优衣库：定位别具一格

BASICS—everyday items such as T-shirts, socks and jeans, in the jargon of the garment industry—are not normally considered the most exciting part of the business. But they are found in almost every wardrobe. Uniqlo, a successful Japanese firm with big ambitions, has transformed them into a goldmine. Having conquered Japan, it is now taking on the world.
基本品（服装业术语，表示T恤、袜子和牛仔裤等日常衣物）通常不是服装业里最赚钱的，但却是几乎每一个人衣物中不可或缺的东西。日本公司优衣库很成功，也很有野心，它把基本品变成了摇钱树。优衣库已经占领了日本市场，现在正向世界市场进军。

Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, is Japan’s biggest clothing company, with sales of $9 billion forecast this year. Whereas many Japanese businesses are ailing because of the stagnant domestic economy, Fast Retailing is flourishing. Last year sales grew by 17%, despite the recession, or because of it: its clothes combine a touch of style with enticingly low prices.
优衣库的母公司讯销零售是日本最大的服装公司，今年预计销额在90亿美元。当不少日本公司深受国内经济不景气之苦时，讯销零售的生意却兴隆起来。去年，尽管经济萧条（或者说因为经济萧条），该公司的销售量增加了17%，原因就是其产品不但价格十分撩人，而且不乏几分时尚。

The company is hailed as an example of a new, globally competitive Japan. Its founder and boss, Tadashi Yanai, emerged from humble origins to become Japan’s richest man, worth over $9 billion. Uniqlo ranks among Japan’s ten most valuable brands, according to Interbrand, a consultancy. Its low prices are even blamed for fuelling Japan’s deflation.
讯销零售受到人们拥戴，并被视为新的全球化竞争型日本之楷模。其创始人及老板柳井正出生贫寒，现在却身价逾90亿美元，成了日本首富。据品牌管理顾问公司英特品牌统计，优衣库跻身日本十大价值最高品牌。甚至有人指责说它的低价助长了日本的通货紧缩。

Now Uniqlo, whose name is a contraction of “unique clothing”, is on the move. In recent months it has opened huge flagship stores in Paris, Moscow and Shanghai, which have been met with throngs of customers. Mr Yanai wants $50 billion in sales and $10 billion in profit by 2020. Although only 10% of Fast Retailing’s sales come from abroad, Mr Yanai expects overseas revenue to surpass domestic sales by 2015. And although it boasts around 800 stores in Japan and 140 overseas, it plans to open a staggering 500 new stores annually over the next three to five years. Most will be in Asia, notably China, where it already has 54 shops but wants to have 1,000.
如今的优衣库正在前进。近几个月，它的旗舰店在巴黎、莫斯科和上海陆续开张了，顾客蜂拥而至。柳井希望到2010年销售额可达500亿美元，利润可达100亿美元。尽管讯销零售只有10%的销售来自国外，柳井却期待着海外收益在2015年之前能超过国内。虽然优衣库在日本有800多家店，在海外有140家，它仍然计划在接下来的3到5年里每年增加500个新店，大多数店面将开在亚洲，特别是中国。现在中国已有54家，该公司希望能在那儿开满1000家。

Fast Retailing prefers to grow independently, but is also open to expansion by acquisition to enhance the firm’s presence in America or Europe. A future bride, says Mr Yanai, could retain its own identity while selling some of Uniqlo’s clothes, and could cost as much as $10 billion. But finding the right firm is difficult, he says. In recent years, Fast Retailing has successfully acquired smaller foreign brands including France’s Comptoir des Cotonniers for women’s wear and Princesse Tam-Tam lingerie, as well as America’s Theory.
讯销零售更喜欢独自发展，但对通过收购扩张来拓宽欧美市场的做法也持欢迎态度。柳井说， 将来， 一个被并购的厂商，可以在卖某些优衣库衣服的同时继续保持自己原有的身份，那时， 其身价就可高达100亿美元。但他也表示，想找一个合适的公司不容易。近几年，讯销零售成功收购了不少外国品牌，包括法国的棉柜女装、丹丹公主内衣和美国的希奥睿。

Fast Retailing is still smaller than its global peers. Its revenue is around two-thirds that of America’s Gap, Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Spain’s Inditex, which runs the Zara chain (see chart). But Fast Retailing is catching up fast, and has a record of startlingly rapid growth. When Mr Yanai declared in 2006 that its sales would rise from $3.5 billion to $10 billion this year, analysts derided him, but the firm is very close to the target.
但迅销的规模仍小于其全球同行。其收益约为美国Gap、瑞典H&M及西班牙Inditex（经营Zara连锁店）的2/3（见图表）。但讯销零售正迎头赶上，其发展速度叫人叹为观止。2006年该公司的销售额为35亿美元，柳井当时宣布到2010年这个数字将增加到100亿美元时，分析人士还曾嘲笑他，但他的公司如今离这个目标不远了。

Fast Retailing also has a distinctive business model. Zara and H&M bring the latest fashions to the masses quickly, ordering new lines many times a year. Fast Retailing, by contrast, sells only around 1,000 items, far fewer than its rivals, and keeps them on the shelves longer. “We don’t want to chase after ‘fast-fashion’ trends,” explains Mr Yanai. This lets Fast Retailing strike lower-priced, higher-volume deals with suppliers (most products cost $10-20) and makes managing inventory a much simpler and cheaper affair.
讯销零售的商业模式也很独特。Zara和H&M每年多次发布新款，把最新的潮流快速地传递给大众。而相比之下，讯销零售只出售过1000款左右，比对手少很多，货品上架时间也更长。柳井对此解释说：“我们不想追逐‘倏忽的时尚’潮流。”这一点使得讯销零售以低价从供应商手中大量进货（大多产品在10到20美元），也使得库存管理更简单成本更低廉。

Uniqlo makes up for the narrowness of its offering by selling the same item in many colours: socks come in 50 hues at its flagship store in Tokyo. Such basics, the firm believes, have the added benefit of appealing to a wider audience than the preppy Americana sold by Gap or the faddish wares of Inditex and H&M.
为弥补款式少的弱点，优衣库每款产品都有多种颜色可供选择：东京旗舰店的袜子每款有50种不同颜色。该公司相信，此类基本品比Gap出售的美式学院风和Inditex、H&M的潮衣更具吸引力。

Although it opened its first store in 1984, Uniqlo really got going in the early 1990s, just as Japan was entering a long period of economic anaemia. Mr Yanai bypassed middlemen by purchasing directly from suppliers. And he challenged the view that Japanese consumers would reject Chinese-made clothes (90% of its apparel is made in China).
尽管第一家优衣库1984年就开张了，但它真正开始受欢迎还是在20世纪90年代早期，那时日本正步入长期的经济萧条阶段。柳井绕过了中间商直接向供应商购货，还挑战了“日本顾客抵制中国服装制造”的观点（优衣库服装的90%为中国制造）。

But the factors behind Uniqlo’s domestic success are of little avail as it expands abroad. The belt-tightening environment in which it flourished does not pertain in many of the emerging markets it is targeting, although it certainly does in most of the rich world. Uniqlo relies mainly on small suburban shops in Japan but is opening giant stores in posh central locations overseas. (Experiments with suburban shops in Britain and America have gone badly.) Moreover, Uniqlo succeeded in basics but is now expanding into trendier lines, for example through a tie-up with Jil Sander, a German fashion designer. 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. “One’s strength can be one’s weakness: basics can be boring,” Mr Yanai admits.
但当优衣库向海外扩张时，它在本土的制胜诀窍却不再适用了。因为省吃俭用的环境已经不适用于许多作为进取目标的新兴市场， 尽管这种环境还肯定地适用于大多数的富裕国家。优衣库在日本基于小型郊区店面，而在海外它却在繁华的商业区开大型的商店。（该公司在英美郊区所设的试营店都经营惨淡。）此外，优衣库以基本品起家，如今又向更时髦的款式扩展，例如通过与德国设计师吉尔•桑达合作。该公司也不得不管理不同文化、不同语言的员工，而在这方面，日本公司经常摔跟头。另外，还要根据不同国家的口味对商品进行调整，想获得规模效益就更难了。柳井也承认：“一个人的长处也可能正是他的弱点所在：基本品也会让人厌倦。”更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

Mr Yanai himself may also create problems. A brilliant strategist with uncanny fashion instincts, he 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.”
柳井自己也会惹麻烦。他是个聪明的战略家，有着惊人的时尚触觉，讯销零售的主管们还认为他缺乏分配任务的能力。从样品审核到色彩选择都是柳井一手决定。他倒很维护自己的干预政策，他说：“一个好的管理者必须注重细节。”

This micromanaging has pushed talented executives to quit the firm, leaving no obvious successor to Mr Yanai, who plans to step down as boss (but remain chairman) in four years, at 65. Previous attempts to cede day-to-day control have been aborted.
然而，这种细致入微的管理却逼得不少有才华的主管离开了公司，柳井手头也没有什么明显的接班人，虽然他打算4年内（即65岁前）让出老板之位（仍是会长）。之前他曾试图放弃日常工作的独断专行，但没有成功。

When pressed, Mr Yanai says that he has decided not to hand the company over to his sons. They will be big shareholders with board seats, but will not take operational roles. In this, he once again defies traditional Japanese business practices. Firms that rely on primogeniture, he notes, perform poorly. So, in the long run, do those that rely on a domineering leader.
当有人就继任问题穷追不舍时，他表示打算不把公司交给儿子们，他们会是大股东，在董事会有一席之地，但不会运营公司。在这一点上，他又一次挑战了日本传统商业模式。他说，那些靠长子继承的公司现在业绩都不好。但长远来看，那些一人独揽大权的公司下场其实也是如此。