It is a little known historical fact that many of Japan’s top automakers achieved success in other fields before switching to automobiles. For example, the world’s number one carmaker, Toyota, was once known as Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, while the second largest company, Honda, began by manufacturing motorcycles. And though they are not quite as prominent as the aforementioned, Suzuki Motors began as Suzuki Loom works. The company was founded in 1909 and achieved great success with their weaving looms, which were used in Japan’s profitable silk industry. But the company was not content with only conquering one industry. In fact, in the early years, Suzuki filed for more than 120 patents, as their machines became ever more complex in order to meet the demands of the market. Then in the mid-nineteen-thirties, the company decided that it needed to diversify. At the time, the most obvious and profitable choice for a machine maker was to enter the car making business. More than seventy years later Suzuki car sales had made them the 9th largest automaker in the world. Their success can be attributed in a large part to a few important decisions that were made before the company rolled out a single vehicle. For instance, Suzuki did extensive market research and determined that the average consumer preferred small cars that got excellent fuel efficiency. As a result, all of the early vehicles were what we would call compacts or subcompacts today. After more than seven decades of producing automobiles, Suzuki has not strayed far from these founding principles. They still produce some of the most affordable and fuel efficient cars on the road today. The only difference is that they sell them in over 190 countries!
|
