The new CEO of Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co. plans to focus on improving the company's offerings before raising sales as it seeks to step outside the shadow of its more successful Japanese rivals.
Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo said in his first news conference on Monday that the development of better products, which will need time and resources, will be his priority rather than raising sales volumes.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Honda has struggled to develop newer models as former CEO Takanobu Ito prioritized rapidly increasing sales, having set a target of six million units sold by 2017 after taking over in 2009.
It noted that Honda's engineers have become overworked in the process but were not able to put out innovative technology to set it apart from the competition. The paper added that with only 4.4 million vehicles sold as of March, the company has abandoned Ito's ambitious sales target and is directing its energies in correcting the missteps from the rapid expansion.
Honda is among the automakers forced to recall millions of vehicles worldwide for using Takata airbags, which have been found to deploy at a deadly force. Hachigo said in the briefing that Honda does not plan to support the airbag maker.
In another report on the Financial Times, Hachigo said that the company will improve strengthen communication among its people, a departure from Ito's top-down management approach.
He said collaboration and open communication is essential to innovation as he learned during his time working on a popular minivan in the U.S. The new Honda CEO is also looking to make English the official language in the workplace.
Hachigo shared plans to move around its manufacturing operations for efficiency with some models to be built closer to where these will be sold. He also expressed willingness to partnerships with rival companies for the benefit of customers and the company.
The Financial Times said this could help Honda address its excess manufacturing capacity.
