Chapter 8 〇7. Yanai Masa: The business philosophy of one win and nine defeats

Tadashi Yanai, founder of Japanese casual clothing brand UNIQLO, chairman and general manager of Fast Retailing. Yanai Masa's name may be unfamiliar to many people, but he was the richest person in Japan on the Forbes list in 2009.He was born in a clothing family in Japan. His father founded a men's clothing store called "Ogori Shoji" in 1949, mainly engaged in suit making.Liu Jingzheng grew up in a very strict environment. As the eldest son of the family, his father even made strict demands on him. He asked himself to be "the first" since he was a child. kind of incentive.

After graduating from Waseda University's Department of Economics, Yanai Masa joined the famous Jusco supermarket in Japan. Because he felt that "I am not suitable for the retail industry", he resigned a few months later and returned to his hometown to inherit his father's business. In June 1984, the first UNIQLO opened in Hiroshima, Japan.Later, under Yanai Masa's fast-selling business philosophy and warehouse-style clothing sales model, Uniqlo quickly opened stores in various places, and quickly occupied the market because of the sales positioning of cheap and everyday clothing, not only hanging a whirlwind in Japan, It has made Uniqlo a world-renowned clothing sales brand.Fast Retailing has thus become a multinational enterprise.

In 2003, Yanai Masa published a book titled "One Win, Nine Losses". "One Win, Nine Losses" has become Yanai Masa's business philosophy. He believes that his success is the victory after many failures. In 2009, under the harsh market environment of the financial crisis, UNIQLO under Yanai Masa took off against the trend, and the stock price soared. His worth was as high as 6.1 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the wealth of the president of Nintendo of Japan, and was selected as Japan's No. 1 by "Forbes" magazine. a rich man. Viewpoint: I think I am an adventurer, and all business activities are actually an adventure.The greater the risk you take, the more benefits you may gain.At the same time, there must be a firm determination to make the dream come true.

All business activities are a risk, because only a very small number of people can successfully foresee the results of business activities.Entrepreneurship and investment are all like this.In fact, taking risks does not necessarily mean failure. The greater the risk, the more profits and the greater the chance of success. background of the crisis Twenty years later, it was the casual clothing brand "UNIQLO" he founded in 1984 that made Yanai Masa of Japan the richest man in Japan with a net worth of US$6.1 billion.Yanai Masa's most famous sentence is the name of a book he wrote - "One win and nine defeats".Dare to try to sow unexpected success.Yanai Masa's summary of his business path is nothing more than these four words.

From a professional to a successful person, the most important thing is whether he will move forward bravely in the face of failure and difficulties.Yanai was also full of enthusiasm after graduating from university. During the 8 months of working at Jusco, he gradually realized what he needed.So he resigned from Jusco and returned to his hometown.After spending a period of time doing nothing, Yanai Masa's father was in poor health. As the eldest son of the family, Yanai Masa must take over his father's business. If there were no ventures at that time, perhaps Yanai Masa would still be the owner of a small clothing store selling suits and casual clothes.The chance and necessity of history converge at some point.Liu Jingzheng's first adventure is also the biggest adventure, and it is destined to be a reversal. In June 1984, UNIQLO's first store opened in Hiroshima.Although he has a clear plan for his business model, the day before the opening, Yanai Masa was still worried because he was worried that there would be no customers for the opening the next day.But he obviously misjudged the situation. On the opening day, the store was overwhelmed by customers, and people lined up at the door early in the morning, waiting to enter the store for consumption.At least, Yanai Masa's first step in starting a business was successful.

But this time the victory was based on more failures.After taking over his father's clothing store, he suffered a crisis of confidence.The experience of working at Jusco made him realize that his father’s Ogori Shoji clothing store was too inefficient both in terms of product display and production process, so he hoped to operate according to his own understanding of business, which was inevitable Offended the old employees, they all left one after another in the end, leaving only one person.Liu Jingzheng can only handle everything from purchase to sales by himself, taking care of all the work in the store.

Afterwards, Yanai was relieved of this crisis.He believes that the busiest period of time is an opportunity to promote his success.It is not a bad thing for young people to be hit when starting a business. Only after going through hardships can a person be sent to success.Some of Liu Jingzheng’s views on entrepreneurship may inspire many young people: “Entrepreneurship does not require any special qualifications. I think almost everyone can start a business. The important thing is to do it yourself. No matter how many times you fail. Continue to challenge with discouragement, and in this process, you can cultivate a manager."

Viewpoint: People who have no money buy Uniqlo, and people who have money will also buy Uniqlo.We advocate all-match, all-match needs taste, people with good taste will buy Uniqlo, and people with average taste will also buy Uniqlo.We have good quality and cheap price, which is the key to our success in the economic crisis. The downturn in the general environment does not mean that there is no opportunity.Uniqlo's experience in winning the economic crisis tells us that there is no shortage of markets for cheap and high-quality products at any time. background of the crisis In many cases, business success is a process that inevitably needs to accept setbacks and tests.Only a very small number of enterprises can go smoothly on the business road, and the external environment and internal growth are the survival issues that must be faced in the development of enterprises.And there are only a few companies that can develop against the trend during the economic downturn.Yanai Masa's Fast Retailing Company is an excellent case. It just grasped the situation of the two economic crises. When many companies were shrinking in order to survive the crisis, they seized the opportunity and created almost the most glorious enterprise in the history of development. moment.

Uniqlo has been developing cautiously in the few years since the opening of the first store. In the 1980s, it was still in the prosperous era of the Japanese economy. Everyone admired complicated and luxurious clothes. The popular and cheap clothes provided by Uniqlo did not attract much attention. s concern.Until the 1990s, the Japanese economy fell into a downturn, and there were signs of economic collapse everywhere. The people then reduced their consumption on clothing and other consumables, which happened to give Uniqlo a chance to grow rapidly.In less than a year from the winter of 1991 to the spring and summer of 1992, Uniqlo opened 33 new stores in Japan. From 1991 to 1994, Uniqlo added a total of 100 stores. In the first three years, They only have 22 stores in total.

The biggest style of Yanai's management is to dare to take risks.He once said, "You have to set high goals for yourself. If you only seek stability, your growth will inevitably stagnate." Uniqlo's original business model is to expand stores and close some of the original stores, which also urged the person in charge of each store Always maintain a sense of urgency and grasp the direction of progress. Also in the context of the global financial crisis in 2008, Uniqlo's affordable, everyday basic clothing has once again become a shopping item in people's eyes.When global companies are busy preventing bankruptcy and how to rescue the company in time so that they will not be frozen to death this winter, Uniqlo is facing the same situation as Japan's economic crisis in the 1990s, and opportunities lie ahead.By 2008, Uniqlo was already a worldwide affordable clothing retail brand with 800 stores, and its sales also increased by 11.7% against the trend. The turnover of Fast Retailing reached 586.4 billion yen in 2008. Also because the share price of the Fast Retailing company he held rose against the trend, he became the richest man in Japan in 2009 by Forbes.

Uniqlo is not irreproducible. Like the cheap clothing brands from all over the world, such as H&M and ZARA, it sells cheap and everyday clothing.However, it is a special path for Uniqlo to expand and develop by seizing the opportunity of the economic crisis to quickly grow the enterprise.Yanai is obviously full of confidence in how to seize the environment such as the economic crisis: "When the economic situation is good, maybe all brands sell well, because everyone likes to spend money. When the economy is bad, there will be certain brands. Some brands sell well, but the vast majority of brands do not sell well. At this time, differences between brands and even companies appear.” This difference may not be obvious in the sales model, and it was first created by Yanai Masa The warehouse-style clothing retail model of Uniqlo may be used by more people, but paying attention to quality and always innovating is also the key to Uniqlo's independent development against the trend during the economic crisis.Liu Jingzheng once said that the quality of clothing sold by Uniqlo was not necessarily so good at first. He said frankly that later, "through the establishment of flagship stores in various regions, we learned our position in the market. We want to maintain Japanese products. Have the concept of good quality. Since we are not the latest fashion, we have to win in terms of quality.” So the comfortable polar fleece jacket has become a popular clothing that every three people in Japan own. Many companies may only see business opportunities in the heyday of the economy, but there are often many business opportunities in the economic downturn. The main thing is the vision and the ability to seize opportunities.Liu Jingzheng has new ideas about the current financial crisis. He believes that "the biggest advantage of the financial crisis is that it is easy to acquire companies that are struggling." Opinion: "I make mistakes all the time. I'm a firm believer that if you try something new, it's impossible not to make mistakes. Mistakes are lessons for success, and it's great if you learn from them." The business philosophy of one win and nine losses can be extended to more fields than business.Only those who are not afraid of mistakes will have the courage to break through all outdated ideas, and it is easiest to find a suitable business path by constantly trying new ones.This is the same as the ancient saying that failure is the mother of success. background of the crisis In 2003, Yanai Masa published a book written by him - "One Win and Nine Losses", which perfectly explained his business philosophy: the emphasis is on trying, failure is all experience, and there will always be success once. Uniqlo, founded by Yanai Masa, has also encountered "Waterloo" many times, but through constant trial and error, Yanai Masa has been walking on a road of commercial success paved by mistakes. No one's business path is smooth sailing.So is Yanai Masa.After experiencing the rapid expansion during the Japanese economic crisis in the 1990s, Uniqlo entered a downturn in development from 2002 to 2003, and its performance fell sharply.Because after the woolen sweater products developed for young people, the continuous development capabilities are insufficient.But at the same time, Uniqlo's competitors, Jusco and Ito Huayodo, launched lower-priced wool products, which made Uniqlo's leading price advantage disappear. In July 2002, Uniqlo's sales only reached 60% of that of the previous year, and Uniqlo's raw material suppliers are also facing inventory problems. In order to get out of the predicament, Liu Jingzheng tried various methods.He is the least stingy about taking risks and trying, even if the result of the attempt is several mistakes and failures.Uniqlo began to add fashion elements to clothing under the premise of quality and comfort. It not only cooperated with fashion magazines to develop joint products, but also invited well-known artists to act as product spokespersons, and even cooperated with designers outside the company.After a series of efforts, Uniqlo's sales finally picked up gradually in 2004. In the development of Uniqlo, going out of Japan and going global is an important step for its success. In the market facing all countries in the world, Uniqlo started hand-to-hand combat with competitors such as H&M, ZARA, GAP, etc. Competition has always been considered as the continuous advancement of enterprises one of the driving forces.When Uniqlo is developing its business globally, it is obviously not going well. It entered the Chinese market in 2002, but due to the difference in crowd positioning between the Chinese market and the Japanese market, Uniqlo was surrounded by mid-to-low-end brands such as Giordano and Baleno at the beginning of its entry into the Chinese market. Clothing products are suppressed, and the price advantage is gone. After a period of groping, Uniqlo found the target group. They are middle-class consumers with a monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan in China, which is quite different from the Japanese definition of middle class.After finding the consumer group, Uniqlo's sales in China gradually got on the right track and were accepted by more and more people.Yanai is not impressed by the failures encountered in the Chinese market. He believes that the strategy to make Uniqlo break out of the siege is obviously risky: "First of all, it is to speed up the speed of opening stores. In East China with Shanghai as the center and Beijing as the center North China, South China with Guangzhou and Shenzhen as the center, Southwest with Chongqing and Chengdu as the center, and Hong Kong and other regions have become the number one clothing brand, and radiate to other regions, gradually expanding their influence.” In addition, Uniqlo also cooperated with Jack Ma The owned online sales platform Taobao cooperated and opened the first online flagship store.Uniqlo's goal is to become the world's largest clothing retailer. Yanai Masa, who advances through trial and error, and his business philosophy of one win and nine defeats are undoubtedly a booster for business operators who are still struggling in the economic crisis.The real winners are not afraid of failure.