A Solid “Car Guy” At The Helm

There are some executives who excel in marketing yet do not have a thorough understanding of the technical side of a product. For Takanobu Ito he is one executive who has a good understanding of what it takes to make a car while at the same time has had international exposure and understands the all important U.S. market.

Ito was appointed as president and CEO of Honda Motor on June 2009. He has risen through the ranks first joining Honda as an R&D engineer specializing in chassis design in 1978. He was the individual who presided over the original Acura NSX aluminum frame development.  Ito has also held key managerial roles in developing small JMD cars in the early 1990s. He was also executive vice president for Acura from 1998 to 2000 giving him solid U.S work experience.

Ito’s exceptional talent is clearly seen in the positions that he holds. Aside from being president and CEO he is also the president and director of Honda R&D.  Thus he had a direct hand in what goes on at research and development which can be more tuned in to the future direction of the whole company which he is guiding.

Ito has had challenging years especially when the 2011 earthquake hit Japan which affected both supply and sales. He has since gone about redesigning a lackluster Civic and overhauled some of the internal manufacturing systems.  That’s the advantage he brings of being a solid “car guy”.