Assignment : Effective Leaders Dealing with a problem

Hanadi Al Subait 201101378

Aysha Al-Ansari 201002430

Badriah Al-Maghlouth 201101129

May Al-Khaldi 201000442

Ala’a Al-Qahtani 201101960

Dr.Runna AlGhazo

In any company , organization or even at any institution leaders need to face a lot of complications, problems and dilemmas. But also these things help them in learning how to deal with problems effectively . Leaders have special qualities and abilities which prove to be so important in their jobs and responsibilities which justify the importance of this assignment. Although facing dilemmas or knowing how others did solve their problems would improve leaders skills and help them to know how to handle similar problems at any time. First the background of the leader company. second introducing the leader and which style does he belong to. Third the dilemma that he faced , when the problem started and what caused the problem after that the reader would also view both the short and long term solutions for the problems.

Today’s topic is about a very famous and trust worthy company Honda which was founded by Soichiro Honda . In the coming lines the reader will get to know about the owner Soichiro Honda and his company Honda. From a young age, Honda's founder, Soichiro Honda (17 November 1906 – 5 August 1991) had a great interest in automobiles.( 21 July 2011, Honda Soichiro." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Library Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica. )

He worked as a mechanic at the Art Shokai garage, where he tuned cars and prepared them for races. Honda is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles. It has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than 14 million engines each year. In 2001, Honda became the second- largest Japanese automobile manufacturer. Honda was the first Japanese automobile manufacturer to release a dedicated luxury brand. The company is also the manufacturer of garden equipments, marine engines, personal watercrafts and power generators. In 2004, Honda has also ventured into aerospace with the establishment of GE Honda Aero Engine and the Honda HA-420 Honda Jet, which began production in 2012. Honda has a very huge infrastructure inside the organization. Existing R&D centers including Asaka R&D center, wako R&D center, and Tochigi R&D center. They are reorganized in to five centers based on specific functions. The five centers are Motorcycle Development center, Automobile Development center, Power products Development center, Aero Engine Development center, and Basic Technology Research center. Each center has separate offices for planning, product development, technology development and administration with clearly defined rotes. Also, there is a primary authority to make operational decisions, currently held by the head of each center. A flat and less- layered organizational structure will be employed to ensure smooth and direct communication between the heads of the office and each associations. In short, Honda is a multi-level organization practicing democratic leadership style.
The problem:

There were three issues that were being faced by Honda. First of all, the conflict between Honda and Toyota. Honda was the first company which developed hybrid engines ,but Toyota, by stubbornly sticking to a bare-bones system, lost its lead to its number one Japanese rival long ago. Honda was suffering when its two main Japanese rivals were thriving. Another part of Honda's problem was the lack of genius and the need to find more engineers to help them figured out the new model or engine to solve the problem.

The second issue faced by Honda was that supplying resources from other country. Honda needed supplement resources from other countries such as Thailand, Japan and so on. Due to the Japanese earth quake, Tsunami and flooding in Thailand, Honda had a lack of resources regarding their accessories and other requirements for the completion the engines. This gave their rival car companies to increase their sale ration than before. The third and the Last problem was the lack of funds as they didn't even try find any other company to help them. Honda spent months struggling with shortages of most of its products.
Short-term solution:

Soichiro Honda started his work from small ordinary workshops (by Astrum people), after the huge atomic damage in Japan, soichiro planned to sell his idea to Toyota, but Toyota rejected that. He completed his work to show them that he will do the beast vehicle in future. After two more years of struggle and redesign, he signed a contract with Toyota.

Soichiro Honda tried to introduce his first motorcycle but he didn’t have enough workers, so he diced to hire 500 war surplus two-stroke motors cycles based on such power electric generators that were useless for everybody wanted them.  (12-08- 2013, Retrieved : "This was the first model in the Dream series of motorcycles." )So, he took an advantage and hired them (smokerders,2001).

Honda decided to collect surplus gasoline cans in World War 2 (Sommerville , p.5). After that Honda built a tiny engine and attached it to his bicycle because he couldn’t use a car. He changed the gasoline in to turpentine because it was a short supply. However, the turpentine that he himself distilled from pine trees and then sold throughout Japan, and that happened in October 1946 (smokerders,2001).

Long-term solution:

Soichiro, on the way to conquer the automotive market, made a bet on his favorite race cars in 1962. He was able to design the first engine with a low pollution level. He built in Marysville, Ohio a plant which was going to manufacture cars that matched the quality standards of the Japanese assembly [ast13].

His rebellious attitude was especially manifested in the early 70s, when Japan had the oil crisis and all of the manufacturers agreed to reduce output and raise prices [ast13]. But only Soichiro refused to participate in that and did everything to oppose the scenario: he doubled the production and lowered prices [ast13]. He refused to hire professionals who had received higher education because he believed that dogmatic thinking would be a hindrance in the search for new ways of development.

He founded two NGOs – the International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences and the Honda Foundation and also studied the influence of science and technology on the environment and developed an environmentally friendly technology [ast13]. He also lectured at international conferences.

Conclusion:

Concluding the discussion, the reader might get an idea that Soichiro Honda rose up from a very ordinary lifestyle but did such extraordinary things that made people to write his name in golden words. How did he manage to do all that? Actually it was his extra ordinary wisdom by which he overcame all the problems. It was his courage that he went against the scenario and opposed the others many times and made Honda company such a company that still has no rival in quality, trust and duration. The way he adopted to overcome the company’s problem by presenting the short term and long term solution, is unmatchable. It the work of only an extra ordinary leader that how does he bring out his company out of problem when decline is obvious.

1. 
   11:10PM, 17-09-2013, Soichiro Honda ,by Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.
   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II