Tadashi Yanai

* TADASHI YANAI is one of Japan’s most dynamic and innovative businessmen. After taking over his father’s suit shop in 1984 in a sleepy industrial city far from the fashionable capital, he transformed it into Uniqlo, Japan’s biggest retailer, and is now striving to make it the world’s largest. His success has made him the country's richest person, worth more than $9 billion.
* Uniqlo was anything but “cool”. Its first store in Tokyo had just opened in Harajuku and suddenly after the commercials launched, Uniqlo sales people faced a long line of customers each day queing in front of the store before it opened. As it can only happen in Tokyo, the lines of people kept growing throughout the week. A series of 30 second commercials by Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo, featured a wide array of Japanese, who talk about their personal lives, became an overnight sensation. The commercials each ended with a 1900 yen (approximiately $19 ) high quality fleece top available in 24 colors made exclusively by Uniqlo. It was the casual top that changed an entire industry.
* It is a busy Tokyo Saturday, September 1999, as the escalator rises to a floor of high fashion at Barney’s, carrying a young fashionable couple and their conversation is overheard: “ Have you seen the Uniqlo TV commercial? Uniqlo is so cool.” That was a seminal moment, the beginning of a retail revolution in Tokyo, one that reverberates today from Harajuku of Tokyo to SoHo of New York to Oxford Street of London. This former suburban discount apparel shop suddenly burst onto the fashion scene as a new alternative to the elitism of cool with a message of a casual democratic style fit for all Japanese.
* Japan is not known for its rebels, it is a society which has prospered by social and economic balance, preventing differences between people in a homogenous culture. The society does not naturally celebrate or nurture rebels...especially in business. Yanai, however, has a natural skill in walking the tightrope of chance. He is willing to take risks, big risks and he has the self-confidence to survive most failures. Uniqlo had failed once in London after its first big boom in Japan, yet Uniqlo relaunches in the city with two new shops on Oxford Street designed by Masamichi Katayama of Tokyo.
* As a young man, Yanai would visit Barney’s N.Y. at its original location, downtown on West 17th Street and the similarities between the two companies as mens shops brought him to study the New York shop before it bcame an icon of high style. “At the time, they were simply a menswear store - they weren’t a full-specialty store yet at the time. So they were selling brands like Polo and Izod, and it was a great learning experience.” These trips to New York and Barneys gave Yanai the opportunity to study how they marketed and expanded their men’s products from suits to sportswear and later evolve into a full-fledged women’s specialty fashion store.
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* Kashiwa Sato, the influential designer who also has served as consulting Creative Director for the Uniqlo global branding projects, says of him,” ...at a time when people fear change, Yanai-san is definitely a rebel. For the new generation, seeking a new way and new values, I think he is truly a pioneer.”
* “My recommendation to every member of our company is take your risks after deep thinking.”
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* Tadashi Yanai is everything a typical Japanese chief executive isn't: aggressive, opinionated, and unapologetic. His company, aptly named Fast Retailing Co., has become Japan's fastest-growing store chain, mainly by bucking tradition and challenging established rivals on their own turf. Yanai's secret is selling casual duds such as slacks and socks much like McDonald's meals: His chain of 500 no-frills apparel outlets, called UNIQLO, with total sales of $3.3 billion expected this year, offers a set menu at unbeatable prices. For the full year through August, the company forecasts pretax income of $866 million, making it far more profitable than retail giants such as The Daiei Inc. and JUSCO Co. Yanai's scorched-earth pricing strategy has earned Fast Retailing the enmity of corporate and government leaders in Japan, who blame it for stoking deflation in the apparel industry.\

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Highlights

* A great ad for Uniqlo became an overnight sensation. The commercials each ended with a 1900 yen (approximiately $19 ) high quality fleece top available in 24 colors made exclusively by Uniqlo. It was the casual top that changed an entire industry.
* “ Have you seen the Uniqlo TV commercial? Uniqlo is so cool.” That was a seminal moment, the beginning of a retail revolution in Tokyo
* Japanese society does not naturally celebrate or nurture rebels...especially in business. Yanai, however, has a natural skill in walking the tightrope of chance.
* As a young man, Yanai would visit Barney’s N.Y. at its original location, downtown on West 17th Street and the similarities between the two companies as mens shops brought him to study the New York shop before it bcame an icon of high style.
* “My recommendation to every member of our company is take your risks after deep thinking.”

==GREAT ADVERTISING OF A BRAND==
==A REBEL AND A CONTRARIAN==
==RESEARCHING WHAT COMPETITORS HAVE DONE==
==TAKING BIG RISKS AFTER DEEP THINKING==