Profile of Uniqlo and its CEO, Tadashi Yanai

For the most recent issue of Fast Company, Jeff Chu profiled Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo, one of the hottest retail companies in the world. The piece is full of interesting business & design wisdom throughout.

Yanai, though, cannot resist the American market. Around the corner from his Tokyo office, there’s a large map of Manhattan. There are push pins marking Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Forever 21, Gap, Hollister, and a half-dozen other brands that could be considered immediate competitors. Significantly, there’s one outlier marked: the Apple Store. When I ask Yanai about this, he replies simply, “People have only one wallet.”

More notably, Apple is perhaps the best example of a company whose products have become ubiquitous without losing cachet. “Specialness is nice to have,” Yanai says, “but what’s more important is being made for all.”

One of my favorite things about shopping at Uniqlo is how they hand you your credit card back:

All associates are trained, for instance, to return your credit card and receipt with both hands, as a sign of respect.

• business
• design
• fashion
• Jeff Chu
• Tadashi Yanai
• Uniqlo