Customer comments on this selection.
 Avoid
I am a Honda fan, and I bought this book to gain insight into the history of the company through its products. Unfortunately the book failed to deliver what I'd hoped for. It vaguely describes management decisions made through the years, and some of the top management personalities, and their roles in the company's fortunes. However, it is very repetitive and ungainly. In fact I can't believe that it has so many pages, and such small text, yet says so little.
Honda is a company which specialises in engineering, and the author of such a book should ideally have a good engineering background. Mr Sato obviously couldn't tell a piston from a conrod. Further to this, the translation into American English doesn't seem to be done by somebody who understands many of the concepts in the book either. Over and above this, it has way more than its fair share of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Avoid.
 Mythplaced
I agree with both the positive & negative. It is a long, repetitive and boring book with many technical & date errors; far too much unnecessary detail such as the names of hotels where meetings occurred. And yes, NO pictures or graphics of any kind! Having said that, I did learn a lot more about the Honda company, it's people & products, that I had not found elsewhere. As a Hondaphile, I will swallow anything Honda related. You have to remember that it was written by a Japanese journalist for Japanese consumption; detail is in their DNA. If you're in business, like me, there are some good philosophical lessons too. You've been warned.
 Journal with Strategic Insights
It reads like a diary or journal kept by some traveller moving through Honda...but through careful and diligent reading you can catch many of the formative insights that guided Honda through the constant changes.
This book is not a regular business management book, with issues presented in a structured manner. It's a reflection of the work ethic where hard work and long hours will pay off with brief but influential flashes of creativity.
 Honda Myth: Too Tedious and Repetitive
I was hoping this book would give a thorough background of Honda as a manufacturing entity. What it did was go into exhaustive, boring, tedious and repetitive detail on seemingly every executive that ever worked at Honda in a senior management level. There was precious little information on how Honda changed the face of motorcycling in the world during the 70s, hardly any useful information on the Acura brand and barely any mention of Honda's other product lines, such as ATVs, portable generators and power equipment.
I was also disappointed that a 475 page book with a small typeface and narrow borders did not have a single illustration, photograph, chart or the like. There is nothing but text in this book. It would have been nice to see a picture of a Honda Cub motorcycle, the H1300 car, the N360 'k' car, a diagram showing how the CVCC engine worked, etc. These topics were discussed over and over in the book, but there is nothing to illustrate them.
This book could have been half the length and covered the same material, because it repeats itself over and over, and sometimes contradicts the repeated material.
Overall, I was disappointed. It is a tedious read lacking in what I consider interesting information on Honda's products, while dwelling endlessly on certain executives and why they became president, vice president, etc.
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