UNIQLO Founder Liu Jing Zheng Decided To Leave Softbank.

In December 27th, Softbank announced that the CEO Ryui Masa, the parent company of UNIQLO, announced its withdrawal from the board of Softbank group, and will officially retire in December 31st. This means that he will bid farewell to the position of Softbank director who has been in office for 18 years, and will no longer fight alongside his old friend Sun Zhengyi.
Ryui Masa and Sun Zhengyi are the two legends of Japanese business community, and the two are deeply rooted. They are the third generation of immigrants who migrated from the Korean Peninsula to Japan. Since 2001, Liu has been serving as director of Softbank. In the past 10 years, they have been sitting on the throne of Japan's richest man.
Ryui Seiso said that his duty in Softbank is "to be honest with Sun Zhengyi." For decades, Ryui Masa was one of the few Japanese businesses who dared to publicly challenge Sun Zhengyi. He had been unhappy with Sun Zhengyi's big hand in investing 4 billion 400 million dollars in WeWork. Now, when Sun Zhengyi and Softbank are in trouble for investment in WeWork and Uber, Ryui Masa's departure is more meaningful.
　　 25 years old.
Created Japanese business myths.
The success of UNIQLO is still a commendable business miracle.
In those days, when he took over the men's clothing store "small county business" from his father, Ryui Masa was 25 years old. He resigned from the Department Store tally clerk's job in order to save his father's nearly bankrupt shop. He first made a reform to the shop, no matter whether the furnishings or the efficiency of the process had been reformed, so that some of the old employees could not see it in the past and resigned directly. In the most difficult time, there were only 6 people in his shop.
Not long after, Ryui Masa went to the blank of the Japanese casual wear market, and it was also against the prevailing luxury of Japan at that time, which determined the daily clothing and the main selling strategy. In 1984, the first UNIQLO store opened in Hiroshima, Japan. The new business model quickly attracted attention. The first day of the store was sold out, and when the second stores opened, sales exceeded 30 million yen in that month.
In 1998, when the Japanese economy was in recession, UNIQLO became popular with cheap pricing. In the year, it sold 2 million pieces, and in short supply, opened 300 stores in Japan and sold 80 billion yen a year.
In such circumstances, still can run beautiful performance, which gave Ryui Masa great confidence, he began to open up overseas markets, China has become a top priority. In February 1, 1994, UNIQLO's parent company was listed on the main board of the Tokyo stock exchange. In the financial crisis of 2008, the fortunes of many enterprises rapidly shrank, while the share price of Ryui Masa's fast selling group increased by 63%.
In April 11th of this year, Forbes announced the 50 richest list of Japan again. Liu Jing was defeated by Sun Zhengyi with a net worth of 24 billion 900 million dollars, becoming Japan's first richest man. This is Ryui Masa's return to the richest throne two years later. People once again recall the story of Ryui Masa's pioneering work.
Rosen, President of the Japanese company and Ryui Masa, who worked with Tamatsuka Shimotochi, recalled that Ryui Masa was always "cheap goods" of UNIQLO. He went out without a luxury car and ate a cheap noodle than the UNIQLO T-shirt, no shelves, and even sometimes ate up the food on his feet.
Along the way, Ryui Masa broke the popular bias of "cheap goods and no good goods". In more than 30 years, he made a small family business into the third largest clothing retailer in the world. He also founded the philosophy of explosive products and played an indispensable role in the fashion of parity.
Liu has said that he will retire from the front line at the age of 60-65, and then become an investor as an investor in the public eye. He is now at the age of 70, but he is still in the CEO position.
But his desire to become an investor has been realized here by his old friend Sun Zhengyi.
Deep friendship
In Softbank, Sun Zhengyi's "honest words and ears".
In the past 10 years, Sun Zhengyi and Ryui Masa have taken turns to sit in the top of Japan's richest place, but they do not know that the two personal connections are also very deep.
Sun Zhengyi and Liu Jing Zheng are the third generation immigrants who migrated from the Korean Peninsula to Japan. The two little men set up Softbank in 1981 and opened the first UNIQLO store in 1984. Two people without any background of the consortium have been the representatives of successful entrepreneurs in Japan and even in the past few decades. Since 2009, two of them have taken the lead in Japan's richest position.
When Ryui Masa came to the throne with UNIQLO, on the other side, Sun Zhengyi's 30 years had also created countless miracles. Investment in Alibaba, YAHOO, Japan and other classic cases, where many VC/PE had to fight, to a certain extent, Softbank tried to use capital to change the rules of the capital world game.
In June 2001, Ryui Masa began to serve as Softbank director, and the intersection of two people went further. Joining Softbank is Ryui Masa's initiative. He recalls that both XXX group and Softbank group were publicly offering shares in 1994. The coding on the Tokyo stock exchange was 9984 and 9983 respectively. "It feels like a classmate. At that time, I was interested in the daily settlement system introduced by Softbank and the management mode of using the computer LAN, so I went to meet Sun Zhengyi, and then I kept in touch, and talked about wanting to be an independent director."
Ryui Mana's own role in Softbank is "to be honest with Sun Zhengyi." at that time, all kinds of work such as new ventures and venture capital jointly launched by Softbank and big enterprises were basically not completed. He hoped Sun Zhengyi would stick to it and not relax. Ryui Masa and Sun Zhengyi are super optimists. They are willing to keep trying until they reach their goals. Two people also have no material desire, there are many similarities.
Perhaps Sun Zhengyi and Liu Jing Zheng are the two Koreans. They are outsiders for the Japanese local consortia. The two generations are from the same place. Such subtle emotions make them more sympathetic.
Ryui Masa was unhappy with investing heavily in WeWork.
Today, Sun Zhengyi has become the most powerful investor in the world, and with many years of friendship, Ryui Masa is one of the few who dare to challenge Sun Zhengyi.
As early as in 2017, Liu Jing was in an interview with the media, said: "Softbank CEO Sun Zhengyi has a bad problem, that is, interest points constantly changing, this also wants to do that also want to do." Ryui Masa even said: "Softbank is already a big enterprise, so we can not talk big. But this is also the charm of Sun Zhengyi.
Liu Jing is feeling the same. On the day of his interview, Sun Zhengyi announced that Softbank had invested $4 billion 400 million in WeWork. The outside world often feels that Softbank's vision of investing in WeWork and Uber is actually contrary to its earlier announced mission to invest in technology and the Internet of things.
Facts have proved that the two companies have become the failure of Softbank investment super unicorns in the future. The successive frustrations of WeWork and Uber have led to the loss of the vision fund's operation and even brought Sun Zhengyi's investment myths to Waterloo. Sun Zhengyi had to reflect. He even described this loss as "like a typhoon crossing, which is a loss that I have never seen since I started my business."
In June last year, at the annual meeting of Softbank, Sun Zhengyi called Softbank a unicorn hunter in front of shareholders. He said: "97% of the brain used to be used in telecommunications business. In the future, the proportion will be exchanged and most of the investment will be spent."
Ryui Masatachiba expressed different opinions: "I was very worried when I saw what Sun Zhengyi did. My mood, like all the shareholders here, is very worried about whether the investment will be smooth. After listening to Sun Zhengyi's speech today, please do not feel comfortable. He is worried that Softbank is keen on technology investment, but is not impressed with the rocking Qian Shu business such as Japanese mobile phone services.
Liu Wei is said to be one of the few directors who can compete with Sun Zhengyi in Softbank. The so-called counterbalance does not mean the quantitative judgement of investment ability, but when Sun Zhengyi wants everything, wants to be ambitious and even risks nothing, Liu will stand up to express different views and even argue with him.
Ryui Masa once explained to himself: "no matter what Sun Zhengyi does, I always raise objections. Having dreams is a good thing, but nothing is more important than practical management. We should still keep our feet on the ground.
Perhaps Liu well is pulling out of the Softbank board as a warning sign. He told reporters that he knew Sun Zhengyi had a lot of talent to invest, but he hoped he would be successful as a industrialist. He did not want Softbank to reach 5000 companies, and 20-30 subsidiaries would be good. Otherwise, I would not be an industrialist and become an investor. Perhaps from the very beginning, becoming an investor is not Ryui Masa's big goal. He wants to make life more than one possibility.
Now, at last, he will leave Softbank and lead UNIQLO to continue to expand the territory, and watch Sun Zhengyi's "crossing the tsunami".