Staying Close to Customers

Unlike other global businesses that see size as the key to survival, Honda embraces the ideal that even as Honda operations expand around the globe, we want to maintain the qualities of a small company that is close to its customers. The ability to produce a worthwhile product with the speed, flexibility and efficiency of a small company and the essential elements of a large company — global reach and technological strength — is what drives us into the future and will continue to help us strategize our global efforts.

“Glocalization”

What is Honda's global strategy? It's simple — put cost-effective plants in areas that best meet the needs of local customers. We integrate plants into markets with a "Small Born" manufacturing strategy, starting small and then expanding as local demand increases. This thinking has helped us establish more than 100 factories in 33 countries — an approach that allows Honda to achieve efficiency and profitability, even at low production volumes.

Five Region Strategy

Earlier in the decade, we created five different divisions within Honda to correspond with different regions of the world: North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa, South America, Asia/Oceania and Japan.

Decision-making responsibility regarding sales, manufacturing and research are afforded to each region. Products that best serve the region are pushed to the forefront of the development and manufacturing process. Honda R&D operations in Japan created a unique and flexible midsized global platform that is adjusted to produce cars of different lengths, widths and engine types, thus providing a cost-effective solution for each region.