On July 20, 2023, officers will induct Honda Motor Co co-founder Takeo Fujisawa into the Automotive Hall of Fame at Michigan’s The Fillmore Detroit. In 1989, Fujisawa’s long-time enterprise associate and Honda founder Soichiro Honda grew to become the primary Japanese automotive government to earn a spot on the Dearborn, Michigan-based corridor of fame. Fujisawa’s induction will honor every little thing the pair achieved collectively.
Honda and Fujisawa met in August, 1949, one 12 months after the founding of the Honda Motor Co. Prior to that encounter, Fujisawa labored as a salesman for a metal producer and a lumber firm. He introduced that enterprise acumen to the desk at Honda, overseeing finance, gross sales, and advertising and marketing whereas functioning as Honda’s right-hand man.
The duo’s complementary skillsets freed Honda to give attention to improvement, design, know-how, and innovation. Fujisawa and Honda put that one-two punch on full show all through the many years. During that tenure, Soichiro Honda launched the world’s best-selling mobility product, the Super Cub. While the Honda president invented the defining mannequin, Fujisawa was instrumental within the Super Cub’s worldwide success.
In 1959, Fujisawa took on the problem of increasing Honda’s enterprise to the United States. Despite an unfavorable outlook within the U.S. market, the place shoppers solely bought 60,000 items (principally large-capacity fashions) yearly, the then-senior managing director noticed a possibility for development. As a consequence, American Honda grew to become the agency’s first subsidiary exterior of Japan.
Fujisawa’s daring transfer paid off nearly instantly, with Honda’s impartial seller community serving to the Japanese OEM to grow to be the best-selling model within the U.S. by the mid-’60s. To be certain that Honda stayed on the bleeding edge, Fujisawa established the Honda R&D Co. as a separate entity. The new enterprise allowed engineers to develop new applied sciences and secured Big Red’s future past Soichiro Honda’s time.
The 25-year partnership resulted in March, 1973, when Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa collectively retired. Soon, the 2 trade mavericks will reunite in a spot they each belong—the Automotive Hall of Fame.
Source: www.rideapart.com