Those of you who have gone on our Japan Lean Tour have no
doubt done a little bit of shopping at Uniqlo. An innovative retail brand
providing quality wardrobe staples. Currently, Uniqlo is the fourth largest
clothing retailer, the current top three being Zara, H&M and Gap.
“I want to be number one in the world...to be bigger than
the Gap.” apparent from this quote- Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Uniqlo's parent company
Fast Retailing dreams big. It is this ambition to go for what may seem
impossible that took his father's small suit shop to places no one else has
dared to dream. But that's not enough to satisfy Yannai. His goal is for Fast
Retailing to quadruple current sales to 50 billion by 2020!
According to Yannai an appetite for the impossible and the
courage to take risks is the secret to success. "You have to be a little
eccentric to be very successful. Whether it's Steve Jobs or Andy Grove, they're
crazy." Uniqlo has opened 300 stores outside of Japan and the plan is to
open 1,000 in China alone by 2020.
In Canada Uniqlo products are already
available in Toronto with rumours that Uniqlo will soon appear on the West
coast.
Yannai calls himself a risk-taker, "business is all
about risk-taking. The greater the risk, the greater the possibility for
profit". However, Yannai by no means condones blindly going all in. He
coaches his employees to take risks but to think deeply before jumping. Yannai
put this into practice when Fast Retailing made a bid for Barney's but conceded
when the price was too high.
Let's dream big and challenge ourselves. It is amazing what
we can achieve.
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