Few hours after the earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, CEO Tadashi Yanai of Fast Retailing was eating sushi at a restaurant near his office. He was confident that his store managers would be able to decide for themselves the best action to take in midst of this crisis. Some of the pending decisions were whether or not to reopen the UNIQLO stores that were wiped out by the tsunami, to follow government orders to turn off the store lights, and to distribute warm clothing in the devastated areas.