"The engineering innovations that spurred Honda''s growth in
its first quarter-century have given way to more convention forms
of success. No one can understand Honda, or the current state of
the global auto industry without reading Mr. Sato''s book."
-Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Ingrassia
"Masaaki Sato''s career as a business journalist enabled him to
see firsthand much of the evolution, struggles and fascinating men
who built Honda, the youngest of Japan''s automotive giants. Sato
does a ma
內容簡介:
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.
目錄:
Foreword by Paul Ingrassia
Chapter One: Headhunting
Chapter Two: One Part, Two Players
Chapter Three: A Double Suicide
Chapter Four: Solidarity of the Ordinary
Chapter Five: The Weight of the DOns
Chapter Six: The Law of Transiende
Chapter Seven: Lord of the Kids
Epilogue
Afterword
Update: In the Troughs of Consolidation