UNIQLO: Unique Clothing
In its efforts to expand globally and compete with brands like H&M, Fast Retailing, owner of Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo, is establishing stronger international roots. Recently, the firm has opened stores in new cities including Paris, Moscow and Shanghai. The intercultural challenges and implications of these moves are plentiful, but the brand has already begun to tackle one obvious issue: in order to appeal to culturally distinct audiences, Uniqlo designers are collaborating with Jil Sander, a German fashion designer. In relation to this collaboration, The Economist writes
it will have to manage a multicultural, multilingual workforce—an area where Japanese firms often trip up. And merchandise will need to be tailored to national tastes, so scale will be harder to achieve.
In addition to the cross-cultural hurdles the project will present, founder Tadashi Yanai
is also unable to delegate, say Fast Retailing executives. He controls all decisions, down to approving samples and colours. Mr Yanai defends his meddling. ‘A good business manager’, he says, must ‘pay attention to the details.’
His behavior has influenced the departure of executives at Fast Retailing, which has made it hard for the company to name a successor, which is traditionally fulfilled through primogeniture. Nevertheless, micromanagement is a trait of hierarchical cultures, and Mr. Yanai’s intensive, “hands-on” approach fits the cultural tendency. Strong hierarchy is an important dimension of Japanese culture, and it is even built into the Japanese language. Modifiers and special words exists to differentiate between people of lower and higher status and age. In fact, according to RW3′s Country Profile on Japan,
these rules are taught at school where children learn to address other students as senior to them or junior to them. The more senior students are spoken to with respect and reverence. This carries into business. If two people from the same school work in the same organization, the more senior person is expected to mentor the more junior.
Do you think Uniqlo’s line of clothing has the potential to be successful around the world? What is your take on Mr. Yanai’s management style?
Sean
Yes, it would be successful as it offers a wide range of clothings from kids to adults.
I spent close to 10k in just less than a year since coming to China and still buying !
The clothes and materials are of good quality and design, and they employ efficient staff to handle the ever crowding queues at the cashier counters. Good thinking on the refund and exchange policy.
One thing that needs change is the display or the opening of lingerie packs or room wear packs.
If customers are not allowed to open the packs, just ensure there are samples of ALL sizes displayed. Otherwise, you must allow customers to open and check (both for the correct size and for defects). A bad experience in a store just last weekend is that the staff doesn’t allow the opening of the room wear pack for kids and told to check the size on the label. We won’t know the sizes and some items have different sizing in actual and we had to see it for ourselves. We also can’t return for exchange if the size is not right …. which is not good at all !
To end the scenario, the staff said there is nothing he could do …. well, might as well keep them in the storeroom then !!!!!! I am not too good in conversing in Mandarin, otherwise I would have told him to keep all the stocks in the storeroom !!!!!!!
Hope that UNIQLO would go around the world ….. any franchise ???
Uniqlo may certainly be able to find global success, following the success of H&M, Zara, and Bennetton. But Mr. Yanai will have to take a global view of his customers and understand their wants, needs, and tastes to deliver the products that they will buy. He’ll need to respect the opinions of his local managers who know the markets, cultures, and tastes of their local customers. If Mr. Yanai makes all decisions thinking that “he knows best,” than he’d better know all of his global customers well.