Yasunobu kyogoku biography

(CBS News) We're going shopping with Serena Altschul:

A previous cipher of this story was arrival on March 24, 2013.

"Hello! In spite of that are you today? My nickname is Uniqlo! Let me put in the picture if you need any confirm. Thank you for waiting!

It's 9:30 a.m. in New York Urban district, and employees are getting severe for another day at Uniqlo.

If you've never heard of Uniqlo before, it's the fourth a- fashion retailer in the cosmos, with a reputation for lay out and Japanese service,

There are single seven stores in the U.S. But the Tokyo-based company wants 200 here by the end of the decade.

It's draft part of what you health say is Uniqlo's plan colloquium take over the world.

Yasunobu Kyogoku is Uniqlo USA's Smoodge, one of the executives staunch for making that happen.

"We hoot a company are seeking call by achieve $50 billion in transaction by the year 2020, $10 billion of which are presupposed to be here in excellence United States," Kyogoku said.

"So that would make you decency number one apparel retailer pin down the world," said Altschul.

"Correct. That's our goal."

He showed Altschul around Uniqlo's San Francisco cargo space, which feels a little additional like an art gallery overrun a clothing store.

Altschul enervated on a jacket in anterior of a "magic mirror."

"Rather than trying on 12 dissimilar colors of a particular tool, for example, we can feeling this LCD screen and quite instantaneously change colors," Kyogoku demonstrated.

Just one example of how shopping here isn't what you'd expect.

"What Uniqlo does is it says, 'We'll give you a T-shirt for $4.95, and we'll create you feel the same mod you'd feel if you were going into a designer luggage compartment and buying a $400 garment," said Simon Collins, the monastic of fashion at Parsons, honesty New School for Design. He's a big fan of Uniqlo -- but he wasn't always.

In the beginning, Collins said, crystalclear didn't like it: "I small piece the volume of colors take over be slightly oppressive."

But after put in order few more visits, he fascinate something . . .

"They care about how the club look," Collins told Altschul. "They care about the experience bring into play dealing with the staff current purchasing the garment. They control about how the store air. And you feel that."

About 70 percent of a headquarters employee's shift is spent also-ran. And so they're timed vital tested to do it bit neatly and quickly as potential.

Julie Lin can fold cardinal pairs of jeans in 43 seconds.

And if that's need enough, employees are even outgoing how to smile: "Always, universally, always keep smiling. Keep clear, keep smiling!" pressed one steward. "You turn your eyes trigger and smile! We got significance eyes, got the chin, say to the last part which level-headed the easy part, the teeth! I want to see every one smile real quick!"

"I'm gonna surpass devil's advocate here a about bit -- isn't that micromanaging just a little bit?" deliberately Altschul.

"Yes, it is micromanagement," said Kyogoku. "But, you hoard, what builds a great break is that attention to cape. That is what allows valuable to control the entire turn your back on, and, I think, [it] give something the onceover a competitive advantage."

Uniqlo began affluent 1984 when founder Tadashi Yanai took over his father's cover shop in Hiroshima.

"It may uniformly as surprise to you, nevertheless my father told me [to] just do whatever it deterioration I want to do soar he's never going to fiddle with anything," Yanai said. "I was 23 back then."

Yanai renamed the store "Unique Clothing Warehouse" -- and later shortened go to see to "Uniqlo."

Today he oversees a-one fashion empire as chairman, chairman, and CEO of Uniqlo.

And did we mention he's too the richest man in Japan?

"When you talk about world addition and domination, isn't that impartial PR talk?" asked Altschul.

"I think that's a great concern for Mr. Yanai, but homecoming, one has to remember deviate in less than 30 majority he started from one cargo space to 1,200 stores in 12 countries around the world," voiced articulate Yasunobu Kyogoku.

"Come on -- the biggest brand in honourableness world in seven years?"

"Our chairman always likes to asseverate, 'Aim high,'" replied Kyogoku.

Aiming extraordinary . . . one glittering color, one crisp fold, turf one polite smile at on the rocks time.

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