preface

Chapter 1: The Disease of Stability Orientation

Expectations from young managers
Becoming president again after three years
Even when sales drop, the challenge doesn't stop.
There is no such thing as a safety net in the first place.
Clothes more attractive than cell phones
Challenges to be addressed
Once you try and fail, change.
Rather relieved by the decline in sales and profits
Even if sales drop, profits can still increase.
Is the era of mass production of individual items over?
A sense of crisis and anxiety are different.
The failures and successes of China's two leaders
3 Steps to Overseas Expansion
Excessive innovation leads to failure.
Next up for fleece is cashmere.
Sometimes, a half-baked success becomes a failure.
Investing in helping others is rarely successful.
Uniqlo will end its low-price policy.
Skinny jeans developed by the R&D center
The worst interim results of 2005
The essential shoe business
Find European Growth Companies
2004 New Year's Email - Self-Innovation

Chapter 2: Second Startup and the Hard Struggle

Why did you want to become president again?
It's hard to develop managers
The evils of salaryman society
Adult children who are only big in size
The dangers of a generation ignorant of war
Work is something you find and do yourself.
Is a boss's job just to give orders?
When an organization grows too large, it creates bureaucracy.
There is no point in repeating success.
The biggest weakness of Japanese companies is their management.
Strengthen the women's clothing line
Let's start again from the beginning
Improvement in MD sector
When a company lowers its prices
The strength of SPA lies in discovering a 'gold mine'.
We can't just think about our company's situation.
Second startup
Globalization is achieved only when all employees work together.
A CEO who only manages cannot lead change.
Indispensable outside directors
The illusion of being a foreign company
Companies that change society
Corruption can happen in any company.
Efforts to employ people with disabilities
Olive tree planting company
4 days a week without overtime
The day when half of the management positions become women
2005 New Year's Mail - Immediate, Immediate, Immediate Action

Chapter 3: Let go of success

Uniqlo's Three Engines
Huris was Columbus's egg
How Heattech Became a Big Hit
A bra top that became an outerwear
The heretic of the clothing industry
If you break down the wall, the world becomes infinitely wider.
The emergence of the third generation SPA
Contain information and messages
Theory alone cannot create a product that sells.
Tightrope walking between sense and logic
Feel more than just numbers
There's a Uniqlo in a place that's easy for everyone to find.
Enlargement of Uniqlo stores
The showdown between department stores and spas
You have to convince customers in the store.
Flyers are love letters to customers.
A store that will become Uniqlo's symbol
Why Downtown Stores Are Difficult
The more successful a store manager is, the more mistaken he becomes.
Large stores have low sales efficiency.
Common sense is paramount
Uniqlo's treasure trove
2007 New Year's Mail - Let's Make Money
2008 New Year's Mail - No Challenge, No Future

Chapter 4 To Fight the World

Entering the Korean market in partnership with Lotte
Asian markets with expected growth
Understanding the Essence of Retail in New York
Preconceptions hinder business
Low-priced casual brand GU
Why were the jeans 990 yen?
The meaning contained in the new symbol mark
Purpose and significance of M&A
I was lucky that I couldn't buy Barney's.
A showcase for the world
Checking the possibilities in France
Uniqlo is not a "solo success story"
The true era of women
The group's corporate philosophy, 'FRWAY'
Change your clothes, change your common sense, change the world.
2009 New Year's Mail - Dreams for 2020
2010 New Year's Mail - The Great Migration

Chapter 5: To the Next Generation of Managers

H&M's advance is very welcome.
The integration of three subsidiaries is the first step toward revitalization.
Collaboration with Jil Sander
An online shopping business that generated sales equivalent to 30 stores
Uniclock wins one of the world's top three advertising awards
Uniqlo Management School
We need 200 executives.
Failure in the name of success
Who does the company exist for?
If you evaluate your own management
From a rural tailor shop to a global company
To the next generation of managers and entrepreneurs
2011 New Year's Mail - Change or Die
2012 New Year's Message - Live with Purpose

Conclusion
Revised Edition Review
FR WAY
FR WAY commentary
Fast Retailing Key Milestones

“Running ahead at the current speed
Can you outpace the companies?
Tadashi Yanai's decision to revive the failing Uniqlo

Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai, who had stepped down from the front lines after the first management era, returned after three years, still in shock.
I witnessed an organization that was intoxicated by yesterday's success and suffering from a disease called stability-oriented.
In fact, at the time, Uniqlo was resting on its laurels after releasing global hit items including 'Fleece'.
No bold attempts or groundbreaking ideas emerged.


“People who have never run a business mistake a smooth sailing situation for normal.
However, if you do not manage your company with a sense of crisis, it will be difficult to maintain it, let alone grow it.
In the capitalist world, all companies compete with each other by polishing their procedures.
Therefore, there can be no such thing as ‘stable management’ or ‘management with peace of mind.’
“You have to run the company without relying on anyone, always asking yourself if what you are doing is wrong.”

According to him, 'success' becomes trite the moment you say it out loud.
In an uncertain business environment where customers, markets, and industries are rapidly changing, success can never be achieved through repeated, temporary imitations or complacent management.
So, companies need to have a 'normal sense of crisis' rather than a sense of stability.
With that sense of crisis as a driving force, companies must continue to take on new challenges and attempts.
The time spent innovating Uniqlo with a more desperate spirit than when he founded the company made Tadashi Yanai a more solid manager, and he compiled his experiences from that time into a book.
And this book is still read as “the most modern and practical management bible” and is being read by managers and businessmen around the world.


“Right before our eyes
“The world’s best business opportunity!”
Tadashi Yanai's management philosophy recognized by Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Masayoshi Son.

By growing the small local clothing store "Ogori Shoji" he inherited from his father into Fast Retailing, Tadashi Yanai reinvented himself as a manager rather than a merchant.
Above all, I realized that for a company to grow further, not just the management, but all employees must share the company's specific management philosophy and values.
In Japan, where conservative and safety-oriented cultures are prevalent, the company revolutionized its corporate culture with groundbreaking principles such as, “When an organization becomes too large, it creates bureaucracy,” “Process is important, but responsibility is more important,” and “All employees should become managers in their own fields.”
Additionally, every January 1st, he personally wrote and emailed a "New Year's Resolution" to all employees, encouraging all members of Uniqlo to dream bigger and work more challengingly.

“We live in an era where the economies of each country around the world are complexly intertwined, influencing each other and changing dynamically.
Any company that doesn't change quickly and respond boldly can fail.
In times like these, it is difficult to change the entire company based solely on on-site discretion.
Managers must have a clear and long-term vision and present a clear direction, saying, "Let's go this way!"
'This is wrong.
“If managers don’t step forward with the attitude of ‘I’ll show you, so watch and learn!’, the company won’t change.”

The same extreme strictness and sense of challenge applied to himself.
Tadashi Yanai constantly warned against managers who did not work, and criticized “managers who did not manage” and “leaders who only managed.”
To him, a company was a place where ordinary people could create synergy and multiply their abilities, and as a manager, he willingly took the lead in building this organizational culture.
Although Uniqlo has already broken numerous records, Tadashi Yanai's New Year's emails are still being sent to all employees.
And in this book, “Forget Success in One Day,” he included emails he wrote himself over the past nine years.
You can see the growth process of an organization that has repeated challenges and leaps, as well as the attitude of the manager who leads the organization to success.

“No matter what recession comes,
“If you break down the wall, the world becomes infinitely wider.”
Tadashi Yanai's Letter to Young Entrepreneurs Who Dream of Becoming the World's Best

“It’s always been like that with any product.
If you end the discussion by saying, "This product isn't selling," you won't be able to make any further progress.
It was the same when I thought about the hit product Heattech, and it was the same when I thought about the bra top.
There are many ways to improve your products and sales methods as you consider how to sell better.
“You just have to repeat the trial and error until it sells well.”

There are areas in this world, including management, that you can never understand unless you look deeply into them.
Tadashi Yanai believes that success can only be born from failure when we examine "what and why we failed when we failed, and conversely, what was the reason we succeeded when we succeeded."
So he still says that a small amount of success is more dangerous than failure, and warns against becoming complacent and intoxicated by small successes.
And he emphasizes that this is the power that has made Uniqlo the world's best company.

The world is still reeling from a recession, and the business environment is becoming increasingly polarized.
In the clothing industry, which everyone considered a declining industry, Uniqlo and Tadashi Yanai took the opposite path from other companies with the single vision of "providing high-quality products at reasonable prices."
The countless examples of failure he shares and the valuable lessons he learned from them will provide powerful insights to countless managers and businesspeople today who want to break down huge walls and expand their businesses to the wider world.