Honda. A story of infalliable success
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company, which is one of the world’s top ten car manufacturers and ranks first in the world in motorcycle production. It also produces quad bikes, special equipment, engines, generators, pumps, lawnmowers, snow-fighting vehicles,… and even HondaJet business planes! The Asimo robot, produced by Honda in 2000, immediately became favorite and world-famous.
Honda Motor is an independent company, it has entered no concern. Honda has 119 factories in 33 countries and has produced more than 100 million cars. Honda Motor is the 74th among the largest companies in the world in the list of Forbes Global and 36th by turnover! Honda brand takes 23rd position in the list of the most expensive brands. Even Honda’s advertising campaigns were recognized as the best and received the title of the “winner of winners”! Honda managed to get a prize even from the British insurance companies, who recognized Honda cars as the most reliable.* As of 2018-2019
Honda has produced more than 100 million cars and it is first in the world in the motorcycle production. Honda brand takes 23rd position in the list of the most expensive brands.
‘Many people dream of success. To me, success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents 1% of your work which results from 99% of failure,’ said Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor, perhaps best suited to the more than 70 years of Honda’s history. It’s a story of ups and downs, perseverance and resilience, boldness, ingenuity, and, of course, infallible success!
Living out a dream
All this began in 1948 when the Honda Motor Co was officially registered, and in just one year released its first HONDA motorcycle called Dream. Well, in fact, this started much earlier, of course…
In a village near Mount Fuji, there was a boy Soichiro Honda who loved bikes. He loved riding, fixing, assembling, and disassembling them. Then he came up with the idea to replace wooden spokes in the wheels with metal ones. Now we think it’s an easy solution! But in that time it was a breakthrough, a real invention. And then Soichiro invented the piston ring and started his own company, Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry, which almost immediately received a major order from Toyota for their production. In his lifetime, Soichiro Honda received about 150 patents. He went down in history as a man who always finds simple solutions to complex problems.
In 1945, after his factory was severely damaged during the war and earthquake, Honda decided to sell Tokai Seiki to Toyota for 450,000 yen. Afterward, Soichiro, who attached his motors to his friends’ bikes so many times, started producing his own motorcycles in 1948. The company’s first motorcycle, called Dream, was produced a year later. At the same time, Takeo Fujisawa, who is considered the company’s second founder, joined the company. There has always been strict segregation of duties between him and Honda: Honda was in charge of production technology and Fujisawa was in charge of corporate management and sales.
Until the late 1950s, HONDA motorcycles won all the most prestigious motorcycle races. By 1967, Honda had become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. Finally, he decided to produce Honda cars. Soichiro Honda showed his famous rebellious temper once again, ignoring the statements of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry that Japan didn’t need another carmaker.
24 M+ Honda Civic cars have been sold since the first production.
The year 1972 is considered to be the year of Honda’s real glory in the automotive market - the year of Civic model. Since then, Honda began to gain recognition as a manufacturer of compact low-cost quality cars. Three years later, sales volume of Honda Civic exceeded 1 million cars. Today we can drive the 10th generation of Civic. Only since the first production, more than 24 million cars of this model have been sold.
Soon, Japan faced an oil crisis. Car manufacturers decided to reduce production volumes. All but Honda! He doubled production and reduced prices. And again, his company won! He was able to increase sales by 76%. Right after that, Honda introduced a more expensive car model - Accord, which became in great demand in the USA. Car and Driver magazine mentioned Accord as one of the top 10 popular cars in the US. And Soichiro Honda became the first Asian in the Automotive Hall of Fame in the US. When Acura appeared, it immediately made Honda one of the largest automotive companies. From 1990 to 1992 Acura cars were the best-selling in the US, and Honda became the third company by the number of sold cars.
Then an earthquake on March 11, 2011, severely damaged Honda R&D Center and stopped the work of all plants in Japan for a month. Honda lost about $500M but the company survived again.
The decade of the 1990s began with the debut of NSX model, equipped with the latest technical innovations, a direct challenge to Ferrari sports cars. Do you know that Honda took part in Formula-1? McLaren-Honda won 15 of 16 races in one of seasons! And then the legendary Honda CR-V (Compact Recreational Vehicle) was made. It’s a compact car for recreation. This small SUV gained instant recognition. It is one of the best-selling crossovers in the world of our days.
Honda has invented the world’s first map-based navigation system. McLaren-Honda racing car has won in 15 races out of 16 in Formula One! Honda CR-V is one of the best-selling crossovers ever.
Honda advances more and more in the eco-friendly automotive industry. It produces electric and gas-powered cars, improves the performance of its engines, reducing the amount of harmful substances in the exhaust. Did you know that Honda invented the world’s first map-based navigation? Honda Electro Gyrocator was launched on the Japanese market ten years before GPS satellite navigation. By 2016, Honda had sold 15 M combustion engines, 100 M garden appliances, 300 K motorcycles. As for Honda cars, their production reached 100 M. In sleep or in waking, young Soichiro could hardly ever imagine so many cars with his name produced.
The company faced hardship many times, there were terrible falls but the company got up and went on after every fall. Honda’s motto, “The Power of Dreams” took the company to a new level of the high-tech, helped it survive, succeed, and gain worldwide recognition. Honda has a great potential to maintain its leading position in the global motorcycle and automotive industry.
