This afternoon, I attended the Tokyo International Automotive Conference 2001 held at Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo. After I joined a session of "Brand Management in a Global Market," I attended a dinner. I was surprised to see many people came to the conference. The hordes of people were moving around from room to room through long corridors. Just to see them was exciting enough for me. People who joined the conference were mostly top executives and managers of auto manufacturers, auto dealers and parts suppliers. The number of people who attended the dinner was 1,360 (announced at the dinner.) I was impressed by the fact they had a thirst for knowledge.
At the brand management session, the talks between Mr. Takeo Fukui, Senior Managing and Representative Director of Honda Motor Co. (he was one of the most probable successor of Mr. Hiroyuki Yoshino,) and Mr. Brian P. Kelley, Vice President, Global Consumer Services, Ford Motor Co. (he was said to be promoted to the General Manager of Lincoln and Mercury) were made under a moderator of Mr. Charles E. Primer, CEO of Inter Brand Group from England. Mr. Fukui talked about the brand identity. He said Hondaness is always a standard for evaluating their products or ideas. The products which were judged as not Hondaness at the internal company meeting were never gone out to the outside markets. Although they have wide range of products such as motorcycles, four wheel vehicles, portable power generators or cultivators, every one of them were approved as Hondaness product. But they were making efforts not to differ from consumers' evaluation. At the company, freshmen's ideas are evaluated at the same standard as of managers....All these are the origin of Honda's vitality, he said.
Meanwhile Ford is going to have the 100th anniversary of the company next year. Mr. Kelley said all people of Ford are responsible for keeping their high brand image which has been grown during the past one hundred years. There are some who discuss the existence of DNA inside the company, he said.
At the dinner, Ms. Maryann Keller made an opening speech. Then Mr. Cazrlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Co. reported how he managed to reconstruct the company. Although I have thought his English was excellent, he has strong foreign accent. The most of Japanese cannot speak well in English. But they should try to tell his opinions somehow to others without any hesitation like him, I think.