Xavier Azcue

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The secret ingredient in IKEA’s meatballs
Xavier Azcue
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 11:25 pm
IKEA's business model revolutionized retail as we know it, and their sound and aligned operating model allowed them to execute on it. This has lead IKEA to become the biggest furniture seller worldwide.

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On December 14, 2015, Xavier Azcue commented on The secret ingredient in IKEA’s meatballs :

Cool, looks interesting, and I hope they make it! I honestly found IKEA to be “shadier” than I liked when reading about them (mostly because they are registered as a non-profit and I think they should pay taxes), so I’d love a competitor to make it 🙂

On December 13, 2015, Xavier Azcue commented on Ryanair’s low-cost 30th birthday :

Of course you would write about Ryanair.

given the really low price, my question is how much of the financial success is driven solely from low-cost strategy (like the reduced space, faster turnarounds… all which I find brilliant) and how much is driven from the annoying extras (the endless advertising, cross-selling of insurance or car-rentals).

On December 13, 2015, Xavier Azcue commented on Zara: Fashion at its Fastest :

– From what I know to keep up with fashion trends, Zara also uses employees on the store floor to see what people are wearing and base their designs on that, how effective do you think that is?
– In the world of fashion do you expect (like in the world of music and entertainment) that most things that are popular are popular globally with some local twists, or that fashion should be very different region to region? Should Zara Europe be independent from Zara Asia?

On December 13, 2015, Xavier Azcue commented on Krispy Kreme Doughnuts: The Sweet Success of Business and Operational Alignment :

Interesting read!

I’m curious as to the investment required by each individual store if it is also simultaneously a manufacturing site. I’m assuming the machinery required is not cheap, so the fixed costs of opening up a store might be higher. Furthermore, it seems to take up a lot of real estate, how does KK do so in cities were real estate is more expensive?

On December 13, 2015, Xavier Azcue commented on Zara: A Better Fashion Business Model :

I was going to ask the same question as Zhihan, so I won’t necessarily repeat that… but now that I’m already here and have read your post I’ll ask two other questions:
– From what I know to keep up with fashion trends, Zara also uses employees on the store floor to see what people are wearing and base their designs on that, how effective do you think that is?
– In the world of fashion to you expect (like in the world of music and entertainment) that most things that are popular are popular globally with some local twists, or that fashion should be very different region to region? How would that effect Zara?