Driving Honda

Starred review from June 16, 2014
International Business Times editor in chief Rothfeder (McIlhenny’s Gold) looks under the hood of Honda, a company with bragging rights including never having posted a loss, a stock price which has doubled since 2008, and factors of industrial performance that surpass the rest of the auto sector. Asserting that Honda is so successful because it “focuses on doing one thing well—making engines that last a long time” and because it constantly “works to perfect this core skill,” Rothfeder studies the company’s history, culture, and principles. In lively fashion, he retraces the steps of visionary founder Soichiri Honda, who, in the wake of WWII, rose from a bike apprentice, to a piston company owner, to the founder of a small motorbike company that evolved into Honda. Rothfeder also paints intimate portraits of CFO Takeo Fujisawa, other top executives, and rank-and-file employees that humanize the narrative and illustrate how respect for individualism and innovation pervade the company’s culture. Rothfeder’s inside look at research and development and details about engines, motors, and assembly lines make this book an engineering or manufacturing fanatic’s dream, but readers from all industries will enjoy this entertaining and informative work. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM.

July 15, 2014
The story of one of the most innovative companies in theworld: the automobile manufacturer that makes some of the best-selling andlongest-lasting cars on the road.Superlatives aside, Honda's record speaks for itself, and International Business Times editor in chief Rothfeder (McIlhenny'sGold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire, 2007, etc.)highlights the achievements of its founder, Soichiro Honda (1906-1991). In theUnited States, Honda remains at the pinnacle of the auto industry, with suchiconic models as the Civic, Accord and Odyssey; 75 percent of the cars andtrucks it manufactured over the last 25 years are still on the road. Forskeptics, the author's acknowledgments and the reference section detailing hissources will be helpful. In Rothfeder's telling, Honda is a much different automanufacturer than others. Unlike Toyota, for example, it is not organized as atop-down pyramid of control. Honda's flat-type organization encourages localinputs. In Marysville, Ohio, technician Shubho Bhattacharya's Intelligent PaintTechnology reduced "energy usage in the paint shop by 25 percent" and wasrapidly deployed globally to like effect. Unlike General Motors and Ford, Hondaalso builds its own machinery, and workers cooperate with engineers toconfigure production lines, as they did in Lincoln, Arkansas. There, the"line's coiled shape" helped reduce its footprint and costs while providing aflexible assembly and quality-control capability. Soichiro Honda's career as aninnovator took off in the 1920s, when he patented a design for unbreakablecast-iron auto wheels, and continued through his mastery of the skills requiredto manufacture piston rings that could improve combustion engine performance.Since then, the company has led the way in engine development. As the foundersaid, "success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection.In fact, success represents one percent of your work, which results only fromthe ninety-nine percent that is called failure."A case study of the methods required to revive manufacturingindustries.

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September 1, 2014

When Honda announced in 2000 that it was building its second U.S. plant and that it would be located in Lincoln, AL, it was a big deal. Lincoln is a small town on Interstate 20, 50 miles from Birmingham, and before Honda arrived the community had one claim to fame--the Talladega Speedway. This latest Honda biography centers on the Lincoln plant and how the company implemented its unique manufacturing philosophy and organizational culture during the construction and start-up; that culture is in many ways one of lists--seven key attributes, four rules of meetings, three management principles, etc. While this may sound familiar to readers of the many books on the automaker already in existence, the framing of the story around the Alabama plant gives it a fresh perspective. Business journalist Rothfeder (editor in chief, International Business Times; McIlhenny's Gold; Every Drop for Sale) keeps the narrative lively and interesting, making it both an enjoyable and informative read. VERDICT A well-written company profile that provides further insight into the history and management techniques behind Honda's continued success. Purchase where there is interest.--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

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