.Building a successful business on a global scale is not an easy matter. In addition to taking time, it also takes extra high enthusiasm, tenacity, carefulness and patience. At least this is what happened to Tadashi Yanai and the clothing retail store he built, Uniqlo. Starting from his parents' business and a simple shophouse, Tadashi Yanai has successfully built Uniqlo into a large brand with stores all over the world.
This success story is certainly not built in a short span of time. It took a long process and many failures were felt, until finally this proved successful and could lead Tadashi Yamai to become one of the richest people in Japan with a total wealth of US $ 39.9 billion or around Rp.450 trillion. How did Tadashi Yamai journey to bring Unilqlo from a family business to the largest clothing retailer in Asia? Let's go together! Born to a simple family, Tadashi Yanai founded Uniqlo as a continuation of his parents' business development after he failed to pursue a career after graduating from university
Tadashi Yanai is the founder of the clothing retail company Uniqlo and is currently 71 years old. The man who was born on February 7, 1949 does not come from a wealthy family. Patience, carefulness, and enthusiasm are some of the assets that led him to his current position. Maybe the blood of trading clothes is already in Mr. Tadashi Yanai, because his father was also involved in the clothing trade. This clothing shop owned by Mr. Tadashi Yanai's parents is one with their house, in a building that can be said to be a shop, a clothing shop on the first floor, a residence on the second floor.
As reported by Business Insider, after graduating from Waseda University and obtaining a degree in economics and politics in 1971, Mr. Tadashi Yanai actually did not have the motivation to work, but his father forced him to find work, especially in the retail sector. Finally, Mr. Tadashi Yanai started his career as a seller of clothes and kitchen utensils in a Japanese franchise called Jusco.
Having failed as a clothes and kitchen equipment salesman early in his career, Mr. Tadashi Yanai did not give up. He prefers failure to success, because according to him it will allow him to create new and unique things
Pak Tadashi's career at Jusco did not last long and eventually ran aground. After the failure, Mr. Tadashi Yanai's parents invited him to help develop the clothing business that his family owned. Although at the beginning he was halfheartedly running it, but in the end he found his motivation. Running a clothing retail business is considered fun by him, so he tries his best to promote and develop this family business.
It was from this business development that Uniqlo started, because in 1984 Mr. Tadashi Yanai opened a shop with the name Unique Clothing Warehouse in Hiroshima, Japan. A shop that sells casual clothes for men, women, and children. This was Mr. Tadashi Yanai's first step before his business was known as Uniqlo as it is today. Because the products are of good quality and affordable prices, it's no wonder that in the end this clothing retail store is growing rapidly and is liked by many people. One of the famous Uniqlo products is a fur jacket, a jacket which in 1998 was sold at a price of US $ 15 or around Rp. 212,000 (at the current exchange rate). Even so, not all business ideas carried out by Uniqlo are always successful. In an interview that Mr. Tadashi Yanai conducted with the CNA Insider channel, he admitted that in building Uniqlo, he faced many failures, especially when dealing with European and American markets and consumers. But Mr. Tadashi Yanai enjoyed this failure, he thinks failure is something that encourages him to create innovation and keep his business going. Even though he has succeeded in building the largest clothing retail company in Asia, Mr. Tadashi Yanai still has a bigger dream! Making Uniqlo the number 1 clothing retailer in the world!
now Uniqlo under its parent company Fast Retailing, has become the third largest global clothing retailer. Pak Tadashi Yanai's company is only behind Inditex, which houses Zara and H&M. Of course this achievement is also present because of the large distribution chain as well. Uniqlo has more than 1,900 stores worldwide. Of these 810 stores are in Japan, 50 are in the United States, and the rest are spread across various Asian countries, such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and of course Indonesia. Even so, Mr. Tadashi Yanai is not complacent, as quoted from the Business Insider page, he wants to be number 1 in the world of retail clothing and beat H&M and Zara. He stated that providing clothes for all elements of society is one of the keys to achieving this bigger dream. Actually, Mr. Tadashi Yanai is not only concerned with the clothing retail business. He has served on the board of directors of SoftBank, a funding company that contains a Japanese conglomerate. Not only that, while still serving at SoftBank, Pak Tadashi Yanai also had a big influence, but he decided to step down from the board of directors since 2019. Tenacity, carefulness, patience, and hard work are some of the things we can take as lessons from Mr. Tadashi Yanai's success story in building Uniqlo, and making it one of the biggest retail companies in the world. Even though he is not directly related to his lectures, Mr. Tadashi Yanai can still carry on and continue the development of Uniqlo. Now that he is 71 years old, there is no sign that Mr. Tadashi will retire from Uniqlo.
very motivating