Mutual friends make Honda a global success

º Soichiro Honda, genius engineer and company figurehead, wasn’t a businessman. In August 1949 Honda was introduced to Takeo Fujisawa at the home of their mutual friend Hiroshi Takeshima and they went on to become partners in Honda Motor Co, with Fujisawa dealing with sales and corporate structure until retirement in 1973. It was he who pushed Honda to focus on the American market in the early 1960s.