MBA special seminar: Uniqlo-The Journey from Japan: New Market Entry and Human Resource Management

UNIQLO VIETNAM – THE JOURNEY FROM JAPAN

On October 27, 2021, the Master of Business Administration program of Vietnam Japan University held a seminar with the topic “Business Launch and Human Resource Development” presented by speaker Mr. Shota Miura – CFO of Uniqlo Vietnam Co., Ltd. At the seminar, Mr. Shota Miura shared the story of Uniqlo’s new entry to Vietnam and the philosophy behind the company’s human resource management. During 2 hours, students not only listened to the sharing but also directly participated in discussions with Mr. Miura about issues from the perspective of an administrator. Many burning questions were answered immediately and wisely.

New Entry to Viet Nam

The Uniqlo brand is owned by Fast Retailing Group (Japan). It currently has more than 2300 stores in 24 countries around the world, including Japan, Australia, Canada, China, France, etc. In 2018, Uniqlo Vietnam was established as a 100% foreign-owned joint venture, headquarter placed in Ho Chi Minh City.

Although Vietnam is the 6th destination in Southeast Asia of Uniqlo, Uniqlo Dong Khoi is one of the largest in this region. That has proved the favor of the fashion brand from the land of cherry blossoms towards Vietnam. In the first launch in 2019, Uniqlo received strong support from Vietnamese customers. Within just 2 years, from the 3000-square-meter first store in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Uniqlo has developed to hold 7 stores located in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Sharing about the story coming to Vietnam, Mr. Miura said that Uniqlo had carefully studied the strategy as well as the advantages and disadvantages in the first launch in Vietnam. Uniqlo’s arrival in Vietnam is later than competitors such as Zara or H&M, but Mr. Miura confirmed that the opening and all plans had been carefully calculated.

With the LifeWear product line designed to make everyone’s life better, Uniqlo has brought quality products with optimization in daily activities and more importantly, it is very suitable for the context and conditions of Vietnam. In order to control the quality of products, Uniqlo practices its own business model, called SPA, which is very different from its competitors. With SPA, Uniqlo has absolute control over all processes, from the purchase of raw materials to the final stage of distributing products to the end-customers. Moreover, Uniqlo Vietnam also especially values environmental factors and Vietnamese cultural quintessence. This is reflected in Uniqlo stores’ design which installed an artwork Bird Nest made out of bamboo (by the famous architect – Vo Trong Nghia) in coordination with The UNIQLO x Helly Tong sustainability corner. The company also released Mickey limited edition collection, only available in Vietnam market as a “thank-you” to its customers.

Mickey limited edition collection released uniquely for the Vietnamese market

HRM (Human Resource Management at Uniqlo)

The topic of human resource management was the highlight of the seminar on October 27. Like the big companies in the world, Uniqlo also has the regulations, workplace culture, and more, the “very Japanese” style human resource training programs available only at Uniqlo. Uniqlo’s Global One -ZEN-IN-KEIEI working culture is always reflected in the company’s slogan and vision in Vietnam. Uniqlo is a place where all employees of the company around the world will always actively participate in the process of formulating strategies to achieve goals and realize strategies in daily life.

The UMC HR Training Program is Uniqlo’s intensive support program with the goal of building a foundation for all employees. In Vietnam, before the first establishment was launched, Mr. Miura and the founders visited Vietnam a year earlier to conduct this training course for the managers of Uniqlo stores. During this time, he and his associates trained together and directly supervised and learned more from the Vietnamese staff. With a market-oriented spirit and Japanese-style management in the new era, in the past 2 years, despite facing many difficulties and challenges, the founding team has managed to open 7 locations nationwide and all of them are in operation. This number can be increased after the pandemic.

Human Resource Management system at Uniqlo

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In summary, Mr. Miura affirmed with Uniqlo’s operating principles: constantly improving product quality, bringing LifeWear philosophy closer to customers; putting responsibility for contributing to the sustainability of the community; training staff to become more and more professional, not only in the Vietnamese market but also in the international market, aiming to be able to meet the standards to work effectively. Uniqlo has built a solid brand in the hearts of Vietnamese consumers. When it comes to UNIQLO, consumers will immediately think of thin, light, handy but also very delicate product lines. We believe that, with the sustainable business philosophy and unique business model SPA and human resource development model “retail is about people”, Uniqlo will continue to care about customer experience, manufacturing and sustainable business development in Vietnam.

The seminar ended with a very successful result

Throughout the discussion, students and lecturers from Vietnam-Japan University together with Mr. Miura discussed questions such as: “What factors determine Uniqlo’s penetration in the Vietnamese market?”, “What are Uniqlo’s competitive advantages when penetrating the new market?”. Remarkably, at the end of the Q&A session, a very fascinated question was asked by one of VJU lecturers, Dr. Hino Yoshifumi: “In the process of choosing the very first store location in Vietnam, why did Uniqlo prefer Ho Chi Minh city to Hanoi?”. The CFO of Uniqlo Vietnam quickly answered the question with the evidence in the process in Vietnam. Mr. Miura pointed out three basic reasons. Firstly, Ho Chi Minh city has lots of similarities with cities like Bangkok, Jakarta, Singapore in Southeast Asia, where Uniqlo has had stores for a long time and achieved success. Secondly, Ho Chi Minh city has a higher GDP index. And thirdly, the big city in the south has higher average sales compared to Hanoi. Although the opening store location in Hanoi was in Uniqlo’s strategy, the first store to open in Ho Chi Minh still has a slight advantage.

After more than 2 hours of excitement, the seminar was ended with a very positive spirit. The CFO of Uniqlo – Mr. Miura promised to fly to Hanoi soon for more discussions in person. The seminar program has created a very good premise for students to have the opportunity of having practical knowledge about the working environment at Japanese companies. In addition, this seminar has also helped future managers to have different mindsets and ideas toward the improvement and contribution to society following the company’s mission and vision.

With its operating motto: constantly improving product quality, bringing LifeWear philosophy closer to customers; increasing responsibility for contributing to sustainability of the community; training staff to become more professional, not only good in the Vietnamese market and aiming to be able to meet the international standards; Uniqlo has built a solid brand in the hearts of Vietnamese consumers. When it comes to UNIQLO, Vietnamese consumers will immediately think of thin, light, convenient but also very sophisticated product lines. We believe that, with the sustainable business philosophy, unique SPA business model and human resource development model “retail is about people”, Uniqlo will continue to care about customer experience, manufacture and develop sustainably in Vietnam..