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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 thesedays. 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.
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| $99.99 | Digital |
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Joshua Smith
reviewed The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake on April 29, 2015
The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake
This was a loonnnggg read. Small print and narrow margins means there are a lot of words on every page. In some ways, the book deserves a better rating than I gave it. It was a very interesting look at the history of Honda, and a look inside the auto industry in general and post war industry in Japan. (For instance, I didn't know that auto sales people in Japan generally went door-to-door to sell cars, rather than waiting for buyers to come to the dealership.) It was also interesting to see how Honda is perceived in its home country compared to how we view it in the United States.
Sato is a senior automotive writer for a business journal in Japan, probably comparable to the Wall Street Journal. This book was originally written in Japanese in the mid 1990s, and translated for an English edition about ten years later with a chapter to update happenings since 1995.
The flaws are its lack of photos (I would love to see some of the early cars, and maybe the differences in cars from nation to nation) and the fact that it appears that the author puts words in the mouths of the main players. He'll often use quotation marks and note who said what and when the interview took place. But he often gives us what was going on in the minds of the executives, and it always seems to be in the same "voice," and it feels like this is what the author thinks the person must have been thinking, but it just doesn't quite feel right. Also - Honda began with motorcycles, and still sells a lot of motorcycles, But once the company began making cars, Sato barely mentions motorcycles, and barely makes any reference to other engine-driven products like lawn mowers and generators.
The Honda story is pretty amazing, though, and this tells the story in a reasonably entertaining way.
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Add The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake, 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, The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake, 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, The Honda Myth: The Genius and His Wake to your collection on WonderClub |