Hirotake Yano – The Bright Example Of An Admirable Entrepreneur
Founder, as defined by Business Dictionary is an entrepreneur who started a business. The entrepreneur that I admire the most would be the founder and president of Japan’s well known 100-yen variety shop – Daiso – that goes by the name of Hirotake Yano. Born on 19 April 1943, Mr. Yano came from a large family of 10, 5 brothers and 3 sisters. Graduating from Chuo University in Tokyo, Mr. Yano went through a lot of jobs, such as being a part of a garbage recycling company, to a mobile merchandiser and a fishmonger for himself to be able to survive, thus, he had been through a lot of hardships to be where he is right now. Helping his father-in-law’s job as a fishmonger after graduating, the business does not last long as the fishery business went bankrupt. To pay the debt they owed, Mr. Yano first sells hawking goods from the back of a truck. From there on, Mr. Yano came up with an idea of charging 100-yen (approximately RM3. 64) for all of his merchandise. This is due to the fact to save time for it to take to attach the price tag to the items. However, at that time, in the 1970s, the economic state doesn’t look as good as there were stagnant wages, and the economic downturn. It was then dubbed as the burst of the Japanese economic bubble, where ‘The years of the bubble economy lured Japan’s yakuza gangs to muscle into Big Business. ’ Seeing this as an opportunity to start up a business, Mr. Yano took the initiative to used locations of previous pachinko parlour (A Japanese gambling game played on a vertical pinball machine, The Free Dictionary, n. d) to sell his product, that varies from mainly household items, at a fixed rate of price, that is, 100-yen per item.
Daiso is funded in December 1977, at Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan. Formally a street vending shop, now Daiso shop outlet can be found almost everywhere in Japan and overseas, including Malaysia! It housed variety products either imported or local made. Such products are mainly household items such as kitchenware, cleaning products, stationaries, plates, glasses, bathroom essentials, to name a few. Among the products that Daiso offered, I had often purchased their skincare product, named Daiso Charcoal Face Wash. At a price of RM5. 57 (inclusive of the currently implemented SST), the face wash contains charcoal powder to help remove toxins, which is, pretty good for me who have oily skin. Also, Japan is known for implementations of organic substance in their skincare products, which I believe is good for our skin to stay healthy and supple. Instead of buying skincare products at a pharmacy that cost a good amount of money, I’d rather switch to Daiso products that is actually reasonable and suitable for my skin.
Of course, there is also times where not everything goes according to plan. Based on a reading material that I have come across in the net, Mr. Yano started Daiso with no business plans, no budget, no company meeting and no quarterly result. Mr. Yano had failed many times and had even thought of quitting the said business during the inflation era. He even thought that it is absurd to sell things at fixed price. And also, he have to deal with perception problem where customers are likely to have the concept of ‘low price, therefore poor quality’ set in their minds. From the brief history of Daiso’s founder, we can see that Mr. Yano is a passionate person in doing the things that would benefit himself and for stabilising Japan’s economy. This is due to the fact that Mr. Yano experienced hardship, for example, facing bankruptcy of his father in law’s fishery business that got him thinking to find another way to pay the debt they owed, and at the same time thinking of a way to survive during the economic downturn.
Not only that, Mr. Yano is also a risk-taker. Knowing very much that during an economic downturn, the money rate exchange would probably be lower than the usual but Mr. Yano is still going on with selling his product at a fixed price of 100-yen. Mr. Yano is also an adaptable person. During the economic downturn, he did not panic, and instead first begin to sell hawking goods from the back of a truck, accepting the dire change of Japan’s economic state during that time, and not panicking. Mr. Yano is also a market-knowledgeable person. He got an idea of selling merchandised at a fixed price of 100-yen, knowing very well that he had create something that have not exist during that era itself.
Therefore, as a future entrepreneur, we need to have the passion and motivation in doing the things that we wanted to do, should not be afraid to take risks as those bad times could be use as a lesson to be learnt from. We should also need to belief in ourselves and our ability to find and form solution when a problem came up. Not only that we also need to know about the product that we wished to sell and to know the market flows in the era. There are trends nowadays and things such as trends are bound to change from time to time, so it is better to stay alert and on update about the trends. Planning skills is also as important as prepare oneself for any undesirable outcome. Life, as it is, is not a bed of roses after all.
