Osamu Suzuki, the former head of Suzuki Motors, passed away last week. He was 94 years old and died due to malignant lymphoma.
And while many are writing about his passing, I find it odd that so little was written about the former Suzuki Motors executive in his life. At least, I find it odd that so few things were written about him compared to other motorcycle and automotive executives, because Suzuki was a pretty interesting person who led the company to staggering new heights. Albeit far more discreetly than other companies.
While other brands expanded, contracted, delved into weird projects, and more, with Suzuki at the helm, the company really kept to its lane, at least on the outside. Think of Suzuki's tenure as being the anti-Yamaha.
Osamu-san wasn't born with the last name Suzuki, though you'd be forgiven to think he was part of the original family. Instead, he married into the family and, because the Suzuki family lacked a male heir, took his wife's last name. His wife, Shoko Suzuki, is the granddaughter of Michio Suzuki, the founder of the company.
Whereas other Japanese, American, and European automotive and motorcycle companies branched out and attempted to gain large car, truck, SUV, motorcycle and other revenue avenues throughout the world, with Suzuki running the show, the company sought to only expand its small car and motorcycle footprints in emerging markets, those with the most to gain from something inexpensive and easy to work on.
Suzuki, the businessman, did so by what many called "diplomacy" leadership, in which he traveled to these emerging markets and met with their leaders to set up trade, manufacturing, and other partnerships. Accordingly, Suzuki "By 1993, Suzuki was selling 3 out of 4 and 2 out of 3 cars sold in India and Pakistan respectively and was selling more cars than any other Japanese manufacturer. The nineties also saw Suzuki entering the Asian markets of Korea and Vietnam as well as Egypt and Hungary."
He was also the root cause of Suzuki becoming the third largest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan, behind Honda and Yamaha, due to those same practices. And though I don't know if he personally was involved in developing the Hayabusa, nor can I find any quotes attributed to him at the time of launch, I have to suspect that he saw the supersport class just as ripe for the picking as he did those other emerging markets. Because, based on other reports of how Suzuki pinched pennies to ensure the company's survival and revenue, that program wouldn't have gotten off the ground.
Seriously, one report says he pulled 1,900 lightbulbs from one factory to save some cash. He also made all his executives fly or ride coach, turn off the A/C in the summer months, and changed the color of one factory floor to save money on paint. He was the original, "Make coffee at home to save money" guy, it seems. And this is all probably a third of Osamu-san's legacy.
Osamu Suzuki's son, Toshishiro, succeeded in his father's role as CEO in 2016 and, most recently, stated Suzuki's intent to return to MotoGP.
