Reuters
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Osamu Suzuki, the genius penny-pincher who led Japan’s Suzuki Motors for more than four decades and played a key role in turning India into a prosperous car market, has died at the age of 94.
He died Dec. 25 of lymphoma, the company said, during which time he was chief executive or chairman he led the company in an ambitious move away from light vehicles, its main market.
Japan’s indigenous, cheap, boxy 660 cc cars benefited from generous tax breaks, but required strict cost containment, which proved to be a key part of the automaker’s DNA.
Still, Suzuki’s frugality was legendary. He ordered the ceilings in factories lowered to save on air conditioning, and even into old age he flew economy class on airplanes.
“Forever” or “until the day I die” is a characteristically humorous answer when dodging questions about how long you’ll stay with your company, and it’s a thought that remains firmly in place well into your 70s and 80s. I kept holding it.
Born Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki took his wife’s surname through adoption, a common practice among Japanese families without male heirs.
A former banker, she joined the company her grandfather founded in 1958 and rose through the ranks to become president 20 years later.
In the 1970s, he saved the company from collapse by persuading Toyota Motor Corporation to supply engines that met new emissions regulations that Suzuki Motors had not yet developed.
The light car Alto, launched in 1979, was even more successful, becoming a blockbuster hit and increasing the automaker’s bargaining power when it partnered with General Motors in 1981.
Suzuki then made a big and risky decision to invest one year’s worth of the company’s profits to establish India’s national car manufacturer.
His personal interest was motivated by a strong desire to “be number one somewhere in the world,” he later recalled.
At the time, India was an underdeveloped automobile country, with annual car sales of less than 40,000 cars and mostly British-made copy cars.
The government had just nationalized Maruti, a company founded in 1971 as a pet project of Sanjay Gandhi, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son, to produce an affordable Indian-made “people’s car.”
Maruti needed a foreign partner, but an initial collaboration with Renault failed as the sedans being considered were found to be too expensive and insufficiently fuel efficient for domestic needs.
Multi-Team knocked on many doors but was widely ignored by brands such as Fiat, Subaru, and coincidentally Suzuki Motor.
The partnership first came about after directors at India’s Suzuki Motor saw a newspaper article about a potential deal between Maruti and Japanese small car rival Daihatsu.
He called the corporate office and learned that the multi-team had been turned down. Suzuki then sent a telex to Maruti, hurriedly recalling the team back to Japan and asking for a second chance.
I signed a letter of intent within a few months.
The first car based on the Alto, the Maruti 800 hatchback, was launched in 1983 and was an instant success.
Maruti Suzuki is still majority-owned by Suzuki Motors, which still controls about 40% of the Indian car market.
Even in class-conscious India, Suzuki led the change, advocating for equality in the workplace, ordering open-plan offices, a single canteen, and similar uniforms for executives and assembly-line workers.
In December 2009, one month shy of its 80th birthday, Suzuki entered into a multibillion-dollar partnership with giant Volkswagen.
It was hailed as a match made in heaven, but Suzuki Motors became the new largest shareholder, accusing it of trying to control the company, while Volkswagen opposed the Japanese company’s purchase of diesel engines from Fiat. I quickly got stuck.
In less than two years, Suzuki Motors took VW to an international court of arbitration and ultimately succeeded in buying back the 19.9% stake it had sold to the German automaker.
Mr. Suzuki, who often cited golf and work as the secret to his health, finally handed over the CEO baton to his son Toshihiro in 2016, and remained as chairman for another five years until he was 91 years old, playing the role of advisor until the end. Ta.
Since 2016, his company has deepened its relationship with Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, which acquired a 5% stake in Suzuki Motors in 2019. Maruti Suzuki plans to supply electric vehicles to Toyota from next year.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said in a statement on Friday, “To me, he was more like a father than a business leader I respect,” praising Suzuki as a pioneer in the mini-vehicle industry.
“He was like a father figure in developing the Japanese light car and making it Japan’s national car.”
