please rewrite in your own words

Honda Motor Company Analysis

BUSN 520 Marketing and Management

Davenport University – School of Business

September 9, 2015

Professor Thomas Steinhagen

Table of Content

Honda Motor Company, scope of its current business, current products and subsidiaries……….3

Historical Perspective on Honda Motor Company………………………………………………..4

Scope of Honda Motor Company’s market distribution – are they global or regional etc………..5

Overview of the Honda’s leadership and management structure and individuals ………………..6

Current Issues that may affect the future of the Honda Motor Company…………………………7

References……………………………………………………………...………………………….8

Honda Motor Company, scope of its current business, current products and subsidiaries

Honda motor company is a Japan based global company, which is associated with the manufacture of motorcycles, automobiles and power equipment. Honda has been ranked as the top supplier of motorcycles for numerous years, it also produces the largest number of interior combustion engines across the globally amounting to more than fourteen million engines every year. Honda is also among the eight main producers of automobiles around the world. The company offers more than just motorcycles, power equipment and automobiles. It manufactures watercrafts, generators, garden equipment, and marine engines, robots, aircraft solar cells, engines, and ATV and mountain bikes.

. Honda also has set its eyes on commercializing artificial intelligence, aero engines, aerospace technology and robotics. The fact that the company has various products in the market has made it immune to financial crisis because in all those years it has never fallen in the danger zone since it was founded (Mie, 2015).

Honda’s success is not only based on its variety of products in the market but the fact that its products are influenced by what their customers like. The products they offer not only puts in mind the likes of the customers but also the regions they come from and how they influence their market. This means that one model of a car may have different features depending on the region its being sold. Motorcycles are the highest revenue maker for the company, even though they had to reduce its production over the years it’s still the largest motorcycle supplier globally.

Honda has various subsidiaries around the world that are tasked with handling the interests it has in pursuing fresh fields. The first was the Acura its luxury brand launched in 1986 as a first of its kind among the automobiles in Japan. The second is the Honda aircraft company that focuses on aerospace and technologies in aircrafts. The third is in charge of aero-dynamics and fresh machinery that are fuel efficient. The fourth is the Honda Soltec it is involved in providing thin-film solar cells for public and commercial use. The last one is the Moto Honda da Amaonia”, it’s involved with presenting Hondas products that are known to be fuel-supple. All the other subsidiaries are put together based on the purposed they are envisioned (Sakiya, 1982).

Historical Perspective on Honda Motor Company

Honda motor company is a project founded by Soichiro Honda. The company started as a Research Centre. Soichiro learnt about engines from his experience working at Toyota and the T0kai Seiki which was later bought by Toyota. At the research Centre is where the first engine was created. In 1949 the company manufactured its first complete motorcycle, that was the product that made the company and by 1964 it was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in world.

The company begun manufacturing vehicles in 1963 by introducing the mini pick- up for both public and industrial purposes. They later created the sports car s500 which was known for the chain connecting to its back wheels. The motorcycles developed later adopted the chain design. The decade that followed the company focused on expansion and sale of its newest developments. During that decade the company grew greatly leading to the inception of the American branch known as Honda America.

The success of the Honda motor company was due to the very unique vehicle designs. Due to the success it had achieved the company went ahead and opened branches all over the globe, it also presented its luxury brand the Acura to the American market. The company’s success was boosted further by the trucks and sports utility cars.

The company hit a snag when its founder passed on, mainly because its Japanese competitors saw an opportunity to venture into the market causing a reduction in sale of Hondas products. The reduction in sales led to a financial crisis almost leading to a hostile takeover but fortunately the CEO dealt with the issue on time. The change of strategy helped the company and it changed its business view, because they started making vehicles for commercial purposes instead of being bought by engineers. That move bore fruit with the manufacturer of the CV-R and Odyssey (Kato, Omae& Nagao, 2005). Honda also launched the Honda aircraft in 1995, to carry the Honda name in the aircraft field.

Scope of market distribution – are they global or regional etc.

Honda motor company is global company, because it has its branches all over the world therefore a global customer base. Its market starts regionally then goes on globally, it is divided into three sections; that is Japan, international market and sports. Its principal marketplace was in Japan until Toyota and Nissan introduced its products there too. This prompted the company to spread its wings and fight competition through distributing its products internationally. The company does not only have distribution stores it also opened manufacturing plants to satisfy its very diverse consumer base.

The company started its international promotion in New Zealand, Argentina and the United Kingdom. Honda is involved in sport through sponsorship. Over the years it has become a renowned sponsor in the ITV’s reporting of the formula one race. It not only sponsors the races but it also creates vehicles meant for the races, making it a specific market for their products.

The company’s move to venture into the international market through manufacturing plants and distribution stores, shows how important the international clientele is for company.

Sports is the other main client for Honda because the company gets to sell its products there or sponsor events like the formula one, the other way is being directly involved in the events like the Indy racing league. .

Overview of the leadership and management structure and individuals

The company was founded by Soichiro Honda and the current CEO is Takahiro Hachigo. The company’s philosophy is that each and every idea must be innovative and imaginative, this is a philosophy that has been in the company for all time and therefore even the management must ensure that the people they hire into their organization are aware of that policy. Being imaginative and innovative means that an individual or a corporation takes time to come up with a decision through looking at every approach and from diverse viewpoints. This means when presented with a problem or idea the individual or company is in a position to analyze the problem or idea and devise ways to deal with it to get the best possible results.

This makes up the horizontal mechanism of judgment and it’s very crucial to any corporation. This form of decision making makes sure that a company’s operation is flexible such that the management and other team members can tackle different projects if need be. This form of leadership is improved to make sure that both individual and company liberties are in agreement. The executive managers of the organization arrange a background that stimulates free relations and inspire both individual inventiveness and team tactic (Mito, 2012).

Current Issues that may affect the future of the organization

There are several issues about the company that are in the media right now. There has been information in the public domain that the company is planning to expand its motorbike production by more than a hundred thousand bike and sell them all over the world and Vietnam before the end of the year. This is a move aimed at expanding its sales in Vietnam by double and also become the top motorbike seller in Asia. The company is planning to introduce high end bikes in stores that have had high purchases. Though it’s a short time goal but if it works it will boost sales. In stores with less sales the company is introducing bikes that are improved to try and win over new customers. The company is in a tight spot and is relying on these changes to work to change its financial situation.

In the past year there has been several recalls from its products, the recalls are from cars with faulty airbags. The airbags are being manufactured by their Japanese Takata. The recalls are making the customers lose faith in the quality of their products, therefore a decrease in sales. This prompted the company to make changes replacing the current CEO Mr. Ito with Takahiro who is young and expected to bring new ideas to deal with the problem. Mr. Takahiro has experience with the international operations therefore his experience with the current international market maybe come in handy for him in making decisions regarding the international market.

Mr. Ito may not be the CEO of Honda motor company but he is not out of the company yet he will be making his contribution as the new senior advisor to the company (Soble, 2015).

The new CEO is young and has work in the international market, with that in mind people expect him to bring fresh ideas regarding the products and also new moves to penetrate the global market. The company is at its worst financially, it is now up to the new CEO to provide a better direction to the company.

References

Sakiya, T. (1982). Honda Motor: The Men, the Management, the Machines. New York:

Kodansha International.

Kato, T., Omae, A., & Nagao, D. (2005). U.S. Patent No. D512, 001. Washington. DC:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Mito, S. (2012). The Honda book of management: A leadership philosophy for high

Industrial success.

Soble, J. (2015) Honda, Grappling With Quality Problems, Will Replace Its President.

Retrieve on Aug 31, 2015 from website http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/business/international/honda-replace-president-chief-executive-takanobu-ito.html?ref=topics

Mie, A. (2015) Behind the Wheel: Honda thinks outside the box. Retrieved on Sept 9, 2015

From website http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/03/business/behind-wheel- honda-thinks-outside-box/#.VP0P9uG89VY