Report on Organizational Culture of Uniqlo and Giordano

Report on organizational culture of UNIQLO and Giordano

Target companies

UNIQLO HK Limited and Giordano International Limited in the apparel industry

Industry background

UNIQLO Hong Kong Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of fast Retailing Co. Ltd. from Japan. The first UNIQLO store was opened in 1984 and then developed with an amazing speed to become a huge aircraft carrier in apparel industry in Japan and even the world, combining all facets of its businesses including fabric weaving, dyeing and spinning, product design, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sales together. For years it devoted itself to selling low-price clothes with a high quality to meet customers' needs, which is also its competitive edge, making the products so popular among people at all ages.

Giordano International Limited is a leading retailer of men's, women's and children's clothes and accessories. Established in 1981 in Hong Kong, the company has opened more than 1,700 stores and counters in 30 markets in East and Middle Asia Regions, concentrating on its five business values of quality, knowledge, innovation, service and simplicity.

Organizational culture

In order to expand business and create positive images, both UNIQLO and Giordano try to maintain well-accepted organizational culture, keeping pace with the time. After research and analysis, I find that several common aspects of organizational culture stand out from the two companies' vision and mission, styles of management, ways of doing business, requirements to employees, etc.

Price versus quality

UNIQLO's vision is "to offer an outstanding balance of price and quality in a straightforward manner to all customers", from which we can easily identify its focus on price and quality. Although customers' traditional opinion is that low-price products are always of low quality, what UNIQLO has done change their minds because it aims to make people look fashionable and confident in world-class clothes at a reasonable price. In order to achieve this, the whole company adopts a low-cost but effective operation model called SPA Model which makes better use of materials and other resources.

Giordano also focuses on prices in the midrange. It mainly serves people aged between 18 and 55 with income ranged from HK$ 6,000 to HK$ 18,000. And the majority of the products are sold at the price between HK$ 95 and HK$ 800. Thus most Giordano branch stores in Hong Kong are located in mid-size shopping malls and MTR stations.

Globalization

Globalization is an inevitable trend so as to help companies make larger profit and increase social influence. UNIQLO has become the most successful casual wear retail chain with more than 700 stores in Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, UK, USA, etc. Besides the sale aspect, in order to remain competitive and be aware of the most updated information, different departments are located in different countries where the company can get as many benefits as possible. For example, its fashion-design centers are in Tokyo, New York, Paris and Milan where designers are able to find first-hand information about fashion trends. The manufacturing departments can be mainly found in China where large numbers of cheap labors are offered to lower the costs. And the headquarters are still located in Japan, taking responsibility for strategic decision making, location and store format development, distribution and inventory control, etc. Also it opened an office in Shanghai for production management with decentralization purpose. With the help of the Internet, UNIQLO uses online sales to access larger groups of customers which also contribute to the globalization process.

Giordano also has done very well in this area since there are more than 1,000 branches mainly in East and Middle Asia. Compared with UNIQLO, it is more Hong Kong based. And the website e-Giordano also registered a big success. As its vision indicates, Giordano aims to become the best and biggest world brand in apparel retailing. But as information obtained so far, it fails to have such an integrated business model as UNIQLO.

Interpersonal skills

In modern business, the quality of employees can also demonstrate a company's culture. As we can see from the recruitment information above, the main requirements to UNIQLO's employees are enthusiasm, good language and communication skills and ability to solve problems. These interpersonal skills