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Now this article isn't only about automakers, but there are parts of the article which I felt were very significant.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...5425c2-e82e-11e4-aae1-d642717d8afa_story.html
I had long suspected this of Honda, and this article proves it. Honda sadly no longer functions as one cohesive company; rather the evidence is clear now that Honda exists now as a collection of autonomous, disparate businesses/companies that happen to share the name "Honda".
For many years, I personally never understood the constant bickering and internal conflicts at Honda. I always though to myself, how could an automaker with that sort of combative corporate culture continue to thrive long-term? Now it seems that this is Honda's combative and conflicted corporate culture taken to a whole new level. To think of it in another sense; this takes the whole concept of "fiefdoms", which were and still are prevalent at some American automakers and companies, to a whole new level.
Compare this to Toyota or Nissan, who still function each as one single, giant company with clear central command. Yes it's true that Nissan and to a greater extent Toyota, have given local regions more authority and a bit more freedom to cater to local regional needs, but local regions have not become completely autonomous companies as it now seems to the case with Honda.
This fully backs up the talk about the new NSX, and how it was completely though up, and developed in America, with pretty much zero input from Honda Japan.
I think the ramifications of Honda doing this are huge, and I think this is going to cause some huge problems for Honda in the years to come.
Lastly, I definitely would not call what Honda has done as "localization". I'd more accurately describe it as "segregation" or "segmentation".
http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...5425c2-e82e-11e4-aae1-d642717d8afa_story.html
...
However, in 2014 GM made $2.1 billion in China, about a quarter of its earnings in North America, where it sold 130,000 fewer vehicles. The problem is, around half of the vehicles that GM sells in China are Wulings, inexpensive, low-margin minivans designed by one of General Motors’ Chinese partners, targeted mostly at commercial buyers. Indeed, Chinese customers bought 1.6 million Wulings and only 79,000 high-profit Cadillacs in 2014.
...
A few companies are choosing a relatively unorthodox globalization strategy, an approach that could be called localization. The motorcycle and auto manufacturer Honda has been in the forefront of this strategy, which involves setting up full-scale operations — factories, engineering sites, research facilities, suppliers and logistics channels — in regions around the world to provide customized products. In doing so, Honda has quietly remade itself from a Japanese multinational with smaller operations elsewhere into a company whose largest subsidiary is an autonomous U.S.-based producer of cars for the Americas, followed by similar operations in China, Japan, Thailand, Brazil and numerous other places, as well as separate businesses making motorcycles, power products and new technologies such as robots and alternative energy equipment.
I had long suspected this of Honda, and this article proves it. Honda sadly no longer functions as one cohesive company; rather the evidence is clear now that Honda exists now as a collection of autonomous, disparate businesses/companies that happen to share the name "Honda".
For many years, I personally never understood the constant bickering and internal conflicts at Honda. I always though to myself, how could an automaker with that sort of combative corporate culture continue to thrive long-term? Now it seems that this is Honda's combative and conflicted corporate culture taken to a whole new level. To think of it in another sense; this takes the whole concept of "fiefdoms", which were and still are prevalent at some American automakers and companies, to a whole new level.
Compare this to Toyota or Nissan, who still function each as one single, giant company with clear central command. Yes it's true that Nissan and to a greater extent Toyota, have given local regions more authority and a bit more freedom to cater to local regional needs, but local regions have not become completely autonomous companies as it now seems to the case with Honda.
This fully backs up the talk about the new NSX, and how it was completely though up, and developed in America, with pretty much zero input from Honda Japan.
I think the ramifications of Honda doing this are huge, and I think this is going to cause some huge problems for Honda in the years to come.
Lastly, I definitely would not call what Honda has done as "localization". I'd more accurately describe it as "segregation" or "segmentation".