Uniqlo's Tadashi Yanai Reveals the Keys to Success
Lessons from Japan’s richest man.
With a net worth of $21.1 billion USD, Tadashi Yanai assiduously worked his way to becoming the chairman, president and chief executive of Uniqlo’s parent company Fast Retailing. When Yanai joined his father’s tailoring business in 1972, six of the company’s seven employees left in protest, figuring that Yanai would take on the position of CEO. “I needed to clean the store, brush the jackets, sourcing — I literally had to do everything myself because there was nobody else,” he reminisces. Understanding the limitations of working single-handedly, Yanai came to an important epiphany – “We needed some common threads, some principles, so we started to distribute these plastic cards.”
By 1984, Yanai had devised seven or eight of his core principles. That year saw Yanai take the reins as president, opening the brand’s first store, “Unique Clothing Warehouse” in Hiroshima. Looking back on a history of overseas acquisitions and global expansion, Yanai boiled down his 23 management principles to eight simple themes. Visit Business of Fashion‘s full piece on Yanai for an in-depth look at each of the self-made entrepreneur’s following points of advice: 1. Put Customers First 2. Contribute to Society 3. Embrace Optimism 4. Learn From Failure 5. Focus on Details 6. Be Your Own Critic 7. Connect To The World 8. Disrupt Yourself.
