The Legendary Life Of Ryui Masa, The Founder Of Japan'S Richest UNIQLO

Although it has been in Japan for many years, UNIQL0's iconic red billboard is everywhere, but it has not been directly exposed to Ryui Masa and the Empire of UNIQLO, nor has he written anything about Liu Jing Zheng or UNIQLO.

To be exact, I never felt before MITSUBISHI, Mitsui, Sumitomo, hibiscus, first Daiichi bank, three and six other Japanese consortium giants.

It can be regarded as a "commercial empire".

At that time, I only knew that the name "UNIQLO" actually came a little bit wrong.

At first, the abbreviation of "Unique Clothing Warehouse" was "UNICLO", but it was accidentally written "UNIQL0" by a Chinese co operative in Hongkong when registering.

However, Ryui Masa did not blame it, but rather thanked him because he felt that "Q" was much cooler than "C". He immediately decided to take all the registration names and advertisements to be changed to "UNIQLO".

Of course, for UNIQLO, I can't be a complete outsider.

As early as studying at Hiroshima University in Japan, I heard the people of Hiroshima say that after Ryui Masa renamed the company from "small county business" to "UNIQL0" (exactly "UNICLO"), the first place to officially enter was the Hiroshima which I had lived for more than two years. A place not only has atomic bomb explosions, but also the first place of "three scenes of Japan" - Miyajima.

So far, Hiroshima people have quipped from time to time: "UNIQLO at that time was" township enterprises into the city ".

Ryui Masa later wrote in his memoirs: "Hiroshima is a big city, and UNIQLO was just a small business."

But now, Hiroshima, as an uncouth place for UNIQLO, will be carried by the history of the uniqo, which has become the pride of the Hiroshima people, but even the Hiroshima people do not understand why the "native" uniqo can now be so hot?

Although he grew up in a business - rich family, Ryui Masa had little ambition since he was a child.

Ryui Masa often skipped classes when he was a teenager. In his own words, he was a "young student".

It was not until I came to Tokyo that I learned that Ryui Zheng graduated from the political and Economic College of Waseda University.

Ryui Masa's college years were somewhat "unacceptable" because he spent almost every day in movie theaters, video arcade, coffee houses and occasionally went to the mahjong museum to try his luck. His academic neglect made him a vagrant for 3 months after graduation.

Although the Japanese university was at a time when the student movement of Anti Japanese security agreement was surging, there was no desk in the classroom, but in those days, college students were truly "social elites".

Japan's political and economic institute first originated in Waseda University, and Waseda University's School of political economy is still an elite place until today.

Ryui Masa's failure to take office is somewhat heresy.

After 3 months in Ryui Masa's absence, he entered the JUSCO (now AEONRETAIL) supermarket for help with his father's friend's help, and was placed in kitchen and toilet equipment stores such as kitchen knives, chopping boards, etc.

But after 9 months, he resigned on the grounds of "no useful experience in the supermarket, and went back to the old home of Yambu city in remote mountain pass".

In desperation, he followed his father into a suit, but when he was 23 years old, he complained to his father, "I am not fit for retail business".

Indeed, he proved his "inappropriate" with action.

His first "reform", led by his father's small clothing store, forced 5 of the 6 old business employees in the shop because of his "indiscreet", "unspoken" and "rude remarks", and the only one who could swallow and choose to stay was only one person.

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Today, Ura Leeji has become the executive director of UNIQLO, ranking fifth in UNIQLO management.

However, it is such a willow well, in 2009, when he was 60 years old, he ushered in the best birthday gift God bestowed on him. He was the richest man in Japan with the value of 6 billion 100 million dollars. At the same time, he ranked first in the list of "best operators" of the University of Japan with 256 votes and cicada, which was widely recognized by the industry. It was much higher than the 42 votes of Akiotoyoda, the second president of TOYOTA automobile company.

As Ryui Masa said, "those who have no money buy UNIQLO, and the rich will buy UNIQLO.

We advocate "wild", "wild" needs taste, good taste people will buy UNIQLO, and ordinary people will buy UNIQLO.

We have good quality, low price and low price. This is the key to win in the economic crisis.

It can be said that the 2008 financial crisis has made UNIQLO.

Under the influence of the financial crisis, Bill Gate, the world's richest man, lost $18 billion in assets in 2009, and the fortune of "stock god" Warren Buffett has shrunk by $25 billion. In Japan's former Nintendo Co, Shan's personal wealth has shrunk to 4 billion 500 million dollars.

But Liu Jing Zheng was an exception. Fast selling company's stock price went up 63% in 2008, and sales of UNIQLO rose sharply, and new stores spread all over the world.

In 2010, Ryui Masa's value jumped 50% to $9 billion 200 million, which was once again the richest man in Japan.

In January 2010, the American Sales Association awarded the "International Award" to President Ryui Masa. He became the fourth entrepreneur to win the honor after the Japanese War, in 1972, President of Itou Suzumiro, President of Sakamoto house in 1972, Okada Takuya of president of 1985, and Ito of Yang Hua Tang in 1998.

Ryui Masashiya is known as the new generation of "God of management" after the Japanese War, following the founder of PANASONIc, Konosuke Matsushita, founder Akio Morita of SONY and founder Inamori Kazuo of KDDI.

However, in the media interview, Ryui Masa always deliberately avoided the title of "Japan's richest man".

As for money, he once said a famous saying: "money is just a result, so most successful people do not work to earn money.

To a certain extent, they want to do business, and then money comes.

If you chase money, money will run away from you.

To be fair, the fashion industry is increasingly becoming the cradle of giving birth to the richest man. Besides willow well is becoming the richest man in Japan in the list of Forbes, Amancio Ortega, chairman of the Inditex group of ZARA boss, has become the richest person in Spain in a few years. The Person family of H&M is also the founder of IKEA IKEA, the founder of Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden's richest person in turn. The younger generation of Persson family has been appointed as the company's successor and replaced the retired professional manager in July 1, 2010.

UNIQLO developed from an unknown clothing store in the year to a world-class costume empire. Ryui Masa spent the whole 38 years walking from the remote Yamaguchi Prefecture to Tokyo's most modern and comprehensive commercial landmark, Midtown tower.

Those who have the opportunity to visit fast selling companies will be impressed by their special working environment.

The offices there are not partitions and no fixed desks. All the staff in the department work in a large room without partitions. People can walk around with their notebooks at random. All the meetings are finished in 10 minutes. After 7 pm, the company lights out on time, and in principle prohibits overtime work because UNIQLO's work slogan is "work should be done as early as possible."

In the office on the 33 floor of midtown tower, Ryui Masa can overlook the whole of Tokyo and look to Mt Fuji, and his ambition is far from that.

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In order to unravel the secret of why UNIQLO can rise and go, I visited the relevant personages who are familiar with Liu well.

Every enterprise has its own secret and will not show it to an irrelevant person, but I still get a lot of first-hand Japanese information.

At the same time, I bought all the Japanese books that I saw in the market, and read carefully, and read a lot of media reports. All of these became my reference to Ryui Masa and his company.

Before that, I am afraid few people can systematically and meticulously study these stories that are dusty behind history.

So far, people's understanding of UNIQLO has been divided into two extremes.

The artists of UNIQLO describe it as a "entrepreneurial myth" that has risen rapidly, demolished the city, and almost invincible, while Ryui Masa himself is a natural entrepreneur and business genius who cannot be imitated.

But I deeply feel that the so-called "genius" is more successful after the birth of the aura, Ryui Masa surpassed ordinary people's "efforts" is worth writing, perhaps compared with Tang Jun, Ryui Masa is more qualified to say "my success can be duplicated".

The critics of UNIQLO believe that it is only the product of continuous deflation caused by the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in the "lost 20 years" background. Once the Japanese economy is out of the mire, as a representative of "cheap goods", UNIQLO will not be able to base itself on the Japanese market, and will inevitably go to death. Ryui Masanori is the "hero of the time". He is also a well-known economist who criticizes Kojima Kensuke and other famous economists. "UNIQLO will bankrupt the country" and "UNIQLO is the degeneration of consumption civilization".

But with such comments, it is difficult for us to explain why UNIQLO can expand its territory overseas.

In fact, UNIQLO is committed to "low quality" rather than simple "low price". We are afraid it is hard to conclude that the company that is committed to the perfect combination of low quality and high quality will go to death.

In fact, the history of UNIQLO is full of difficulties and setbacks. In the period of the crazy expansion of Liujing, which is eager to be listed and financing, the number of new shops opened by UNIQLO has not been as good as the number of stores closed. Until now, UNIQLO's opening of happy new stores is often accompanied by the failure of the shops that are not profitable or losing money. It is no exaggeration to say that, as Ryui Masa said, UNIQLO is "one win, nine defeats".

UNIQLO can have such a great achievement today. It is a dream of "idiot", which has been conquered after many serious crises. The crisis is still everywhere. And because of this, Ryui Masa said frankly, "success can be abandoned one day".

In 70s and 80s twentieth Century, Ryui Masa seized the historical opportunity of Japan's economic take-off and Japanese yen appreciation. But it also suffered from the embarrassment of banks' bad debts and bad loans so that they could not merge from banks to development funds after the Japanese economic bubble in the late 80s and early 90s.

In 90s, when the economy was depressed and most enterprises were in recession, Liu well was bypassing the middleman directly to the suppliers. It also challenged the view that "Japanese customers boycotted made in China" (the 90% of UNIQLO clothing was made in China), relying on the "cheap and high-quality" strategy, quickly seized consumers' psychology and accurately grasped the pulse of globalization and grew up crazily.

When in 1999, when he was admitted to high school and Waseda University, he praised his father, Liu Jing, and so on. Liu well could not help crying in tears at his funeral. "Father is the biggest competitor in my life."

And this year, UNIQLO realized the successful listing on the Tokyo stock exchange, which was just 25 years from Ryui Masa's 1974 takeover of the "small county business", while Liu well and so on, from 1949 to the beginning of the "little County business" in the year of the birth of Liu Jing, to fight to Liu well is just 25 years.

In the first 25 years, Ryui and other small businesses sold 100 million yen. In the next 25 years, Ryui Masa increased the sales of UNIQLO to 111 billion yen, becoming the TOP enterprise of the Japanese clothing industry. In 2010, the sales of UNIQLO amounted to about 900 billion yuan.

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Just like UNIQLO's economic boom and the appreciation of the yen, the economic bubble has burst and the economy has been in a downturn. Ryui Masa is one of the most important figures in the process.

His wisdom, passion and strategy provide us with a perfect drama.

So far, he has been lured by a dream. When he has realized a dream brilliantly, there will still be new dreams coming up ahead.

"I am a very strict boss.

I am often dissatisfied with the slack of the staff. The young people are so comfortable now. They do not think it is cool to challenge or fight for anything. They simply don't understand how good it feels.

But for those young people who want to be independent and work hard, I may also be an idealistic boss.

I allow employees to challenge their limits. If he does not enjoy himself in UNIQLO, he can try new business environment, pfer to other business areas of our business, or let him change his department in UNIQLO, "Liu said.

Da Moomin, a famous Japanese business commentator, believes that Ryui Masa's "strict demands on work" and "warmth to his subordinates" are the two driving forces for UNIQLO's growing up.

In the eyes of outsiders, Liu Jing was "very cold", but the people he worked with said, "President Liu is a shy, serious, steady and kind person. Working with him is as comfortable as home."

Many employees in UNIQLO company are even fans of Ryui Masa.

His dream now is to make UNIQLO's annual sales amount to 5 trillion yen in 2020, so UNIQLO will surpass GAP and ZARA to become the world's first clothing retail brand.

In fact, Ryui Masashiya knew it was difficult to achieve this goal. In October 9, 2010, he interviewed in the famous Japanese financial magazine "Toyo economy", he said, "to become the number one in the world, as long as there is a 30% chance, I will go forward bravely."

He also constantly motivate company employees, "we must set a high goal for ourselves, low target, if it can be easily achieved, it is not a good goal, the best goal should be an impossible task".

Every year, Ryui Masa will sit next to the computer and write a letter to all the employees of the company, and the company will receive the letter the next morning.

The content of the letter is mainly summarized and looked forward to what kind of scale the company will achieve in the next 3 years.

These were once planned by many employees to be "Arabian Nights", and they all turned into reality as scheduled.

The history of "idealist" Ryui Masa and his UNIQLO tells us what dreams are and what is reality, and where is the bridge that must be built between the dream and the reality.

Unlike other big entrepreneurs, Ryui Masa has nothing to do with politics and finance.

Inside the company, he hardly ever makes personal speeches, and he does not like to hold tedious celebrations.

Maybe it's the reason for doing casual wear. UNIQLO employees seldom wear suits, usually wearing T-shirts or loose Casual Shirts, trousers like twill pants or corduroy trousers, just like their boss Liu Jing.

Such a dress is rarely seen in Japan.

But if Liu himself is regarded as the embodiment of perfectionism, it may be disappointing.

He is a smart strategist and has an amazing sense of fashion. Ryui Masahito's hands decide from sample approval to color selection, but this meticulous management has forced many talented executives to leave the company.

He had tried to give up his day-to-day work of autocratic rule, but failed. Now he defends his intervention policy. He said, "a good manager must pay attention to details."

At the same time, Ryui Masa has no definite successor on hand.

Although he indicated to the outside world that he would give up the presidency and retain only the presidency before he was 65 years old (2014), he would recall that in 2002 he had done this, but in 2005 he staged a historic scene of "return of the president", recovering the throne of the president from the hands of 43 year old Tamatsuka Shimotochi.

Ryui Masa tried to retain Tamatsuka Shimotochi as the company's banning service (equivalent to a director), but the young handsome man who was pferred from Japan's IBM company to UNIQLO in 4 years or became the president of the company finally insisted on leaving him.

Although the two have publicly expressed their respect for each other, the "discord" between the two people is still a major topic of Japanese society.

Tamatsuka Shimotochi said publicly: "Mr. Ryui Masa's" owner "consciousness is too heavy is the biggest reason for my resignation.

In his memoirs, Ryui Masanori declared that "Tamatsuka Shimotochi's pursuit of stability and growth is the most important reason for being replaced". In October 9, 2010, Liu Jing reiterated this statement when he accepted the exclusive interview with the "Oriental economy".

However, just 3 months later, in January 11, 2011, Tamatsuka Shimotochi took office as vice president and internal CEO of the Japanese super convenience store chain giant, becoming the most powerful successor of Rosen company. The reason why Sina's current president, Sina, just gave the reason: "Rosen and UNIQLO although their business contents are different, but basically they belong to the retail industry, and Tamatsuka Shimotochi's experience in UNIQLO is worth affirming and looking forward to."

In fact, before the jade tomb yuan yuan, Sawada Takashi, who was entrusted with heavy responsibility by Ryui Masa, also left him.

Sawada Takashi and Tamatsuka Shimotochi are of the same age. They are described as "close friends and hands" by the outside world. Tamatsuka Shimotochi started the Revamp company with Sawada Takashi shortly after leaving UNIQLO.

When someone pursued the succession issue, Ryui Masa once again challenged the traditional Japanese business model and said he did not intend to give the company to his sons. They would be big shareholders and had a place in the board of directors, but they would not run the company. He said, "those companies that are inherited by their descendants are not doing well now."

Today, the collapse of the "TOYOTA myth" seems to have verified this point. However, "in the long run, those companies that monopolize the power of one person are the same."

In the field of international economics, Japan's lifelong employment system, annual work sequence and intra firm trade unions have been praised as the "three great artifact" of Japanese style operation. However, the "lost 20 years" made Japanese management face pformation, and Liu Cheng's "reform of achievement" that was implemented by universalist was exactly against this old system. Ryui Masa's "three great artifact" ensured "stable growth" as "disease".

"This is no longer the history of Ryui Masahito's personal and UNIQLO enterprises," I felt more and more inside. "This is the best case of how companies integrate into globalization, and it is also a historical contraction from 1970s to now, which has experienced economic take-off but plunged the economic downturn."