Pan Ning: How Did I Grow UNIQLO In China?

　　 Ryui Masa was only a small boss of township enterprises.

I joined UNIQLO when I came out of school. I studied in Japan, and I am a master of business, focusing on finance and economics. Since it is related to business and business, I wonder why I would like to find a company to practice and see if my book knowledge can really be applied to reality. It's a very good chance to meet the recruitment manager. I want to have a try. I didn't expect Mr. Liu to interview at the interview. It was in 1994, when UNIQLO was a small company. Sales volume It may not be 1/3 of the sales volume in mainland China now. I didn't know Fast Retailing and UNIQLO. I didn't even know where Yamaguchi county was located, because I lived in Tokyo all the time.

I ran to the mountain pass for an interview and met with the boss Ryui Masa. In our words, he was only a small boss of a township enterprise. But in the countryside, I have seen such an enterprise. His dream is very huge. He told me at the time that he did not mean to be a good township enterprise. His first sentence was to become the world's largest enterprise and the world's first enterprise. You came to help me or you came to help me.

I find it strange. He asked me, "what do you do in ten years?" I said, "I want to be a boss." He is also very strange, because Japan's lifelong employment system makes many ordinary employees do not have the ambition of the boss, as long as an enterprise in an honest and practical work for thirty years, forty years, this life has been guaranteed. He heard me say he wanted to be a boss, and he was very approving that you came to give you a big chance to make you a boss. I was also very simple at the time and felt an opportunity to come to UNIQLO.

I did it from a shop assistant. Many people can not imagine that a master is going to be a shop assistant. Every day he goes to sweep the floor and fold clothes. Does he have any interest? Actually, I myself have had such doubts. After entering three months, I have been cleaning and shouting "welcome to come" every day. I often ask myself, "do I have a future?"

At that time, I could often see Liu Jing Zheng. I think he dares to say so. He is very straightforward. He will not say a few words. What he thinks will come out.

I worked as a store manager for half a year and then did it. Store operation It took about a year. But our age was very hard, and the foundation was the most solid one. I told the staff today that they were shocked: now a shop in UNIQLO is about 1000 square meters, with 30 employees to 40 people, and the more than 500 normal rice shops we have at that time are 3 regular workers. At that time, although not many customers, but my store's budget is about 1000000 yuan a month, this is not low, at that time our price is lower than now, because the brand has not yet done, and the store is about 600 square meters. I have been in touch with all kinds of businesses. I told my staff that I am stepping on the sewing machine faster than you. I am sure I fold your clothes better now than you do. This is the foundation.

　　 Success in Hongkong

Because our business is growing, there are all kinds of new businesses, all kinds of challenges. After experiencing shop operations, I have been developing overseas supply chain for a long time. Since I am a Chinese, a large part of my business is to build a supply chain in mainland China for nearly six years. After that, I began to help UNIQLO develop retail business in the early days of China.

We first entered China in 2001. At that time, we did not join the WTO and did not allow foreign direct investment. At that time, we worked together with a supplier to do a cooperative form of retail outlets. At that time, the brand was also called UNIQLO, which helped to create the goods and then returned to the head office to take part in the merger and acquisition business.

I really started taking over. Chinese Market In 2005, when the Hongkong market was expanding, I was appointed the company's CEO in Hongkong. The UNIQLO store in Hongkong was very successful. It was a store opened in September 30, 2005. The mode of Hongkong made Japan surprised at that time. The gross profit rate I made was higher than that in the Japanese market. My price was also higher than that in the Japanese market. I am not going to raise the price alone, but let the price rise within the acceptable range. How can consumers be accepted? The most satisfying feeling is to accept them through this shopping experience.

To sum up, the success of UNIQLO in Hongkong lies in our emphasis on experience, service and details. The most important thing is to precisely locate the target customers.

At that time in Hongkong, if UNIQLO faced the general public, it would inevitably lead me to compete with some local brands such as Giordano and compete with local brands. My own value could not be maximally developed, because I was an international brand. From this point of view, my position on UNIQLO was higher than that of Hongkong's local brands, and customers targeted at the middle class.

In Hongkong and Mainland China, the positioning is the same, they are all middle class, but the actions taken are different. There is a very different place between Hongkong and the mainland. Hongkong is very close to Japan. The locals feel that Japanese things are very attractive because their main consumer groups grew up watching Japanese anime and playing with Japanese toys and had great feelings for Japan. I wanted to maximize the added value from Japan. To give a simple example, in terms of publicity, UNIQLO used all the Japanese characters on the signboards at that time, which is impossible in China. It must be in Chinese, but Hongkong is allowed. There is no specific provision. {page_break}

At that time, my colleagues in Japan thought it strange that we were originally from Japan. Why do we still have to listen to Japanese and listen to tired of listening. I don't know, you don't know Hongkong people, because I feel it in Hongkong, let them know more about Japanese, and feel that your value will be higher. This is very important. But in mainland China, it is impossible to do this because of some national emotional problems or institutional problems. But in other ways, for example, the mainland consumers have not yet received anything real. Good service At that time, UNIQLO strengthened our services. We have a saying that "UNIQLO is equal to service". In service, we can surprise customers. Customers will look at your brand differently and feel that the value you offer is valuable. I grew up in Beijing. Beijing used to be a Wangfujing department store and a shopping mall in Xidan. They sold everything and we all experienced it when we were young.

　　 UNIQLO China sells at 10%-15% higher than Japan

After the success of Hongkong, the company is considering bringing some new changes to mainland China. At that time, my predecessor, Lin Chen, was also a Chinese man in charge of mainland China. When I took the baton, it was the end of 2005. At that time, there were nine stores on the mainland, two in Beijing, six in Shanghai, and one in Hangzhou. The first task I gave to the board of directors was to turn off the two shops in Beijing and concentrate on the Shanghai store.

At that time, UNIQLO did not open up for a long time in mainland China. The reason is to copy Japan's practice and face the lowest price in the market. But what kind of problems are bound to arise? We must face China's tax problems. China's tax is very high, for example, 17% of value-added tax, and some raw materials purchased overseas need higher tariffs, resulting in a certain cost pressure. At that time, in order to alleviate such pressure, we changed a lot of products into the LOGO pattern. In Chinese style, the fabrics we used were different from those abroad, and why we did so because we had to lower the price. After the price went down, we found a problem in sales. We are not the lowest price, because many enterprises will compete with us at a lower price. The result of this competition is that everyone is finished.

Faced with such a difficult situation, I keep thinking about where the problem lies. Later, I found that Chinese consumers do not need price wars. The preferential price is very pleasing, but more importantly, what value your products will bring to him is very important. For international brands such as UNIQLO, it is very important for customers to bring the sales experience that he did not enjoy at home. After all, at that time, not many people were able to travel abroad or to contact the outside world just like today. So we move foreign countries that are relatively advanced in retail, such as good service and so on. This has caused a certain impact on Chinese consumers and aroused their interest and become a bright spot.

Of course, the introduction of Japanese services is a cost, when we repositioned our position. Deployment In Japan, the customers of UNIQLO are all people. In China, they are adjusted to the middle class. My strategy is about 10%-15% higher than that in Japan. This strategy is still continuing.

Over the years, I feel like starting a business. I start from scratch, Hongkong is done from zero, Taiwan is also done from zero, mainland China from thirty to a very small scale of the current more than 10000 of Chinese employees, the entire Greater China region has about 16 thousand people, such a large enterprise, eight years ago was zero. This is not entrepreneurship, I feel very substantial. From this point of view, I think that what is most deeply influenced by Mr. Ryui Masa is to do things in an enterpriser's mindset, not for individuals or for short-term interests, but for long-term goals.