Assignment In Hele

Geocel Karla F. Ocon 6-Understanding

Soichiro Honda

The billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and fortunate turns of luck. Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation for a job after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.

Building an empire
During this time Honda also participated in auto races and became interested in cars and motorcycles. Soon he was experimenting with engines, and in 1928 he organized the Tohai Seiki Company to manufacture piston rings, some of which were sold to Toyota, a major Japanese car manufacturer. Honda's first attempts at the personal motor business came in the mid-1940s when he designed and manufactured a small engine that could be attached to a bicycle to create a motorbike. The venture proved a great success. Encouraged by his early success, in 1948 he organized the Honda Motor Company. The following year Honda manufactured a small motorcycle called the "Dream D" and prepared to enter the highly competitive Japanese market, which he did through effective advertising. Within a decade Honda was the

leading motorcycle manufacturer in the world and had a larger share of the American motorcycle market than Toyota and Nissan (with its Datsun cars) had in automobiles. Now Soichiro Honda attracted press attention, and, unlike most Japanese businessmen, he loved it. A small but talkative man, he was the opposite of what westerners imagined Japanese businessmen to be. For example, he promoted executives on the basis of performance rather than age, an unusual practice at large Japanese firms. Honda continued racing autos and motorcycles, dressed casually, and took pride in maintaining his independence from the Japanese business establishment. In addition, Honda openly voiced his admiration of American business practices and way of life. This was at a time when the powerful Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) was trying to unite several small companies into a third large one to compete with Toyota and Nissan. MITI and the Department of Transportation tried to discourage Honda from adding to the number of companies, but he persisted. He won MITI's permission by coming out with a low-priced small sportscar, the S 500, which was different from anything produced by the other companies. He followed it up with other sports models. His company was still very small, producing only three thousand cars in 1966half of what Toyota was turning out in a week. Honda introduced the Civic to the American market in 1972. It got thirty-nine miles per gallon (mpg) on the road and twenty-seven mpg in city driving, remarkably efficient for an automobile. The popularity of the Civic rose throughout the 1970s, and in 1980 Honda sold 375,000 cars in the American market almost three times as many as Subaru and twice as many as Mazda, but still behind Toyota and Nissan. The reasons for this success were obvious: Honda combined high quality with efficiency and economy. But his small cars still appealed to a limited market.

Honda introduced the Civic to the American market in 1972. It got thirty-nine miles per gallon (mpg) on the road and twenty-seven mpg in city driving, remarkably efficient for an automobile. The popularity of the Civic rose throughout the 1970s, and in 1980 Honda sold 375,000 cars in the American market almost three times as many as Subaru and twice as many as Mazda, but still behind Toyota and Nissan. The reasons for this success were obvious: Honda combined high quality with efficiency and economy. But his small cars still appealed to a limited markets.

Harland David Sanders

Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.

Early Life and Career

Sanders was born to a Presbyterian family in Henryville, Indiana. His father, Wilbur David Sanders, died when Harland was six years old, and, since his mother worked, he was required to cook for his family. He dropped out of school in seventh grade. When his mother remarried, he ran away from home because his stepfather beat him.[citation needed] Sanders falsified his date of birth and enlisted in the United States Army at the age of sixteen, completing his entire service commitment in Cuba. During his early years, Sanders held many jobs, including: steamboat pilot, insurance salesman, railroad fireman and farmer. He had a son, Harland, Jr., who died at an early age, and two daughters, Margaret Sanders and Mildred Sanders Ruggles. Harland Sanders at age 20. At the age of 40, Sanders cooked chicken dishes and other meals for people who stopped at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky. Since he did not have a restaurant, he served customers in his adjacent living quarters. His local popularity grew, and Sanders moved to a motel and 142 seat restaurant, later Harland

Sanders Caf and Museum. Over the next nine years he developed his "secret recipe" for frying chicken in a pressure fryer that cooked the chicken much faster than pan frying. Sanders was given the honorary title "Kentucky Colonel" in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon. He was "recommissioned" in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby. Around 1950, Sanders began developing his distinctive appearance, growing his trademark mustache and goatee and donning a white suit and string tie. He never wore anything else in public during the last 20 years of his life, using a heavy wool suit in the winter and a light cotton suit in the summer. At age 65, Sanders' store having failed due to the new Interstate 75 reducing his restaurant's customer traffic, he took $105 from his first Social Security check and began visiting potential franchisees. The restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky where Colonel Sanders developed Kentucky Fried Chicken The franchise approach was successful, and less than ten years later (in 1964) Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation for $2 million to a partnership of Kentucky businessmen headed by John Y. Brown, Jr. The deal did not include the Canadian operations. In 1965 Sanders moved to Mississauga, Ontario to oversee his Canadian franchises and continued to collect franchise and appearance fees there and appearance fees in the U.S. (He was locally active. For example, his 80th birthday was held at the Inn on the Park in North York, Ontario, hosted by Jerry Lewis as a Canadian Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser.) In 1973, he sued Heublein Inc. then parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken over alleged misuse of his image in promoting products he had not helped develop. In 1975, Heublein Inc. unsuccessfully sued Sanders for libel after he publicly referred to their gravy as "sludge"