Tadao Yoshida was born in Yujin City, Toyama Prefecture, the youngest son in the family. There are two brothers and one sister on it. His father's occupation is a combination of raising chickens and selling pets. His family is poor, but warm, and the family is United and friendly. Growing up in such an environment, Xiao Yoshida dared to do it when he was a child, and often used business opportunities to do small businesses to earn some change to supplement his family.
He once persuaded his classmates to buy a fishing net with the pocket money of 1.5 yen earned by selling birds and fish as the principal. Regardless of his mother's obstruction, he stood in a dangerous river and fished. He sold it at high tide and earned 5 yen. It is this persistent and keen personality that contributed to his success.
1923, 15-year-old Yoshida graduated from a higher primary school. I did well in school, but I couldn't continue my studies because of my poor family. I started to work after graduation. First, I worked in a rubber boot shop opened by my big brother in a neighboring town. Based on the belief that I can't stop learning, I applied for the off-campus students of Waseda Technical School and became a self-taught student.
1928, at the age of 20, he came to Tokyo, the heart of Japan, alone to seek development. All his property is only 70 yen given by his eldest brother.
In the next few years, he has been working in Gu Gu Store, a fellow villager who runs ceramics and other department stores. From the initial temporary work to being responsible for the core business including purchasing in Shanghai, his diligent and sincere work style and strong sense of responsibility have won him many friends and partners. However, Japan was in a period of war in the 1930s. After experiencing two major crises, Gugudian finally closed down at 1933.
After the closure of the antique shop, many defective zippers could not be sold. Tadao Yoshida persuaded the supplier to lend him a zipper as an investment. His sincerity moved the supplier and got the goods.
1 93465438+1October1,Yoshida established a 3S chamber of commerce specializing in production and sales in Hashimoto-CHO, Tokyo, Japan. There are only two employees, with funds of 350 yen saved and liabilities of 2070 yen. He was 25 years old that year.
However, the quality of zipper products at that time was generally poor, but Yoshida stubbornly adhered to the principle of quality first. He hit all the zippers with a hammer to confirm their strength. Cut off the problematic parts and throw them away. In this way, only the purchase amount of 1/3 can be sold as a commodity. Therefore, the price was higher than other companies, which made the business once in trouble. But because of this stubborn insistence on quality, his products have withstood the test of the market and won the reputation of "Golden Hammer Zipper". With the popularity of dresses, the demand for zippers increased rapidly, and the company's business began to improve. The scale of the company expanded from 3 to 50, and began to export products.
In order to ensure the quality of raw materials, Yoshida sent his own staff to inspect good raw material suppliers all over Japan. 1938, Yoshida built a factory covering an area of 280 square meters in Komatsugawa, moved all the company here, and began to produce metal parts needed for zippers. At the same time, the company name was changed to Yoshida Institute of Technology.
However, when YKK's career was booming, the negative impact of World War II became stronger and stronger, and Yoshida had to stop all overseas exports and production. But a bigger blow is yet to come. March 1945, March 10, in an air raid by the US military, the factory that had worked hard for more than ten years was reduced to ashes, and it was no longer possible to continue production. So he had to give each employee 100 to 500 yen in severance pay and disband the factory. Years of hard work were destroyed.
Crisis and Development With the belief of immortality, the Yoshida couple who escaped from the fire stayed with an old friend. They go to the ruins of the factory every day, sort out the repaired machines and parts that can still be used, and pack them and send them to Yoshida's hometown of Yujin. In order to make a comeback, he borrowed a large sum of money from the Japanese bank to buy Yujin Tiegong, so he made a comeback.
However, after Yoshida paid all the payment, the employees of Yujin Iron Works had a large-scale riot because the company did not pay off all the debts. Everything in the company moved away, and with the announcement of Japan's defeat, his burning unyielding belief was completely extinguished. He fired all the employees and returned to a lonely state. He was 36 years old.
It took him two years to persuade other colleagues to unite and spend huge sums of money to buy advanced zipper production machines, but no one agreed. In this case, he gave up the idea of persuading them. 1948 borrowed120,000 yuan from Industrial Bank and bought a German zipper automatic manufacturing machine. This fund is 60 times that of Yoshida's industrial capital.
His keen eye was richly rewarded, and the manufacturing machine he bought produced high-quality zipper products at an amazing speed of 50 times the original production capacity. Seeing this capacity, Yoshida decided to hire Japanese Seiki to produce such machines. In the second year, 65,438+000 efficient machines were delivered. Because of this vision and courage, Yoshida's career began to leap.
From 65438 to 0957, he began to set foot in the building materials industry.
1958, 50-year-old Tadao Yoshida finally got his wish. This year's output of zippers has achieved the ambition that the zipper length will circle the earth once a year.
1959165438+10 set up the first overseas local legal entity (zipper product production and sales) in New Zealand.
196 1 year1kloc-0/month began to produce and sell aluminum building materials.
Career and Family As mentioned earlier, Tadashio Yoshida is the youngest son in the family, including his eldest brother Yoshida Jiuzheng, who is four years older than him, and his second brother Yoshida Jiusong, who is three years older than him. The family is poor but warm. After Tadao Yoshida set up his own company, they joined in 1939 and 1945 respectively to help Yoshida run his business.
1935, Yoshida got married at the age of 27. The bride's name is Komako, and she is a waiter in the restaurant next door, 2 1 year old. From the time they joined hands, to the death of Koko in 199 1, they lived together for 56 years.
1946, Tadashi Yoshida's eldest son Yoshida was born. At this time, he was 39 years old and had been married 12 years. At an advanced age, I have a son who dotes on Zhongyu, but not blindly. He asked Zhongyu University to practice in his factory after graduation, starting with the lowest-level employees and taking them as his successors through bit by bit study and practice.
1993, Yoshida died of pneumonia at the age of 84.
In his legendary life, Tadao Yoshida believed in the philosophy of "you can't develop yourself without considering the interests of others", which came from a large number of biographies he read as a child and decades of business experience, especially the life biography of Carnegie, the American steel king, which had the most profound influence on him. He summarized this philosophy as "the cycle of goodness" and regarded it as the entrepreneurial spirit of YKK Group. The so-called recycling philosophy of goodness, Yoshida Tadao himself explained: without considering the interests of others, there will be no prosperity of your own enterprise. I have always advocated that you must make money in business, and the more the better, but you can't keep the profits for yourself. We divide the profit into three parts, 1/3 for consumers, 1/3 for dealers and agents who sell our products, 1/3 for our own factory. It is necessary to control profits and benefit from many ways. If we sow the seeds of goodness and give them to others, then goodness will be recycled to us. Good circulates among us constantly, so that everyone can get the benefits of good. That is, starting from goodness, leaving the benefits to others and leaving them to yourself; When others get benefits, they will eventually bring benefits. Ok, this is the cycle, which will continue to operate and benefit everyone.
First, let it benefit consumers. He stressed: as long as there is demand in the market, no matter how big the profit is, it must be produced. YKK zipper relies on low quality and low price, so that consumers can get benefits and win trust. According to relevant data, the price of YKK zipper in the Japanese market of 1950 is 106.5 yen per meter. By 1980, the price has increased many times, while the price of YKK zipper per meter has dropped to less than 70 yen, a decrease of 35%.
Secondly, it is beneficial to dealers, agents and competitors. There are many competitors in Japanese zipper market, but none of them are close to Tadao Yoshida in competitive strength and market share, and none of them pose any threat to Tadao Yoshida. He follows the concept of good recycling and doesn't want to see the failure of his peers. He always persuades them: you can't compete with me, so stop! You all sigh and complain about not making money. Please stop production and be my agent! I'll make you more money. Later, it proved that the operators who worked as his dealers and agents made money, and some even made big money. Nearly 40 of the more than 70 manufacturers competing in the same industry have become his agents.
Thirdly, Tadao Yoshida starts from the philosophy of good recycling and pays attention to making concessions to employees. He encouraged employees to buy shares in the company. The shares owned by employees of the Company have accounted for more than 50% of the total shares of the Company, and shareholders can get a dividend of 18% every year. He also stipulated that employees should deposit 10% of salary and half of bonus into the company to improve production equipment, and pay interest to employees at a rate much higher than that of the Bank of Japan every month.
Spirit and Belief (1) Tadao Yoshida's philosophy "the cycle of goodness" comes from what he has learned since he was a teenager. What things have a greater impact on Tadao Yoshida?
"How should people live?" -Biography and Quotations promoted the germination of philosophy.
As a teenager, Yoshida read most biographies of celebrities. He borrowed Hattori Kintaro Biography, Carnegie Biography, Ford Biography and Shinji Lectures and read them greedily. Among them, Carnegie Biography has the deepest influence on him. Carnegie summed up his life from nothing to a steel king, and thought that the secret of success was "if you don't consider the interests of others, you won't prosper yourself." So in his later years, he donated most of his property to the society. Yoshida admired Carnegie's idea. Later, the idea matured in his mind and became his idea.
"Business is saving" —— The first practice of selling bamboo skin as a business.
"I think saving is the fundamental difference between people and animals. But this kind of saving is not just as simple as filling the bottle with water, but the flexible use of funds to bring benefits. For example, use savings to buy production equipment or books. And then continue to invest as savings after the income, which can bring greater income. If you ate it immediately like an animal, you wouldn't have such a rich life as we do today. "
There is an excellent bamboo forest near the home of teenager Yoshida. When bamboo shoots grow into young bamboos, many people from all over the country buy bamboo skins here. In order to earn some money to support his family, Yoshida persuaded one of his classmates to collect 3 yen as the principal for buying bamboo skins, bought bamboo skins before the peak season and sold them to wholesalers to earn 10 yen. Later, he bought a fishing net with an average of 5 yen and caught shrimp at high tide, earning 3 yen. Earn some money through this hairstyle to supplement the family.
"the burdock that gets to the bottom of it"-with strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge
This is Yoshida's mother's evaluation of Xiao Yoshida in Toyama dialect of Japan. Refers to the kind of person who doesn't see burdock grass from beginning to end and doesn't know where to start and where to end. It is equivalent to "casserole in the end" in Chinese. Since childhood, Yoshida is a teenager with strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge. When you are exposed to new things, you must chase after others and ask "Why?"
Spirit and Faith (2)
"Being an Off-campus Student of Waseda Technical School"-maverick "Self-motivated" and indomitable spirit
Yoshida Tadashi Primary School achieved excellent results. When he graduated, the teacher advised him to continue his studies, and his eldest brother assured him that he would try his best to raise tuition for him, but considering his family situation, he decided to drop out of school. But in order to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, he studied at Waseda Technical School while working. For Yoshida, who has no status, reputation, property and family background, only "self-motivation" can make him get ahead.
When I went to Tokyo, I understood the truth that "the east is not bright and the west is bright" through setbacks.
1928, Yoshida, who just celebrated his 20th birthday, came to Tokyo alone to make a living with all his possessions of 70 yen and the ambition to make a fortune. He is bent on buying and selling the source of suit fabrics, but it is difficult to do so. After the introduction of my second brother, I began to work as a temporary worker in Gugu's shop, and began to contact zippers, which began this fate. Yoshida still feels like a dream when he recalls this history in the future.
Kill two birds with one stone, learn commodity knowledge by sorting out the warehouse-creative improvement, Yoshida's working method
Yoshida has a strong thirst for knowledge and is very strict with himself at work. Soon after he entered the Gugu store, he felt that the warehouse management was very chaotic and made up his mind to thoroughly sort out the warehouse. After closing the store every day, he makes inventory cards by classification, keeps the warehouse in good order, and often asks the old employees about the characteristics, pricing, origin and so on of each commodity, and grasps all the commodity knowledge. Always committed to innovation and improvement is Yoshida's working method. Therefore, YKK brand products always lead the market trend.
If it is a good product, customers will like it.
Yoshida, who just started a business, had to repair the defective zipper and sell it to survive. Due to the stubborn belief of "quality first", the cost and price of products are higher than those of other companies. It was difficult at first, but after the test of the market, it gradually gained a foothold. Even in this case, he still keeps paying attention to quality, scrutinizing every component of zipper products, looking for the best supplier, providing customers with the best quality products and gradually eliminating competitors.
"It took me two years to convince them, but no one agreed." The popularization of automated production stems from the sense of crisis.
Shortly after the war, all the goods sold well in the Japanese market during the recovery period, but by chance, Yoshida knew that hand-made zippers had fallen far behind the international market, so he urged colleagues of the zipper association to invest in advanced assembly lines, but two years later, no one agreed with him. A strong sense of crisis prompted him to independently borrow huge sums of money to import a zipper manufacturing machine, and took this opportunity to accelerate the expansion in the Japanese market, and finally defeated all other competitors.
"Even if we suffer a loss of 654.38 billion yuan, we must maintain the trust of our customers."
19731October 6, a large-scale oil crisis broke out in the world. Oil prices soared from the original $3/barrel to 1 1 USD/barrel. For Japan, which relies on oil imports for 70% of its energy, the impact can be imagined. However, the 65-year-old man remained calm in the riots all over the country. He said, "This situation will not last long, and our original plan will remain unchanged." He didn't even cancel his plan to go to the bay and set off as scheduled. In the voice of other directors who responded to the price increase, he maintained the original price, and the enterprise was responsible for the losses in this area and maintained the trust of customers. Sure enough, a few months later, oil prices began to fall, and YKK had another difficult period.