Honda Wants to Be Known for Safety

Reviewed by Takahiro MIYAO

Article:
Honda Wants to Be Known for Safety
The New York Times (3/30/2007)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/business/30honda.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Comments:

It is needless to say that Japanese automakers have built a reputation for their fuel-efficient and environment-friendly cars. Now, they are known, at least among U.S. auto specialists, for safety as well. According to this article, Honda's vehicles, in particular, have just been rated among the safest cars on the road by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as well as by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

This is amazing, because fuel efficiency and safety are often contradictory to each other. Actually, a couple of decades ago Detroit claimed that Toyota and Honda were inferior to the big three American automakers in terms of safety, although they admitted that Japanese cars were more fuel efficient. And specialists' ratings confirmed this fact at that time. Apparently, Honda has been trying to overcome this negative image since then, and has finally succeeded in achieving its objective in terms of safety itself. What remains to be done is to let this fact be well known among the American consumer. Naturally, it takes time to build a reputation of any kind among the public.

It is interesting to find out how Honda did it. This article reveals that Honda has placed "Safety for Everyone" as a strategic objective, and mobilized all of its resources, especially technological know-how, to build safer automobiles. For example, Honda has "redesigned the frames of its vehicles to better spread out the impact of a crash" – a triumph of Honda's technology!

The moral of the story is that anything is possible when strategic commitment and technical superiority are combined and pushed forward diligently, whether it is about safety or any other human objective for that matter.

Acknowledgment:
This review is adopted from the following blog (with its Japanese translation):
http://glocom.blog59.fc2.com/blog-date-20070330.html