“I’D SOONER die than imitate other people,” said Soichiro Honda, founder of the firm that is now Japan’s third-largest carmaker. On February 23rd Honda’s current boss, Takanobu Ito, suffered lesser consequences after trying to follow in the tyre tracks of Toyota and Nissan. He will quit in June after a year of recalls and disappointing sales that led in January to a second profit warning in three months. His error was to embark on an over-ambitious expansion plan in an effort to close the gap with Honda’s closest rivals.
Mr Ito’s decision to quit was not unduly premature. Like him, most recent bosses have lasted for around six years. But the timing was undoubtedly influenced by the spate of recalls, which has affected millions of vehicles. Honda had to replace faulty airbags made by Takata, a Japanese supplier, that in a few instances exploded. Quality problems of Honda’s own making accounted for many others.
The recalls not only cost money but delayed the launch of new models, which hit sales. It now expects to sell 4.5m cars in the year to March, 127,000 fewer than it had hoped. One of Mr Ito’s final decisions was...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1Bh7Rgk
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