Chapter 992 I would rather use slaves than talents
In the era of Tsutsumi Yasujiro, land speculation was a very profitable business.
But later, in order to prohibit the buying and selling of land, the Japanese government began to formulate the "Land Law", and the era of land speculation gradually came to an end.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi keenly captured this market signal and decisively shifted the focus of Seibu's business from land hoarding to regional development. He also used his past expertise to focus on the leisure tourism and hotel industries.
Years of experience told him that when it comes to leisure and tourism, it is difficult for an isolated project to attract public attention. It must have complete supporting facilities, convenient transportation, comfortable hotels and rich entertainment projects.
This decision is similar to the development of scenic spots by Global Tourism Group.
Of course, Boss Ti is the forerunner.
Xu Liang also runs his own business following the same path as others.
But it doesn’t matter what kind of cat it is, it’s a good cat if it can catch mice.
After setting its sights, the Seibu Group borrowed heavily and specifically selected the suburban mountainous areas of big cities to buy large amounts of land, build railways, and build leisure villas, amusement areas, golf courses, ski resorts, tourist hotels and resorts.
Tokyo's Shinagawa area was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's first experimental field.
Seibu first built a Prince Hotel there, but the results were average.
Later, it continued to expand its business formats and added entertainment facilities such as ice rinks, ski resorts, and tennis courts. The hotel's efficiency began to increase significantly.
This hotel later became a landmark building in Shinagawa.
Every time Akio Morita goes abroad to discuss business and returns home, he always checks into the Shinagawa Prince Hotel to relax his nervousness before returning home.
The success in the Shinagawa region greatly inspired Boss Tsutsumi's confidence.
He boldly promoted and copied this model nationwide, and successively carried out regional development in Furano, Hokkaido, Nepheline, Iwate Prefecture and other places, turning them into tourist attractions.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi has a unique vision. Most of the places he chose are remote places with good natural conditions but inconvenient transportation and not well-known, or places that were famous in the past but have declined.
Not only that, Seibu Group has also made great efforts to improve the city's transportation, build railway stations and bus stations, and provide hotels, supermarkets, libraries, theaters, schools and other supporting facilities.
A backward agricultural town quickly became a medium-sized city with a population of 800,000.
For a time, the Tokorozawa model caused huge waves in Japan.
A large number of local officials came to visit Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and invited him to develop the area.
This regional development model pioneered by Tsutsumi Yoshiaki has also brought endless financial resources to the Seibu Group.
Konosuke Matsushita once again praised him full of praise, saying that Yoshiaki Tsutsumi not only inherited his father's business, but also added new ideas and created the brilliant achievements of Seibu Group, and was the "ancestor of ZTE."
The Seibu Group, which has withdrawn from the land business, has therefore promoted the leisure and entertainment industry to major and medium-sized cities and market towns in Japan, and opened Seibu Department Store and Seiyu Department Store throughout Japan.
The real glory of Seibu was still in the mid-to-late 1980s.
In 1985, facing the growing Japanese economy, the United States, which felt threatened, forced Japan to sign the "Plaza Agreement."
Since then, the yen has continued to appreciate, causing Japan's exports to suffer heavy losses.
In response to the adverse impact, the Bank of Japan cut interest rates five times in a row, lowering the benchmark interest rate from 5% to 2.5%.
A large amount of hot money began to pour into the property market.
Major companies are carrying out construction projects in Tokyo and other places, and ordinary citizens are also actively buying houses. Many people have even quit their jobs to speculate in real estate full-time.
Driven by this, real estate prices in Japan have skyrocketed, with house prices in Tokyo doubling every year and other small and medium-sized cities doubling every two years.
By 1990, the land price index in the six urban centers of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Yokohama and Kobe had increased by nearly 90% compared with 1985. The total land assets in Japan could buy 4 United States!
The entire Japanese property market is like the old America before the subprime mortgage crisis, with burning oil and blooming flowers.
This time, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi failed to grasp the pulse of the times.
Seibu Group, which has a large presence in Japan, also took the opportunity to increase investment in leisure entertainment and hotels, and borrowed large amounts from financial institutions.
Intoxicated by the great success of the Tokorozawa model and immersed in the praise of everyone, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi had long forgotten his father’s warnings.
Under his leadership, Seibu Group's business reached its peak.
The entire Seibu Group has built dozens of ski resorts and hundreds of golf courses throughout Japan; the total number of Prince Hotel rooms across the country exceeds 20,000, making it the number one chain brand in Japan.
Not only that, Seibu Group has also become a Japanese retail giant, owning well-known brands such as Seibu Department Store, MUJI, and Yoshinoya.
At its peak, the Seibu Group controlled one-sixth of the operating real estate in Japan, with more than 100,000 employees and total assets of US$165 billion, 10 times that of the Panasonic Group at the time. As a result, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was listed as the richest man in the world by Forbes in 1987, with his personal wealth at his peak reaching US$20 billion.
At that time, Gates Sr.’s personal wealth was less than $1 billion.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi’s success is inseparable from Japan’s post-war economic boom.
However, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi seemed to have forgotten this after becoming a god, and he became more and more arrogant and arrogant.
He believed in Xunzi's theory of evil nature and did not make friends or use talents.
This guy once said in front of everyone: "I don't need subordinates with good minds. I have my own plans for the company's business policies and development goals.
The people below Just be loyal to me and carry out what I tell you.”
He even had a shocking saying:
I would rather use slaves than talents.
This kind of arrogance and dictatorship is not a big problem when business is going smoothly, but once faced with a crisis, it will be catastrophic.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi’s disaster was the bursting of Japan’s housing price bubble.
In 1990, in order to curb the expanding real estate bubble, the Bank of Japan suddenly raised the bank reserve interest rate to 6% in a panic.
This is like a sharp knife, piercing the bubble all at once.
The Japanese property market has continued to plummet, and the three major metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya) have not been spared. Tokyo house prices have plummeted 65% in three months.
As housing prices plummeted, land and houses could not be sold at all. More than 3,000 banks and real estate companies collapsed during this crisis. A large number of home buyers went bankrupt overnight. Japanese people who committed suicide and went bankrupt crowded the rooftops.
Under the cover of the nest, the Seibu Group is in a state of turmoil. The value of each asset has dropped beyond recognition, and the company's debt ratio has soared. The debt of the Land Planning Corporation alone exceeds one trillion yen.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, who once "covered the sky with one hand," has become helpless, and his subordinates who are accustomed to obeying orders are even more at a loss.
Since 1996, Seibu Group has suffered deficits for nine consecutive years, with a loss of 9.3 billion yen in 2004 alone.
This year, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi's personal wealth also quickly shrank to US$3 billion, less than a fraction of its peak, and finally disappeared from the Forbes wealth rankings.
The Seibu Group, which fell from the altar, has been plagued by scandals ever since.
In 2005, Seibu Railway was ordered to delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Subsequently Mizuho Bank settled in Seibu and conducted a comprehensive liquidation of the group’s assets.
In the same year, 71-year-old Tsutsumi Yoshiaki was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison, suspended for 4 years, on multiple charges including publishing false financial information, forging financial statements, and illegally conducting internal stock trading.
A generation of myths and legends has come to an end.
"Seeing this Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, do you know who reminds me of you?"
"Who?"
"Li Cunxu."
Jiang Xiaoyang thought for a moment, "Li Cunxu The son of Ke Yong, the founding emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties?"
Xu Liang nodded, "Before the 'Three Arrows of Snow', Li Cunxu banned thieves, cared for orphans and widows, conquered seclusion, stopped corruption and violence, built strong embankments, and relaxed prison sentences. , wise and powerful.
After destroying the Later Liang Dynasty and unifying the Central Plains, he was full of ambition and arrogance. He overhauled the palace, plundered the people's wealth, was suspicious of the heroes, and favored the actors. If there weren't so many cool moves, who would be able to dominate the world? "
"It seems that many emperors are like this. They were wise in the early stage and mediocre in the later stage, such as Emperor Ming of Tang Dynasty. "Jiang Xiaoyang said.
"Compared with Li Cunxu, he is flattering. He is not even worthy of carrying shoes in front of Emperor Tang Ming. "Xu Liang said disdainfully.
Li Longji lived too long. If he had died twenty years earlier, his evaluation would definitely rank among the top three emperors of China.
Follow Li Shimin is not much worse.
To be too old to die is to be a thief.
That's absolutely right.
(End of this chapter)