From the top Japanese auto-industry journalist
comes this inimatably informed account of Honda Motor
Company's birth out of the ashes of World War II and
subsequent rise. As gripping as it is enlightening on
far more than its main subject. Sato's unbiased
reckoning won him Japan's premier non-fiction award.
Available in English for the first time with a new
chapter exclusive to this edition and prefaced by Paul
Ingrassia, The Honda Myth is indispensable
reading for industry insiders, business leaders and car
enthusiasts. The first Japanese automaker to open a
factory in the U.S., Honda grew its North American share
in the 1970's with the introduction of the first
environmentally friendly car, the Civic. Just as the
manufacturer's combination of engineering excellence,
racing dominance, and risk-taking was driving it into
the international spotlight, however its trademark
free-spiritedness threatening to take a backseat to
bureacrary and complacency. Honda was the brainchild
of two very different men. One, a genius engineer who
never went to college but became the face of the
company-Soichiro Honda. The other, a shrewd businessman
who breezed into management and directed behind the
scenes-Takeo Fujisawa. Apart, they may have never met
international success, but together they made their
mark. Yet, after Honda and Fujisawa's retirement, and
decisively after the departure of heir apparent
Shoichiro Irimajiri, Honda Motor looks like what it once
seemed incapable of becoming-a faceless
firm. Overshadowed by the ever-changing competition
in areas like F1 racing and low-pollution engine
technology that were its pride, the old hothouse of
invention is less sexy these days. The Honda Myth
argues that the cult worship of Soichiro Honda that
Takeo Fujisawa formented, at first to the firm's great
benefit, worked against it in subtle ways as well.
Though the company's future looks bright, it offers no
beaming face.
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