Soichiro honda

A real life motivator....about the Founder of Honda Motors who has the story of rags to riches...with a focus on quality, self management and innovation....a super HR takeaway!!!

1. SOICHIRO HONDA By Dr. Malathi Selvakkumar

2. SOICHIRO HONDA

3. SOICHIRO HONDA He was born on November 6 th 1906 His father was a cycle shop worker with a small lathe near home Mother was a weaver

4. His early days He was fascinated by piston rings in vehicles and dreamt of manufacturing it one day He wanted to create it and become world famous and get global recognition for this He set up a small lab near his house and always worked in his free time to develop a prototype

5. His early days Before 1937, he worked in a garage that tuned cars for Formula 1 races He always had an interest in automobiles and in 1937 he started his own business of making his own piston rings

6. His early days He finally created his dream piston ring and took it to TOYOTA , which was a big name in the industry. But it was rejected by them due to poor quality that did not match TOYOTA standards

7. His early days Every one ridiculed him, but he did not bother and worked on improving the quality of the piston rings for 2 more years He did not lose his self confidence, but instead identified the mistake and started rectifying it

8. His early days For this he started attending engineering school and learnt the process and observed work in other companies manufacturing piston rings These rings were taken back to TOYOTA who found the quality very good and placed a huge order with Soichiro

9. His early days For executing this order, he needed to build a factory. At the same time in Japan, there was an acute shortage for cement, that getting even 15 bags for building the factory was a huge challenge

10. His early days He did not give up and found an alternate concrete mix to build his factory and completed it He manufactured his dream pistons here and also built another factory

11. His early days In 1942, his company was absorbed by the ministry of Commerce and Industry Toyota bought a 40% stake of the company and Soichiro was promoted as Senior MD His expertise was used in the manufacture of military aircraft propellers

12. His early days His 2 big factories were totally destroyed by American Bombers in the World War in 1944 (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), followed by the infamous earthquake that reduced Japan to shambles

13. His early days He did not lose his self confidence, although he was branded as “unlucky” and “a loser” He wanted to create waves in the automobile sector and worked towards it

14. His early days Britain and America did not want Japan to emerge successful post the II World War It was at this time that the Japanese were dependant on the government for even its essentials post the war

15. The birth of Honda Motors Following the war, he sold his patents and war remnants to Toyota for 450000 yen and used that as his capital for funding the Honda Technical Research Institute in October 1946, with just 12 employees

16. The birth of Honda Motors He called his employees and asked them to pick up the gasoline kegs from the remains of the American bombers He said “ This is the gift given by America to us, as it is costly and otherwise not available elsewhere”

17. The birth of Honda Motors There was acute petrol shortage in Japan and people were forced to walk or use bicycle for travel Soichiro also faced this and saw a huge opportunity in this

18. The birth of Honda Motors He saw a grass cutter next to his parked bicycle He removed the motor from the grass cutter and attached it to his cycle, and the first motor cycle was born While all walked or cycled, he alone zoomed in his motorbike

19. His business growth… Orders started pouring in He started manufacturing them, and realised the need for a factory He had no funds with him – owned or borrowed, as banks refused him loans

20. Birth of HONDA The HONDA A type was born The Institute was liquidated for 1 million yen in 1949, that equals 5000 US $ today The fund was used to incorporate Honda Motors Company Limited

21. His business initiative He identified 3000 cycle shops in Japan, and posted individual letters to each of them, and requested them to invest in his idea Not even one person responded He did not lose heart He thought differently and came out with an idea

22. His business initiative He next wrote to each of them how it will be useful to them, by highlighting the benefits of using a motorcycle He also mentioned that they will get direct distributorship of his product

23. His business initiative There were then 18000 shops across Japan then, of which 3000 o f them responded positively But motorcycle engine was large sized, and so expected turnover did not happen He created a new small sized engine and named it as “ Carb” , meaning a lion cub

24. Success story… It became a runaway success, and he got the Japanese “ Emperor Award” which is the highest degree of recognition for a person 2 wheeler sales became so famous across the globe and contributed to the growth of Japan in the world map

25. Success story… In 1970, there was an acute shortage of petrol in America, and all started focussing on economy sized cars It was his small sized engines that made his cars so successful

26. Growth of Honda Motor Company By 1964, Honda became the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles He always believed in continuous improvement ( Kaizen) , excellent service with integrity and accountability

27. Growth of Honda Motor Company His focus was in being competitive and product expansion, leading to exports Accura was introduced in 1986 and NSX Super car in 1991

28. Growth of Honda Motor Company In 1991, Soichiro Honda died in OHIO

29. Growth of Honda Motor Company In 1992, Honda faced a threat of being taken over by Mitsubishi, due to poor product development and cut throat competition Kawa Moto took over the company, and brought about a complete turnover of the company, by participating in Formula 1 racing

30. Honda…the rise Honda developed a market driven approach and the 1 st gen Odyssey, CRV were born In 2001, Honda was the 2 nd largest automobile manufacturer in Japan In 2015, Honda was the 8 th largest automobile manufacturer in the world

31. Ad campaign In 2003, Honda made its international ad campaign at a whopping cost of 6 million pounds, called as the “ masterpiece” This was made for UK and then available on the internet They have their assembly plants across the globe – in US, UK, Asia, China and Canada

32. Honda’s Critical Success Factors Customer engagement Consumer friendly products High quality products Eco- friendly nature of products Product range is from small scooters to super bikes; sports and luxury cars to airplanes Employs a workforce of 2lakh employees across the world

33. Honda Today… Honda Motor Company is a Japanese MNC Conglomerate Corporation worth 50.4 billion dollars (1 billion US Dollars = Rs 7000 crore ) Largest manufacturer of motorcycles, cars, power equipment and aircrafts Since 1959, world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and internal combustion engines, producing over 14 million each year

34. Honda Today… In 2018, its annual revenue was about 138 billion US Dollars Its market cap is 50.4 billion US dollars Market cap = market price of the share x number of shares outstanding or total number of shares issued

35. Management Lessons from Soichiro He always knew what he wanted (vision and mission) He made continuous efforts towards reaching his goal regardless of the circumstances He embraced failure and went back to work with a positive attitude from the feedback He did not pursue success but excellence through Kaizen - continuous up-gradation

36. Management Lessons from Soichiro He made optimal use of the resources through innovation and creativity Failure according to him is a part of the journey to success The lesson he learnt from failure – either quit or attempt again , but keep changing

37. Famous quotes by Soichiro