Osamu Suzuki speaks at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, May 10, 2010.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Osamu Suzuki, a shrewd miser who led Japan Suzuki Motors He has died at the age of 94 after playing a key role in turning India into a prosperous car market for more than four decades.
He died of lymphoma on Christmas Day, the company said.
Japan’s uniquely cheap, boxy 660cc cars benefited from generous tax breaks but were required to keep a tight lid on costs, which proved to be a key part of the carmaker’s DNA.
Even so, Suzuki’s frugality was legendary: He would order factory ceilings lowered to save money on air conditioning, and even fly economy class on airplanes at an advanced age.
“Forever” or “until the day I die” were his signature humorous responses that he used to dodge the question when someone asked him how long he would stay at the company, and he was in his 70s and 80s. Time still has a firm grip on this company.
Suzuki, whose birth name was Osamu Matsuda, inherited his wife’s surname through adoption, a common practice among Japanese families lacking a male heir.
The former banker joined the company founded by her grandfather in 1958 and rose to become president two decades later.
In the 1970s, he saved the company from the brink of collapse by convincing people. Toyota Motor Supplying engines that comply with new emission regulations but have not yet been developed by Suzuki Motors.
Even greater success was achieved with the 1979 Alto minicar, which became a hit and increased bargaining power when working with automakers General Motors 1981.
India
Suzuki then made the fateful and risky decision to invest a year’s worth of the company’s earnings to create a national automaker for India.
His personal interest, he later recalled, was motivated by a strong desire “to be number one somewhere in the world.”
At that time, India was a backward automobile country with annual sales of less than 40,000 cars, mainly British knock-offs.
The government had just nationalized Maruti, which was founded in 1971 as a pet project of Sanjay Gandhi, son of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to produce Made-in-India cars. Affordable “people’s car”.
Maruti needed a foreign partner, but an early tie-up with Renault failed because the sedans under consideration were considered too expensive and not fuel efficient enough to meet domestic demand.
The Maruti team knocked on many doors but was widely snubbed by brands like Fiat and Fiat. Subaru and – incidentally – Suzuki cars.
The partnership came about after Suzuki Motor India directors saw a newspaper article about a possible deal between Maruti and Japanese small car rival Daihatsu.
He called the headquarters and learned that the Maruti team had been rejected. Suzuki then called Maruti and hastily invited the team back to Japan, asking for a second chance.
A letter of intent was signed within a few months.
The first car, the Alto-based Maruti 800 hatchback, was launched in 1983 and was an instant success.
today, Maruti SuzukiIndian Automobile, controlled by Suzuki Motor, still accounts for about 40% of the Indian automobile market.
In highly class-conscious India, Suzuki has also ushered in changes, insisting on equality in the workplace, ordering open-plan offices, a single canteen and uniforms for executives and assembly line workers.
However, not all efforts have been successful.
A month shy of its 80th birthday, Suzuki seals multibillion-dollar deal with Giant Volkswagen December 2009.
The two companies, touted as a natural fit, soon found themselves in trouble, with Suzuki accusing its new majority owner of trying to take control and Volkswagen objecting to the Japanese company’s purchase of diesel engines from Fiat.
Suzuki Motor took VW to an international arbitration court in less than two years and ultimately succeeded in buying back the 19.9% stake it sold to the German automaker.
Suzuki, who often cited golf and work as key to his health, eventually passed the CEO baton to his son Toshihiro in 2016 and remained chairman for five years until he was 91, remaining in an advisory role until the end.
About The Author
