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| Type | Public (TYO: 7267) & (NYSE: HMC) |
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| Founded | 24 September 1948 |
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| Headquarters | Minato, Tokyo, Japan |
| Area served | Worldwide |
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| Revenue | ▲ US$ 120.27 Billion (FY 2009) |
| Operating income | ▲ US$ 2.34 Billion (FY 2009) |
| Net income | ▲ US$ 1.39 Billion (FY 2009) |
| Total assets | ▼ US$ 124.98 Billion (FY 2009) |
| Total equity | ▼ US$ 40.6 Billion (FY 2009) |
| Employees | 181,876 |
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| Website | Honda Worldwide |
Honda Motor Company, Ltd. (Japanese: 本田技研工業株式会社 Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha?, Honda Technology Research Institute Company, Limited) 
listen (help·info) (TYO: 7267) is a Japanese multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles andmotorcycles.
Honda is the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles as well as the world’s largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than 14 million internal combustion engines each year.Honda surpassed Nissan in 2001 to become the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer. As of August 2008, Honda surpassed Chrysler as the fourth largest automobile manufacturer in the United States. Honda is the sixth largest automobile manufacturer in the world.
Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand, Acura in 1986. Aside from their core automobile and motorcycle businesses, Honda also manufactures garden equipment, marine engines, personal watercraft and power generators, amongst others. Since 1986, Honda has been involved with artificial intelligence/robotics research and released their ASIMO robot in 2000. They have also ventured into aerospace with the establishment of GE Honda Aero Engines in 2004 and the Honda HA-420 HondaJet, scheduled to be released in 2011. Honda spends about 5% of its revenues into R&D.
HISTORY…
The first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck. Powered by a small 356 cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper Kei car tax bracket. The first production car from Honda was the S500 sports car. Its chain driven rear wheels point to Honda’s motorcycle origins.From a young age, Honda’s founder, Soichiro Honda (本田 宗一郎, Honda Sōichirō) had a great interest in automobiles. He worked as a mechanic at a Japanese tuning shop, Art Shokai, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. A self-taught engineer, he later worked on a piston design which he hoped to sell to Toyota. The first drafts of his design were rejected, and Soichiro worked painstakingly to perfect the design, even going back to school and pawning his wife’s jewelry for collateral. Eventually, he won a contract with Toyota and built a factory to construct pistons for them, which was destroyed in an earthquake. Due to a gas shortage during World War II, Honda was unable to use his car, and his novel idea of attaching a small engine to his bicycle attracted much curiosity. He then established the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu, Japan, to develop and produce small 2-cycle motorbike engines. Calling upon 18,000 bicycle shop owners across Japan to take part in revitalizing a nation torn apart by war, Soichiro received enough capital to engineer his first motorcycle, the Honda Cub. This marked the beginning of Honda Motor Company, who would grow a short time later to be the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964.History…
Trademark Origins…
Whereas Honda’s trademark had been registered in Japan since November 13, 1953 it wasn’t until a decade later that the motorcycle and automobile company filed fortrademark registration in the United States. On Friday, August 30, 1963, Honda Giken Gokyo Kabushiki Kaisha of Tokyo, Japan filed for two trademarks with theUSPTO.
One trademark was for the word mark of HM within an oval geometric shape. The application, signed by founder Soichiro Honda, was filed in the primary category of non-metallic building material products. Description included for the HM trademark was for land vehicles-namely, motor cars, motorcycles, and motor trucks. Trademark registration was granted on September 15, 1964.
Honda filed a second trademark with the USPTO on the same date of August 30, 1963. The second mark was for the winged HM design logo that Honda had registered in Japan since June 15, 1962. The Winged HM mark is in the non-metallic building material products as well and applied to goods and services for land vehicles-namely, motor cars, motorcycles, and motor trucks. The USPTO granted registration on September 15, 1964.
Of note, the USPTO initially issued an Office Action to Honda rejecting their application for both the HM and Winged HM marks. The U.S. trademark office cited two other HM trademarks that would likely cause confusion, mistake, or deception. Additionally they determined that the identification of goods was too broad and indefinite. One of the confusing HM trademarks was U.S. Registration No. 748,4794 for pneumatic tires and owned by B.F. Goodrich. The other confusing trademark was for Holman & Moody for automobile bodies and frames, U.S. Registration No. 708,684. Honda responded to the Office Action, and following the USPTO’s admonitions, amended their applications to narrowly define the description of their goods and services to readily distinguish the Honda HM trademarks to avoid confusion, mistake or deception. Subsequently, the USPTO accepted Honda’s response and approved their trademark registration on both marks. U.S. trademark status for the HM and stylized winged HM is registered and renewed. Both marks are owned by Honda Motor Co. LTD of Tokyo, Japan.
Corporate Profile and Divisions…
Honda is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Their shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, as well as exchanges in Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, London, Paris and Switzerland.
American Honda Motor Co. is based in Torrance, California. Honda Canada Inc. is headquartered in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, and is building new corporate headquarters in Markham, Ontario, scheduled to relocate in 2008;[12] their manufacturing division, Honda of Canada Manufacturing, is based in Alliston, Ontario. Honda has also created joint ventures around the world, such as Honda Siel Cars and Hero Honda Motorcycles in India,[13]Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda in China, and Honda Atlas in Pakistan.
Current Market Position…
With high fuel prices and a weak US economy in June 2008, Honda reported a 1% sales increase while its rivals, including the Detroit Big Three andToyota, have reported double-digit losses. Honda’s sales were up almost 20 percent from the same month last year. The Civic and the Accord were in the top five list of sales. Analysts have attributed this to two main factors. First, Honda’s product lineup consists of mostly small to mid-size, highly fuel-efficient vehicles. Secondly, over the last ten years, Honda has designed its factories to be flexible, in that they can be easily retooled to produce any Honda model that may be in-demand at the moment.
Nonetheless, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota, were still not immune to the global financial crisis of 2008, as these companies reduced their profitability forecasts. The economic crisis has been spreading to other important players in the vehicle related industries as well. In November 2009 the Nihon Keizai Shinbun reported that Honda Motor exports have fallen 64.1%.
At the 2008 Beijing Auto Show, Honda presented the Li Nian („concept” or „idea”) 5-door hatchback and announced that they were looking to develop an entry-level brand exclusively for the Chinese market similar to Toyota’s Scion brand in the USA. The brand would be developed by a 50-50 joint-venture established in 2007 with Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group.
Leadership…
- 1948–1973 — Soichiro Honda
- 1973–1983 — Kiyoshi Kawashima
- 1983–1990 — Tadashi Kume
- 1990–1998 — Nobuhiko Kawamoto
- 1998–2004 — Hiroyuki Yoshino
- 2004–2009 — Takeo Fukui
- since 2009 — Takanobu Ito
Products…
Motorcycles…
During the 1960s, when it was a small manufacturer, Honda broke out of the Japanese motorcycle market and began exporting to the US. Taking Honda’s story as an archetype of the smaller manufacturer entering a new market already occupied by highly dominant competitors, the story of their market entry, and their subsequent huge success in the US and around the world, has been the subject of some academic controversy. Competing explanations have been advanced to explain Honda’s strategy and the reasons for their success.
The first of these explanations was put forward when, in 1975, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was commissioned by the UK government to write a report explaining why and how the British motorcycle industry had been out-competed by its Japanese competitors. The report concluded that the Japanese firms, including Honda, had sought a very high scale of production (they had made a large number of motorbikes) in order to benefit from economies of scale and learning curve effects. It blamed the decline of the British motorcycle industry on the failure of British managers to invest enough in their businesses to profit from economies of scale and scope.
The second explanation was offered in 1984 by Richard Pascale, who had interviewed the Honda executives responsible for the firm’s entry into the US market. As opposed to the tightly focused strategy of low cost and high scale that BCG accredited to Honda, Pascale found that their entry into the US market was a story of “miscalculation, serendipity, and organizational learning” – in other words, Honda’s success was due to the adaptability and hard work of its staff, rather than any long term strategy. For example, Honda’s initial plan on entering the US was to compete in large motorcycles, around 300 cc. It was only when the team found that the scooters they were using to get themselves around their US base of San Francisco attracted positive interest from consumers that they came up with the idea of selling the Super Cub.
The most recent school of thought on Honda’s strategy was put forward by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in 1989. Creating the concept of core competencies with Honda as an example, they argued that Honda’s success was due to its focus on leadership in the technology of internal combustion engines. For example, the high power-to-weight ratio engines Honda produced for its racing bikes provided technology and expertise which was transferable into mopeds.
Honda is a dirtbike manufacturer as well, the new release of the 2010 CRF450R with electronic fuel injection, is revolutionary in the history of Motocross. Many riders love the crisp feel of a EFI, because it gets rid of the small lag a carb. gives riders. Also, because at different altitudes changing the jetting (the air to fuel ratio) is no longer needed.
Honda’s entry into the US motorcycle market during the 1960s is used as a case study for teaching introductory strategy at business schools worldwide.
It created the first luxury Japanese car (1985 Legend) and motorcycle (2006 Gold Wing bikes) equipped with an airbag, as well as the first mid-size pickup truck with independent rear suspension (2006 Ridgeline).
Automobiles…
Honda’s global lineup consists of the Fit, Civic, Accord, Insight, CR-V, Odyssey and S2000. An early proponent of developing vehicles to cater to different needs and markets worldwide, Honda’s lineup varies by country and may feature vehicles exclusive to that region. A few examples are the latest Acura TL luxury sedan and the Ridgeline, Honda’s first light-duty pickup truck. Both were engineered primarily in North America and are exclusively produced and sold there.
The Honda Civic is a line of compact cars developed and manufactured by Honda. In North America, the Civic is the second-longest continuously-running nameplate from a Japanese manufacturer; only the Toyota Corolla, introduced in 1968, has been in production longer. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda’s vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded. Having gone through several generational changes, the Civic has become larger and more upmarket, and it currently slots between the Fit and Accord.
Honda Automobiles is one of the Big Asian Four (with Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai).
The 2006 Ridgeline was a reintroduction of the concept of a Uni-Body truck. Earlier examples of this concept are the Subaru Brat and Baja,Volkswagen Rabbit pick-up, and Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp.
Honda increased global production in September 2008 to meet demand for small cars in the U.S. and emerging markets. The company is shuffling U.S. production to keep factories busy and boost car output, while building fewer minivans and sport utility vehicles as light truck sales fall.
Honda produces the Insight, an affordable hybrid electric vehicle that competes with Toyota Prius
Its first entrance into the pickup segment, the lightduty Ridgeline, won Truck of the Year from Motor Trend magazine in 2006 (also in 2006, the redesigned Civic won Car of the Year from the magazine, giving Honda a rare double win of Motor Trend honors).
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