Founding Mitsubishi Motors, tied to Chrysler (1970)

The first shape of a company governed by its alliances

At the heart of this founding decision was the fact that, in exchange for independence, the company handed North America to a foreign partner’s sales network. Splitting off from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to become a dedicated carmaker was itself unavoidable if it was to break out of a build-to-order mindset and step into open competition. But a new company starting with little accumulated strength had no power to open the U.S. market on its own, and had no choice but to lean on Chrysler’s capital and selling rights. That President Kubo, who had come up as an engineer, spoke early of revising the contract was because he saw that this dependence would seal off the growth of Mitsubishi’s own brand.

The structure in which management is whipped around by the balance of power with a partner took shape at this very founding. Even after President Tate later corrected the unequal contract, the dependence itself did not disappear. In 2000 the company entrusted a third of its capital to DaimlerChrysler; in 2016 it came under Nissan. Chrysler in 1971, Daimler in 2000, Nissan in 2016 — at every turning point Mitsubishi Motors has entrusted its survival to foreign capital or another company. The first move in that repetition was the Chrysler tie-up bundled together with the founding of 1970.