Tadashi Kume
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined in 1954, became a Director of Honda R&D in 1969, Managing Director in 1971 and Senior Managing Director in 1974, and was President of the R&D company from 1977 to 1981. He became Senior Managing Director of Honda Motor in 1979 and President in 1983. A career employee who came from the R&D side, he had neither blood ties to the founding family nor a shareholding to back him. He carried on the all-hands management style his predecessor Kiyoshi Kawashima had extended, with a shared open-plan executive room and a troika system.
Selection
In 1983, Kiyoshi Kawashima stepped down as President at 55, and Tadashi Kume succeeded him. Counting from the founder, it was the second consecutive time a career employee from outside the founding family became President. In the fiscal year ended February 1983, just before, non-consolidated net sales were ¥1,746.9 billion and ordinary income ¥50.6 billion, so the change came while results were growing. In North America the Ohio Accord plant had just started in 1982, and the job of expanding local production was handed on.
Initiatives
Honda built an engine plant with annual capacity of 500,000 units in Anna, Ohio in 1985 and a Civic plant with annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles in East Liberty in 1989. U.S. local production of the Accord rose from 50,000 units in the fiscal year ended March 1984 to 330,000 in the FY ended March 1991. In December 1987 Honda ranked fourth in the United States after GM, Ford and Chrysler, in a position to aim for annual sales of 1 million units. In August 1989 it established Honda Motor Europe in the U.K. to oversee its European subsidiaries.
Career
Career
Honda Motor
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1954 | Joined |
| 1979 | Senior Managing Officer |
| 1983 | President |
| Jun 1990 | Stepped down as President |
Honda R&D
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1969 | Director |
| 1971 | Managing Officer |
| 1974 | Senior Managing Officer |
| 1977 | President |
| 1981 | Stepped down as President |