4 million metres annually and an equally huge amount of leather. For this they get the supply from the best producers of fabric and tanners of the world. The production is chiefly done in England and Italy where the work is done by subcontractors who are selected with extreme care. There are also eleven production units owned by the company. Mostly production machines that are controlled by computer are used in the process as compared to the older era when the clothes were made by the tailors who were mostly women (Blyton and Turnbull, 1992, p.195). Now a day computerised cutting machines are used which make the work perfect and also easily deliverable on time. Most of the employees of the brand have been working for 20 years on an average. This has happened especially of the good human resources practices in the company. All the employees are empowered and they have job satisfaction as they enjoy doing work that they are given (Werner, Schuler and Jackson, 2012. p.178). Alongside the younger generation is also welcome in the organisation so that the brand can keep up to the newly emerging trends and ideas. The concept of creativity is there in every aspect of production because unless something new or unusual is offered in front of the consumers they cannot be lured to buy the products in these difficult times of recession (Bye, 2010, p.99). The brand does its distribution through the stores that are located in the various parts of the world. The networks of retailers are updated on various things and are visited very often. The architectural sides of each of the stores are upgraded with changing times and styles. Training on how shelf spaces can be utilised to the maximum benefit are given to the merchandisers. There are directly operated stores as well as franchise stores of Miu Miu (Polan and Tredre, 2009, p.227). These stores have a special role in creation of long lasting customer relationships and providing them with all kinds of recent information on fashion and the latest trends. The most knowledgeable and efficient representatives are employed for this purpose (Holt, 2004, p.12). Through the whole sale channel the brand distributes its products in the departmental stores and brings the brand open to competition with other luxury brands in various markets. However, the company ensures that this channel does not malign the image or synergy of the brand in any way (Sterlacci and Arbuckle, 2007, p.170). As a result they have reduced this channel over the years. Maintaining the Brand image and undertaking Effective Communication Activities The brand image carries a lot of weight and the differential pricing that it charges is mainly due to the tags carrying the brand name along with the physical product that the consumers buy (Kotler and Levy, 1969, p.12). Hence the company finds it extremely important to maintain this image and thus has employed a very dedicated marketing and promotion team that ensure that the brand is covered in the important fashion magazines and makes the products visible to the consumers. In store events also take place which help the brand retain the market share and boost the revenue for the year (Heding, Knudtzen and Bjerre, 2008, p. 134). The communication strategies include undertaking projects in the specialised fields. Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli have interest in art and hence they are created a space where they can exhibit the works of renowned artists. This is a part of their promotion programme. Research in cultures, architecture, philosophy, science and cinema are also encouraged by the brand which in turn motivated the employees as they get diversity in their work (Larkin and Larkin, 1994, p.129). Human Resources: the focal point While undertaking all the above activities the central point around which the business operates is creativity and successful human resource management. Since a fashion brands main assets are the designers, the company makes its best attempts to nurture the talent with all kinds of empowerment and benefits (McNamara, C. 2008, p.72). The company has a competitive advantage over other brands only by making full utilisation of the proficiency and dedication of the employees. The reward system of the company encourages the employees to be focused towards their goals and be active team players. Since Miu Miu is an international brand, the Human Resources Department works in an international environment, it attempts at making use of skills most effectively and efficiently. Attempt is made to make the process of operation vertical and to make the business adaptable to different locations (Di Maria, Grandinetti, and Di Bernardo, 2012. p.147). However it is ensured that the outlying operations remain integrated to the central operations. The entire management is divided across committees like the Audit Committee, The Remuneration Committee and the Nomination Committee to ensure that the work is done efficiently. The selection processes of the employees are also done in an unbiased and impartial manner to get the best talent. Campus programmes are conducted to get candidates from the top class Fashion Technology Schools as well as from the international markets (Amos, Ristow, Pearse, and Ristow, 2009. p.98). Training and Development is done on a regular basis in the distribution channel to ensure that the retail stores are fully updated. Conclusion The presence of the brand in the global market allows its employees to grow and experience diverse work opportunity across the world. All these have contributed to the success of the brand worldwide (Murrell and Meredith, 2000, p.68). After existing under the shadow of Prada for two decades, the brand has carved out a self-determining identity making Miu Miu a part of the top league of fashion brands in Europe. The increase in the sales figures over the years is a testimony to this fact. The brand would be incomplete without the contribution of the designers and artists hence the management makes the best efforts to nurture the talents. Since the target market is the elite population hence constant efforts are made to keep the customer satisfaction intact because in times of recession and cash crunch people become price sensitive and they would not want to make impulsive shopping decisions. Hence if a brand does not meet up to their expectations they would not go for the brands. However, Miu Miu takes care of all these issues of the prospective customers and hence it is a successful brand worldwide. References Amos, T., Ristow, A., Pearse, N. and Ristow, L., 2009. Human Resource Management. Cape Town: Juta and Company Ltd. Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P., 1992. Reassessing Human Resource Management. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Bye, E., 2010. Fashion Design: Understanding Fashion. London: Berg. Cordon, C., Hald, K. S., Seifert, R. W. 2013. Strategic Supply Chain Management. London: Routledge. Di Maria, E., Grandinetti, R. and Di Bernardo, B. 2012. Exploring Knowledge-Intensive Business Services: Knowledge Management. Strategies Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Heding, T., Knudtzen, C. F. and Bjerre, M., 2008. Brand Management: Research, Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge. Holt, D. B., 2004. How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding. Harvard MA: Harvard University Press. Jackson, T. and Shaw, D., 2006. The Fashion Handbook: Media Practice. London: Routledge. Kotler, P. and Levy, S. J., 1969. Broadening the Concept of Marketing. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 Larkin, T. J. and Larkin, S., 1994. Communicating Change: winning employee support for new business goals. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. Liu, S., 2010. Fashion Market and Design Management: How Does a High Street Fashion Brand Manage Its New Product Development Process to Meet the Demand of a New Market. Saarbrucken: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. McNamara, C. 2008. Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision. Minneapolis, MN: Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Murrell, K. L. and Meredith, M. 2000. Empowering Employees. 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