Success Story of Soichiro Honda


Soichiro Honda , born 17 November 1906 - died August 5, 1991 at age 84 years) was a Japanese industrialist born in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.


Honda spent his childhood helping his father in a bicycle repair business. At 15 years, with no formal education, Honda moved to Tokyo to look for work. He obtained an apprenticeship at a workshop in 1922, and after his employment, he still worked there for six years before returning to his hometown to start his car repair business in 1928 at the age of 22 years.


Honda likes auto racing and created a record pace in 1936. He then suffered an injury in a severe accident - including broken bones in both wrists - and persuaded his wife to quit the race. Honda and concentrate on his business, and in 1937 he moved to the manufacture of piston rings, by establishing Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry (IBTS, Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry). In 1948 he sold the IBTS to Toyota for 450 000 yen (roughly equal to 1 million dollars when measured in 2003).


In 1948 Honda began production of motorcycles as president of Honda Corporation. Honda changed the company into a multinational corporation worth billions that produce best-selling motorcycle in the world.
Honda remained president until his retirement the company in 1973, then stayed on as director and was appointed "supreme adviser" in 1983. After retirement Honda busied himself with work connected with the Honda Foundation. He died in 1991 due to liver failure.


The journey of life and career


Soichiro Honda was born the first son of a blacksmith named Gihei Honda, in 1906 in a small village called Komyo (now called Tenryu), Japan. He was not adequate formal education and not very well at school. But the spirit and ideals are very high.
Various literature states that the initial interest in the world begins at a very young age. In 1922 he was working at Art Shokai shop, did not pursue his father's skill as a blacksmith. Work is not directly related to the engine as he wants but as a power cleaning service while taking care of babies from the owner of the garage, to the Honda shop owner found a real talent. Six years later he was believed to open up shop in Hamamatsu branch of Art Shokai. workshop that is paving the way next.
Initially, he felt that his shop is the only one in town, but soon he was faced with the fact that he is not alone. Soon came new competitors, but he has two steps to win the competition. First he received a repair shop that was rejected earlier by the other and both are working as quickly as possible so the customer does not take long to wait.


Soichiro but not the type who are satisfied with one success. He wanted a lot of ideas that need to be realized. For example the idea of ​​making wheels with metal spokes to replace wooden spokes. Membuatring obsession piston which was still hard to come by. Period, foreign-made rare and hard to be perfect. Piston ring is what made him go back to school at the age of 28 after struggling with a variety of experiments, made piston rings do not fit his expectations. It took three years to realize a project of this piston ring. But in times of war the world has finally become a supplier of military industry.


After the war, he had the idea to install the engine on a bike that is the forerunner of motorcycles at a later date. Initially he took advantage of second hand machines of war. When homemade is sold, extraordinary public response. Merchandise to sell quickly pushed him to make a motorcycle.


Despite a successful motorcycle, Honda was hit financial problems and even threatened with bankruptcy. He was a great inventor and mechanic, but not good at managing finances. This is then brought together with Takeo Fujisawa.


In the eyes of employees, Soichiro notoriously hard, even not infrequently he was "playing hand" in the real sense. Working with Soichiro means there are two options: move to another company or to learn with him. Besides a love of machinery, Soichiro alone in the crazy world of racing. It's also what later became the key to success. Of race, he got valuable input for product development. Even when newly entering the world of automobile manufacturing in 1962, just two years later, he immediately realized his dreams, falls in the arena of Formula 1.

While in the arena of mass production, Honda spawned a very popular product market, fuel-efficient and high-speed, which is a trade brand Honda until now. When he retired in 1973, he handed over the leadership in Kiyoshi Kawashima. Soichiro died in 1991 at the age of 84 due to liver disease. Survived by his wife, Sachi, and a son and two daughters.

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