Honda's New CEO: Big Changes Are Coming - Motley Fool
New CEO Takahiro Hachigo isn't well-known to Americans, but that could change in time. One of his first moves: Honda's official language will soon change from Japanese -- to English. Message from the boss: Honda is a global company now. The move to make English Honda's official workplace language won't happen right away. And while Japan is still Honda's home base -- and the home country of most of its key executives -- just 32% of the company's roughly 200,000 global employees are Japanese. Hence the message from the new boss: Honda is a global company now, and it needs to think and act like one. But Hachigo's plans for a more global Honda go far beyond language. Hachigo wasn't well-known outside the company before his appointment was announced earlier this year, but he was a key driver of former CEO Takanobu Ito's push to realign Honda's global operations around six regional hubs. Now, as CEO, Hachigo will build on that plan to confront a key challenge facing the company. But the aggressive push left Honda with more manufacturing capacity than it needs in some parts of the world -- and it also resulted in some uncharacteristic quality stumbles. Source: www.fool.com
