Uncovering the Business Miracle: How Bridgestone Rise From Tabi Stocking Maker to Global Tire Giant

The Bridgestone Company originated in the tabi production industry. After Shojiro Ishibashi inherited his father's garment store with his elder brother in 1906, considering the low efficiency of order response brought about by operating undershirts, underpants, leggings, tabi socks and other miscellaneous items, he resolutely decided to turn the garment store business into implementation "Tribute socks special", focusing on the production of tabi socks. After technical reform and improvement, in 1914, Shojiro Ishibashi passed the reform and launched tabi socks at a uniform price and achieved great success. In 1918, he established "Nippon Tabi Co., Ltd." However, affected by the political and economic situation at that time, Shojiro's Japanese tabi company faced the dilemma of product backlog and production reduction, so the Ishibashi brothers focused on matching straw sandals with more durable rubber-soled tabi socks. Inspired by American tennis shoes, Shojiro changed the original simple stitching to bonding, and finally developed and produced strong rubber-soled tabi socks, which has since stepped into the threshold of the rubber industry.

 

It is precisely because of the problems discovered in the original main business "tabocks" that the "+rubber" solution was found, and since then Bridgestone has established the "Chain Master Technology Accelerator" driven by Bridgestone and entered the first place in the industrial chain of the rubber industry. step.

Entering the 20th century, with the rise of the automobile industry, the tire market is booming around the world. Faced with the sharp increase in domestic tire demand, Japan began to introduce foreign tire brands. Shojiro Ishibashi saw the opportunity, and with the belief of "using Japanese capital and relying on Japanese technology to realize localization of tires", he began to consider the localization of automobile tires.

In the process of driving the "Chain Master Technology Accelerator", Bridgestone has found a trending incremental market, technology synergy, trend synergy, and resource synergy, driving the Chain Master Technology Accelerator to enter the incremental market, allowing "rubber + cloth socks " became "rubber + tire".

The chain master technology accelerator is the key driving force for the continuous growth of enterprises, and realizes the rapid development of the brand by combining technology with competition.

Building such an accelerator follows three key steps:

The first step is to apply technology to more scenarios, more products, and a wider industrial chain;

This not only requires us to have leading technical strength in core business areas, but also requires us to be able to flexibly transform technology into products or services that can realize commercial value. By expanding the application of technology to more fields, we can maximize the advantages brought by technology, further enhance the market competitiveness of products, and achieve growth in a wider market and industrial chain.

The second step is to use technology to win greater profit margins, seize high-quality channels, and empower brand image;

The goal of this stage is to enhance its own competitiveness through technology and increase market share. Technology can not only help increase the added value of products, thereby obtaining higher profits, but also enhance the market attractiveness of enterprises by improving services and enhancing brand image. In addition, technology can also help companies form competition barriers, such as patent protection and customer stickiness, to prevent competitors from invading.

The third step is to reinvest high profits for research and development costs.

At this stage, enterprises need to re-invest the profits obtained in technology research and development, and continue to promote technological progress. This is a self-reinforcing cycle, and the profits brought by technology are further used for the development of technology, so that enterprises can always maintain their advanced nature in the competition. This is also the key to achieving sustained growth.

In general, the construction of the chain master technology accelerator is a continuous process, which requires our continuous technological innovation, active market development, and reasonable profit distribution. Through these three steps, we can successfully create a chain master technology accelerator, driven by technology, to promote the continuous growth of enterprises.

On the premise of no foreign technicians, tire knowledge and relevant experience, the workers only relied on the molding and vulcanizing machine and a 100,000-word manual. Dian manufactured the first domestic tire in Japan - the No. 1 "Bridgestone" tire.

The first tire was born, satisfying Shojiro's wish, but the subsequent quality problems have plagued Bridgestone for a long time, and it is far inferior to other foreign tire brands that have existed for several years in terms of design and workmanship. , Of course, it is not recognized by consumers, and dealers dare not act rashly. With Bridgestone's capabilities at the time, it was almost impossible to squeeze into large tire retail stores. Therefore, they formed an agency network model targeting "tire repair shops, small and medium tire retail stores, and Japanese tabi socks agencies" .

At that time, the importance of automobile tires to vehicle safety had been widely recognized. Therefore, Bridgestone decided to take the concept of sincere service to consumers and adopted the "complete quality assurance system" of free replacement of new products in case of product failure. . The primary purpose of the new brand is to win trust. For this reason, Bridgestone promises to all consumers that regardless of the size of the problem, Bridgestone will unconditionally replace the car owner with a new tire if there is any quality problem during the use of the tire. . In order to implement the concept of sincere service, Bridgestone even provides a second and third replacement, knowing that it is unreasonable but also serving consumers thoroughly. Even though he was operating at a loss and the return rate reached 25%, Shojiro still insisted on this system. In the end, Bridgestone won the confidence of general consumers, and in January 1932, it was recognized as an "excellent domestic product" by the Japan Chamber of Commerce.

 

In an industry field that has no cognitive advantage at all, Bridgestone has finally won the recognition of consumers by entering channels with its own advantages, prying open the channel entrance, and further adopting the method of "extreme service without bottom line, and even competing at a loss". Build brand potential.

Cooperate with Goodyear technology to upgrade technology and equipment. In 1949, when Goodyear entered the Japanese market and wanted to acquire Bridgestone shares, it was rejected by Shojiro. In 1951, Goodyear and Bridgestone formally signed a contract. Technical guidance, and the production of Goodyear brand tires began here, and the cooperation lasted for 28 years. During this period, Bridgestone absorbed Goodyear's latest technology, which laid an important foundation for its subsequent development. When President Shiqiao visited Goodyear, he deeply felt the backwardness of Bridgestone's technology and equipment, so he formulated a five-year plan from 1951 to 1955 to convert the modernization of equipment from cotton cords to man-made fiber cords. In Kurume The factory installed new main equipment, and comprehensively updated auxiliary facilities such as test equipment.

Bridgestone's product development focuses on the research and development of radial tires and the innovation of POTENZA tires. In the mid-1950s, Bridgestone began working on wire tires. Their findings showed that radial tires are superior to bias-ply tires in order to fully exploit the properties of steel cords, so they shifted the focus of research and development to steel radial tires.

 

In 1957, the company began trial production and testing of passenger radial tires (PSR). However, feedback at the time indicated that although this type of tire had a long service life, it was subject to greater road impact when driving, the handling was too agile, and the comfort was not satisfactory. At the same time, the company felt that the promotion of radial tires in Japan was too early, so development work was temporarily suspended in 1960.

In 1963, with the rapid spread of radial tires for cars in Europe, the company restarted related research and development. They developed steel cord and cotton cord tires in parallel. The road to success finally opened in 1964 when they developed Japan's first cotton radial tire "RT-P" and steel radial tire "RT-M".

By further obtaining the latest technology and upgrading equipment, Bridgestone has further enhanced the competitiveness of its own products, and has not stopped at the current products. By driving the "Chain Master Technology Accelerator", it has promoted the company's continuous development in the global tire market and leadership. Adhere to the growth strategy of "Chain Master Brand", make use of core advantages, and technology-oriented to expand adjacent businesses. When an enterprise expands its adjacent business, it must make full use of its core competitiveness and pay attention to the relevance of the new business and its own core technology, so as to ensure that it can effectively use and amplify its own advantages in the new field.

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Origin blog.csdn.net/xuzhanhai/article/details/131109976