During this time, I have been introducing the japanese consortium, and there are netizens in Yasuda Chaebol, Japan's short-term fast-growing financial empire: Yasuda Zenjiro, my Yasuda Nari Fuji Naka message and discuss about the Japanese Suzuki store's business sea floating ups and downs. Suzuki Shop is a case that I have always wanted to write but dare not write, especially the heroic ending of "The sky is going to kill me, not a war crime", this kind of helpless suffering can only be more profound if it is experienced.
When you think of trading companies, everyone thinks of mitsui chaebols and Yataro Iwasaki's Mitsubishi chaebols. But the trading company I want to introduce today, in Taisho Rokuroku (1917), accounted for 10% of the sales of GNP in Japan at that time, and the two major families of Mitsui Mitsubishi were three-way in the world. It is the protagonist of our day, the Suzuki shop that has written a lot of ink in the history of the trading company and is known as the "Magic Shogun Trading Company".
Promotional photo of "The Lady of the Suzuki Store"
Mention the giant Suzuki Store to have to say that the Japanese drama "The Lady of the Suzuki Store", which was a fire in the past few years, tenkai Yuki's ability to control the role is almost perfect. Modesty like her, in my opinion, she gives this character strength, wisdom, and charm. I don't want to call Tenkai the "queen" in this show, because she doesn't interpret Mi Suzuki (Suzuki, the widow of Suzuki shop owner Iwajiro, Suzuki) as a strong businesswoman.
She plays Ami, a loving mother, a hard-working housewife, a stubborn but virtuous wife, an empathetic boss lady, a big boss with grace and grace, and multiple roles coexist, which cannot be summed up by the word "queen" arbitrarily. Ami's emotions, personality, opinions, and ideals are all revealed in Tianhai's performance without any pretense; her pain, her injury, even if there are no tears, can be deeply felt through a simple expression on her face; her joy, her happiness, is only Tianhai smiling and nodding her head, and we are all rejoicing...
Now I have to say something unpleasant: a woman like Suzuki Mi who insists on her ideas is actually not very popular in any era. Ancient women were vassals of men, and modern women can achieve economic and spiritual independence, but in the current situation where men hold most of the right to speak, it is still difficult to live exactly according to their own ideas to some extent. This is still the case in Japan's Heisei era, let alone in the early Meiji years. So it's not surprising that Suzuki Mi will be expelled from the house.
Character relationship diagram of "The Lady in charge of the Suzuki Store"
Before Suzuki Was taken by her brother to remarry, she looked for the fortune teller Bu Gua, and most of the gua elephants appeared as sea and trees. I don't understand Zhou Yi and tarot, and guess that the meaning of the sea and the tree is: the sea of commerce is up and down, and the tree is a big wind. If it is read as a rumor, this is a later word, and it will not be mentioned for the time being.
Suzuki Rice and her husband's business philosophy is not the same or even very different, but as a continuation of the wife's subordinate status determines that everything can only be done according to the husband's instructions. Fortunately, she met a helper, Naoyoshi Kaneko. Jin Zi loves business, and his lifelong dream is to do business, to make big business. God did indeed give him the gift of business and a lady who appreciated him, Amy. Although Nakaniko was once kicked out of the Suzuki store, he was impressed by the sincerity of the lady boss, and he decided to stay with her and realize her, or their shared business ideals.
1. Naoyoshi Kaneko
In 1866, a child was born into a merchant family in Tosa Domain. And it is this child who was born ordinary, and in the future will become the "Napoleon of business" - Naoyoshi Kaneko who defeated the Mitsui chaebol, the Sumitomo chaebol, the Mitsubishi chaebol, and led the Suzuki store to the top.
Naokichi Kaneko
Suzuki Shop was originally a well-known sugar trader in the Kobe area. However, in the 27th year of Meiji (1894), the death of the head of the house, Iwajiro Suzuki, became the starting point for the Suzuki store.
At that time, under pressure from the store's bigwigs to close their jobs, Iwajiro's widow, Suzuki, overcame everyone's opinion to inherit the Suzuki store's business as a woman, and started the legendary history of the Suzuki store by using Naoyoshi Kaneko, who was just an ordinary employee of the Suzuki store at the time (a bit like our current general manager).
Old photo of Suzuki store
1. Successful transformation, the legend begins
At the beginning of his tenure, Naoyoshi Kaneko sharply captured the huge demand for camphor in the international market. So he began to shift the focus of his store business from sugar to camphor.
In Meiji 32 (1899), Naoyoshi reached an agreement with the then governor of Taiwan, Goto Shinpei, and Naoyoshi obtained 65% of the sales circle of Camphor Oil in Taiwan. As a result, Naoyoshi began to import a large amount of camphor oil from Taiwan to Japan, improved the quality of Taiwan camphor oil through Japanese technology, and resold it to European and American countries.
The clubs founded by suzuki stores have become today's giant enterprises
This camphor business brought huge benefits to the Suzuki store, allowing the Suzuki store to complete the initial capital preparation for the evolution from a sugar trader to a general trading company. However, Naoyoshi did not stop moving forward, and in 1915, the Suzuki shop acquired Yonezawa's textile factory (now Teijin), so that the Suzuki store's business covered light industry and heavy industry, which can be said to be "sold from clothing to battleships".
Yonezawa Kosho Artificial Silk Thread
Human silk and mizuho silk
2, advanced management, solipsism
Mention 1915, sensitive people must have thought that that was the beginning of the First World War. And Naoyoshi did not miss this big era. In November 1914, Naoyoshi sent a famous telegram to the London branch of the Suzuki store: "BUY ANY STEEL, ANY QUANTITY, AT ANY PRICE" (buy all the steel on the market at any cost).
Then World War I broke out, steel prices soared, and even though Naoyoshi had bought a lot of steel, there was still a shortage of steel in Japan's manufacturing industry, especially shipbuilding. At this time, Naoyoshi once again exerted his genius business ability, and even reached an agreement with the United States to "exchange ships for iron" (the United States supplied steel for Japan, and Japan supplied ships for the United States).
Taisho five years trademark registration
In this way, Naoyoshi suddenly gained both resources and markets, completing the jaw-dropping growth of the Suzuki store in World War I. Naoyoshi at that time once said: "We will use this war to completely overwhelm Mitsubishi Mitsui, at least with them!" This is the ideal of all the suzuki stores, and for this ideal, I am willing to live for 5 years and 10 years! ”
As a result, from 1919 to 1920, the trade volume of Suzuki stores reached 1.6 billion yen, accounting for 10% of the GNP in Japan at that time, far ahead of Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corporation. At that time, one of the 10 merchant ships that passed through the Suez Canal was the ship of the Suzuki Shop.
In the heyday of the Suzuki store, it was not so much a three-point world as it was a "solipsism" in the Suzuki store.
3. Heaven will destroy me, not a crime of war
Prosperity and decline seem to be the doomed end of every era. The rice riots of 1918, the crisis of asset structure after the end of World War I, and one crisis after another hit Suzuki stores.
Although Naoyoshi's presence allowed Suzuki stores to overcome these crises, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 completely damaged Suzuki stores. In the end, the fatal blow to the crumbling Suzuki store was a gaffe about bank bankruptcy in 1927 by Naofumi Oka, a Photograph of Daizo Daizo in Japan.
Kataoka's gaffe directly led to the outbreak of the Showa financial panic, which led to the bankruptcy of a large number of banks, and also caused the flow of funds in the Suzuki store to break and eventually go bankrupt.
The subsidiary of the Suzuki store was later transferred to Nissho Iwai, and nissho Iwai was later transformed into the current general trading company Bi-Day.
Double day
Although the development of the two-day comprehensive trading company is acceptable, but knowing its past, compared with the gap with other comprehensive trading companies, you can also sigh that the world has changed.
With the bankruptcy of the Suzuki store, a great era also came to an end. And every time we look back at this story, I am afraid that we will sigh for Kaneko Naoyoshi: Heaven is going to kill me, not a war crime.
4. The Death of Suzuki Rice and the Shop
Many works now believe that Suzuki's development is mainly the role of Naoyoshi Kaneko, but in fact, without Suzuki Rice's permission and support behind it, Kaneko could not have realized his business ideals. In fact, Suzuki Isa is not only smart, but also very ambitious, and most importantly, has a leadership skill.
Mizuki Suzuki and Naoyoshi Kaneko
With the help of the two, the Suzuki store quickly grew. There are texts documenting their history of expansion:
Naoyoshi Kaneko was appreciated by Shinpei Goto, then the governor of the Governorate of Taiwan, and suzuki shop acquired the right to sell mothball oil produced in Taiwan and set up a camphor factory in Kobe. Later, the Suzuki store added several production departments, and Kaneko Naoyoshi was known as the "Smoke Man (Chimney Man)". Suzuki Shop opened a Ōsato Sugar Factory in the Dale area of Kitakyushu and invested in the sugar industry. Later, it carried out business in the area of ale, alcohol, wheat, and metals, and chemical, metal, and railway business in the Iwashima area across the water.
……
Suzuki Shop actively engaged in heavy chemical industry business around world war I, and established the Kobe Steel Works in Meiji 38 (1905), the Harima Shipyard (now IHI) in Taisho 5 (1916), and the first mass production of artificial silk using domestic technology in Taisho 7 (1918) and the establishment of the Imperial Rayon Silk (now Teijin) Company. After the outbreak of World War I, Kaneko Naoyoshi foresaw the possible shortage of materials in the protracted war, so he issued a steel purchase order "regardless of quality, quantity, and price", and in this big speculation, the Suzuki store gained a lot of wealth.
It is ambition, and seizing opportunities, that have turned this company, which started as a small grocery store, into a commercial chaebol. Legend has it that one in 10 ships sailing on the Suez Canal is owned by The Japanese Suzuki. In the 6th year of Taisho (1917), the sales record of Suzuki Stores reached one-tenth of the GNP in Japan at that time, becoming the number one general trading company in Japan. Legend has it that one in 10 ships sailing on the Suez Canal is owned by The Japanese Suzuki. Meanwhile, Mi Suzuki appeared with Rockefeller in the New York Times and was known as the richest man and woman in the world at the time.
When a company reaches the top, on the one hand, it often loses its direction on its own, on the other hand, it is particularly easy to become the target of public criticism. The Suzuki store is like that.
After taking control of a number of companies and becoming the number one in many industries, Suzuki and Naoyoshi Kaneko were not satisfied, and they continued to buy and annex other companies, and continued to expand the company's business into other areas. From beer to essence, from metal to chemistry, suzuki is said to control more than 80 businesses.
But such acquisitions and expansions do not use their own funds, on the contrary, a large number of their expansions are done using leverage, that is, borrowed money.
At the time, Suzuki borrowed mainly from two banks, but later felt that even so, the funds were not enough, and in order to maintain control of the family business, they were reluctant to raise equity financing, so they simply took control of a bank, Kobe Bank. In Suzuki's view, since I even control the bank, then my credit must be completely worry-free.
Suzuki Rice (Yuki Tenkai)
But such arrogance naturally annoys opponents, after all, so many chaebols, it is really disgraceful to lose to a woman. As a result, these chaebols influenced by Suzuki began to gather together to plan how to frame Suzuki.
But at this time, the Suzuki family had no defense, but continued to expand financing and continue to expand. Suzuki, through the banks it controls, continues to borrow from Taiwan, as well as from banks controlled by chaebols such as Mitsubishi and Mitsui. Mitsubishi and other chaebols allowed them to borrow, but soon after, without any warning, these chaebols suddenly offered to repay the loans from banks controlled by Suzuki, and at the same time, they spread rumors that Kobe Bank was about to go bankrupt, triggering a bank run on depositors. Soon, Suzuki's bank collapsed, and then the dominoes fell, and Suzuki's entire building collapsed.
The fall of Suzuki, combined with previous economic policy mistakes in Japan and the damage caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake, caused a crisis known as the Showa financial panic to erupt, plunging the country into chaos until the government took drastic measures and the banking system was restored. But by this time Suzuki had ceased to exist, and most of its industries had been acquired and controlled by other chaebols, and there had been no Suzuki chaebols in history.
Suzuki's bankruptcy even implicated Taiwan, because Suzuki and Taiwan were closely related at that time, and a large amount of Suzuki Bank's borrowings came from Taiwanese banks, and the Taiwan Bank of that year was actually the central bank of Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period. Suzuki's bankruptcy left a large number of loans from Taiwanese banks uncollected. Later, through the strong intervention of the Governor's Office of Taiwan, the bank survived this difficulty.
5. Suzuki Rice's Success or Failure Bell
Movie based on the story of Mi Suzuki", "Japan's First Female President"
As a female entrepreneur with no formal education, Suzuki Rice only acts on instincts and rules that have been formed over the years, and still builds a huge business that has flourished for a while.
When the posterity analyzes Suzuki rice, what we see is her care for the employees: it is better to be hungry and let the workers eat today, sew clothes for the employees by hand, and help the guys who returned from the snow and wind to boil water and burn their feet... These details, which are talked about in later generations, highlight Suzuki's grace and grace, empathy, and a woman with leadership charm.
However, the rapid success of the business has made the family leader lose his mind, and the ambition has made him even more crazy. The female leader did not recognize that the way to speculate on wealth was more of luck than a model. In the later period, the blind expansion of corporate diversification caused by The expansion of Kaneko Naoyoshi's ambitions did not make her panic, on the contrary, she agreed to open a bank in an attempt to achieve large-scale leveraged development by controlling finance, and finally had to suffer the consequences.
Expansion based on financial lending obviously has obvious weaknesses, and if the capital chain is held in the hands of the opponent at this time, the result is even more unimaginable. However, this was the situation of Suzuki Rice at that time. This ambitious, even kind leader, who did not think of the potential threat he faced as a woman in social competition, is also a big reason for his business failure, and it is also something we need to regret.
Mi Suzuki is played by Yuki Tenkai
The failure of the Suzuki store clearly fueled Japan's financial panic that year, making the Japanese economy more serious, and Japan's financial crisis was one of the reasons why Japan began a large-scale invasion of China and foreign imperialist expansion in the 1930s. From this point of view, suzuki may somewhat amplify the significance of its bankruptcy, but it is clear that if Japan's subsequent imperialist actions are regarded as a hurricane, no one knows whether the collapse of this Japanese chaebol is the butterfly that flapped its wings.
Conclusion: Opportunities come with risks. For entrepreneurs, how to control risk is more important than how to achieve profitability or achieve synergy between banks and main businesses. Although Suzuki Rice's Suzuki Shop happened a hundred years ago, this trading company is still very inspiring to those who come after.