Submitted by: Submitted by thetrigger
Views: 736
Words: 435
Pages: 2
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 03/21/2011 06:38 PM
Honda Motor Company, Limited: Putting Customers First
In today’s capitalist society there exists a growing number of businesses which compete with each other to attract, create and keep as many customers as they can to run the businesses. A business by its definitions is “… a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers…” In the process of trying to attract an increasing number of customers, businesses also attempt to expand globally to provide goods and services to consumers around the rest of the world. Every business which is established has an objective, or objectives for which it intends on pursuing. One such objective is “putting the customer first”. Theodore Levitt, an American economist and a professor at Harvard Business School asserts that “… an objective of serving customers is… more successful than other objectives.” Levitt tries to say that a business would be most successful if it pursues the objective of putting customers first, and above all other objectives the business may intend to pursue. Putting the customers first would mean to produce and provide goods according to the demand in the targeted market, as well as to provide outstanding customer service.
To evaluate one such business on its ability to accomplish its objective of putting the customers first, Honda Motor Company, Limited, an automobile company with multiple objectives can be analyzed within its last 5 years. Honda was first established in the year 1948, and till today, it has lured an incredible number of customers. The founder, Mr. Soichiro Honda, had put forth a slogan for the production of Honda automobiles, which said “Aim for 120%”, said Kiyoshi Kawashima, a retired leader at the firm, “Because he always looked at things from the customer’s point of view, he actually became a customer himself”. By creating that slogan, Mr. Honda pushed workers of the factory to assemble Honda automobiles to their best quality so that their...