MUJI Matsui Chusan: How To Overcome The Psychological Blind Spot Of Fear Of Shortage

In 1999, Japan's Muji achieved a good result of earning 13 billion 300 million yen. As a result, the situation reversed in the coming year, and in 2001 it even lost 3 billion 800 million yen. The comments from cruelty to the "Muji" era were over, and there was a "desperation" in the company.

At the most severe time, Matsui Chusan, who was in danger of giving orders to become president, made a major decision in the face of goods sold in the warehouse full of grains and grains: "burn up the stock of 10 billion yen in value!"

He and his colleagues went to the incineration plant in little thousand Valley City, Niigata, Japan. There were all kinds of cartons in front of them. For the Muji workers, the clothes in the box were just like their children. When a large crane lifted the cartons one by one, they threw them into the flames one by one, watching the merchandise burn in the fire. Many people's eyes were wet.

Matsui looked at the smoke rising from the chimney and told himself, "this is the status of Muji."

The new product management system, which is so impacted on the screen, is precisely his determination to announce reform to all his colleagues. "In doing so, we should be able to squeeze all the pus out."

However, half a year later, the company has accumulated a lot of stock!

This dumb fact makes Matsui understand that "if people fail only once, they will not learn lessons and fail to learn lessons two times."

He analyzed that the first failure failed to improve the situation, and most of them felt that it could not be improved and gave up directly. But if it failed again, it would really recognize the seriousness of the problem and show the determination of the bottom line.

After second large inventories, Matsui led the staff to analyze why "why things can't be sold". This time, Muji finally cleaned up the organization's purse. It also allowed profits to pick up in 2002, and even recovered in 2005.

When the boom is better, or brand (thematic reading) is full of freshness, Muji can have to produce 150 products before it can sell 100 products without being out of stock.

When the situation changed, sales fell to the original 75%, equal to more than half of the clothing produced.

In addition, in order to create the "sales of 100 pieces" performance, we must produce more points, otherwise we may not be able to create so many results because of factors such as clearing.

Maybe a lot of people would think that it would be nice to invite the procurement staff inside the company not to enter so many goods.

But people intuitively attach more importance to "problems directly visible in the front" than "problems that will happen in the future".

When experience comes to customers, things are out of stock or they sell a little more to achieve performance goals. The memory of "insufficient goods" is absolutely greater than that of "too much surplus at the end of the year", so that people will not follow the company's original instructions.

Question 2: the ability of people to refuse to accumulate in the past is denied.

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After investigation, it is discovered that outstanding salesmen actually make their own forms to manage product sales information, which can be accumulated into personal wisdom. It is very difficult for a company to change its original practice with a single order.

Matsui found that even if the company opened the basic form of managing sales information, the buyers refused to use it at all.

They feel that the company's request to change the way it has been gradually accumulated is equivalent to years of hard work being negated.

Matsui decided to take a more direct approach so that purchasers are willing to use the new system.

First of all, he set up a team directly responsible to the president, who confiscated all the forms of the purchasing staff and forced them to take the practice of the head office.

At the same time, the company has also implemented the new system synchronously. After 3 weeks of the launch, the sales situation must be confirmed immediately: if the sales exceed the expected 30%, the output will be increased; otherwise, the design will be changed and the surplus materials will be used.

This approach pforms all of the original product development and procurement operations that instincts are doing to a set of real-time management systems.

In this way, Muji finished 2000 at the end of the year, with 5 billion 500 million yen in clothing and grocery stock, down to 1 billion 700 million yen in 2003.

This also lets Matsui understand: once the system is functioning smoothly, the front-line employees will no longer resist.