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Detroit, Mich. July 2023. Joined on stage by three iconic products that have helped establish Honda as one of the most innovative companies in North America –the Honda 50 (Super Cub) motorcycle, the Honda Civic CVCC and the HondaJet-the co-founder of Honda, Takeo Fujisawa, was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame at the awards ceremony held at The Fillmore Detroit.
Soichiro Honda (left) and Takeo Fujisawa
Honda Motor Co. Ltd President Seiji Kuraishi accepted the honor on behalf of the Fujisawa family and Honda associates around the world. “Takeo Fujisawa’s spirit and vision continue to guide Honda,” Kuraishi said.. “Our business in the United States may have started with the Super Cub motorcycle, but because of his vision it continues with new types of mobility, including the HondaJet.” Fujisawa teams up with Honda founder Soichiro Honda, who was inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame in 1989, the first Japanese auto executive to receive that honor.
Honda 50 (Super Cub)
Born on November 10, 1910, Fujisawa originally aspired to become a teacher, instead working as a salesman for a steel products company and then for a lumber company when met Soichiro Honda, in August 1949, about a year after the founding of Honda Motor Co., a small local company in Hamamatsu, Japan.
Honda and Fujisawa hit it off immediately and began in-depth discussions about his entrepreneurial approach and his dreams for the future. Developing a trusting relationship, they established a shared vision for the company’s future, with Fujisawa joining Honda Motor in October 1949. As company president, Honda retained responsibility for product design and technology development and manufacturing operations, inventing many innovative vehicles, including the Super Cub, the world’s best-selling mobility product. Fujisawa endorsed him as his right-hand man with the company’s business responsibility, including sales, finance, and marketing.
Honda Civic CVCC 1st. Generation
Fujisawa’s marketing savvy, strong business sense and great ability to chart unique paths to growth proved to be the perfect match for Soichiro Honda’s engineering acumen and mobility vision. The partnership lasted 25 years, until March 1973, when Messrs. Honda and Fujisawa retired together.. From the beginning, Fujisawa had a huge impact on Honda’s business globally and in the US, where he played a key role in bringing it closer to the US market. Fujisawa also made several lasting and impactful business decisions that are still relevant today. In 1959, already the CEO of Honda, Fujisawa made the difficult decision to found American Honda, as Honda’s first subsidiary outside of Japan. At that time, the entire US motorcycle industry sold no more than 60,000 units annually., mostly large displacement motorcycles. One of the team members recommended expansion into Asia, where small motorcycles from Europe, such as those made by Honda, were already in use. He suggested that America, “car country,” was too difficult a target for Honda.
Fujisawa had another idea. “On second thought, let’s do it in the United States,” he said. “To be successful in the US is to be successful all over the world.” Accepting the challenge of the American market may be the most difficult, but it is a fundamental step to expand the export of our products.” Without Fujisawa’s leadership, Honda would not be the American success story it is today. Fujisawa adopted many innovative sales and marketing strategies in Japan and the US This included the decision to start motorcycle sales by establishing Honda’s own dealer network. Despite suggestions that Honda should follow the approach of other Japanese companies and rely on a trading company to start sales in the US, it forged relationships with many smaller dealers, even those with no background in the motorcycle industry, and successfully expanded the business from the West Coast throughout the United States. By the mid-1960s, Honda was the best-selling motorcycle brand in America.
The HondaJet is known as the Civic of the air due to its reliability
In 1960, based on Fujisawa’s initiative, Honda R&D Co., Ltd. was established as an independent company. Fujisawa conceived the idea with two goals: to give Honda engineers the freedom to create new value without being constrained by the ups and downs of daily business, and to protect Honda’s ability to sustain this innovation well into the future, when they can no longer rely on the genius of Soichiro Honda.
Soichiro Honda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1989
The new R&D company ushered in an era of incredible technological and product innovation as well as entry into new business areas, including the automotive and aviation industries. Honda R&D’s focus on research and creating new value in mobility continues to this day.
The corporate culture that Mr. Fujisawa helped foster is alive today and will continue to be a driving force for Honda in business. The commitment to act as a good corporate citizen is as important now as it has ever been as Honda continues to pursue The Power of Dreams and use technology to help move people and society forward.
Congratulations to Honda!
