Wednesday's Group Work

On September 24th 1948, a monster was created. A monster that would only get larger as time went on. Honda, has been one of the worlds largest manufacturer of motorcycles and automobiles. Every story has a begining, and ever business came from a dream. That dream came from a young Japanese man, Soichiro Honda. He had a love for automobiles even at an early age. He worked as a mechanic at a Japanese tuning shop, Art Shokai, where he tuned cars and entered them in races. He was a very clever man. He taught himself how cars worked, and began to work on a piston design which he intented to sell to Toyota. The first drafts of his design were rejected by Toyota, and Soichiro worked harder than ever just to perfect the design of the piston. He even went back to school and pawned his wife's jewelry just to pay for it all. Eventually through his persistance, he won a contract with Toyota and built a factory to construct pistons for them, which was destroyed in an earthquake (irony). However, due to a gasoline shortage during World War II, Honda was unable to use his car, and his idea of attaching a motor to his small bicycle started to seem like a better form of travel. He then established the Honda Technical Research Institute in Hamamatsu, Japan, to develop and produce small 2-cycle motorbike engines. Soichiro asked for the help of over 18,000 bicycle shop owners across Japan to take part in getting his company out to the public, and to help rebuild the country. With their help, Soichiro received enough money to design and build his first motorcycle which he name the Honda Cub. In July 1958 Honda introduced in Japan what became the world's most successful motor cycle, the C100 Super Cub. In 1962 Honda advertised "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" did away the assumption that motorcycles were only for tough guys and cholo's. It reached out and made Honda and motorcycling in general, appealing to everyone. This marked the beginning of Honda Motor Company, which would grow to be the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles by 1964. Soichiro wanted to expand on more than just motorcycles, so in 1963, the first production automobile from Honda was the T360 mini pick-up truck, which went on sale in August. Powered by a small 356 cc straight-4 gasoline engine, it was classified under the cheaper small vehicle tax bracket. A surprisingly cheap and reliable car made it become very popular in Japan. 

Soichiro loved his cars and motorcycles. He loved the feeling of being better than everyone else, and using his design and concept to do it. Honda entered Formula One as a constructor for the first time in the 1964 season at the German Grand Prix. This may not seem like a big step, but this sparked Honda's interest to make fast cars for the public to drive as well. Honda's popularity in Formula One was booming, and sales were higher than ever until in 1968, Jo Schlesser was killed in a Honda racing at the French Grand Prix. This racing tragedy, coupled with their difficulties selling automobiles in the United States, made Honda drop out of the sport for a whole year to learn from this tragedy. After a learning year in 1965, Honda dominated the 1966 French Formula Two championship. This caused sales to sky rocket across Japan. 

Honda wasn't too big in Japan at this point, but a popular music group called The Hondells recorded "Little Honda" in 1964. Honda entered the American pop culture as the subject of this hit song. This increased their popularity in America, which would soon to be enormous.In 1968 Honda unveiled a landmark achievement that would change the motorcycling world forever. A 750cc bike with four cylinders and a disc brake that was so fast and powerful a new word, "superbike", was coined to describe it. The CB750F four was the biggest bike out of Japan, proving that a high-performance motorcycle could also be very reliable, and in April 1969 Honda set the motorcycle world on fire with the introduction of the CB750. Performance was staggering, easily hitting 120mph and at the time it had better acceleration than anything else on the road. Reliability and speed is what attracted the U.S to this intriguing Japanese company. In 1969 the first Honda automobile was sold in the U.S. This was the first step to Honda's rise to international greatness. During the 1970's Honda's innovative motorcyles and automobiles got more and more technologically advance.In 1976 yet another technical innovation from Honda, the CB750A was the first modern motorcycle with an automatic transmission.This was HUGE for Honda. Now literally everyone could ride a motorcycle, and they had to be Honda's. Sales in the 1970's helped them become a leading car and motorcycle manufacturer. In 1973, Honda released one of the most popular cars in the world, the Honda Civic. The Honda was popular because it had four doors and had 40 mpg. During the same year Soichiro Honda retired from being president but stayed on as director, and was appointed "supreme adviser". 

After much debate on whether it would be a smart move or not, in 1979 Honda brings in the first full-scale Japanese motor-vehicle production facility on U.S. soil. The ninteen eighties was year of expansion for Honda, while their cars and bikes were being produced, Honda wanted to do more than other car companies. Lawn-Mowers, Other lawn equipment, Boat motors were all being produced. Honda didn't get where they were because they were average guys. Honda's engineers were very smart.

In 1986 the Honda Accord was named most popular vehicle in America, and their engineers were working on another project, called ASIMO. Weighing 54 kilograms and standing 130 centimeters tall, ASIMO resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack, and can walk on two feet in a manner resembling human movement. ASIMO is the world's only humanoid robot able to ascend and descend stairs independently. 

During the 80s Honda released its most popular cars, and perhaps the worlds most popular cars. The Honda Accord the Honda CRX and the Honda Prelude. In modern times very much has changed in the ways of automobiles and Honda has been responsible for most of the innovation. With easily modified vehicles and them being cheap to fix, Honda's became the top choice for public street racing. With just a couple thousand dollars, you can put a new engine, and a turbo on your Honda and make it reach speeds past 150 mph. Which is fast considering you just went 150 mph in a car that was meant to be family transport.

We have indeed traveled a long road since Mr. Honda began to chase his dream 60 years ago. Only 60 years have led to more innovation than any other company. Where will this magnificent company take us next? One thing that you can be certain of is that Honda will continue to Innovate and be very successful across the world. This company is a monster, hungry for innovation, technology and reliability, and there is no stopping it,just as Soichiro Honda had dreamed of.

Grant, Robert M. (2003), Cases in contemporary strategy analysis (3rd ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 1405111801, http://books.google.com/books?id=XF7V9w8ByrcC&pg=PA172,

"Honda Worldwide | History". World.honda.com. http://world.honda.com/history/challenge/1962autoproduction/text/05.html.   

"Company Profile for Honda Motor Co Ltd (HMC)". http://zenobank.com/index.php?symbol=HMC&page=quotesearch.

"Honda Racing Engines". Racing.honda.com. http://racing.honda.com/about/engine.aspx.

"Honda History" 3/8/1998 http://www.smokeriders.com/History/Honda_History/Hon_Hist2/hon_hist2.html

Boyd, J. (2008, February 7). Do people only use 10 percent of their brain?. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=people-only-use-10-percent-of-brain

Briley, P. (2008, January 1). Do humans use 100% of their brains?. Retrieved from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1848

It is a common misconception that human beings only use ten percent of their brain. Even Hollywood thinks this, releasing a movie called , Limitless, about accessing the other 90% of your brain. Many people believe that this is true, i even believe it until Sidel told us otherwise. The reason i chose this belief was more for myself. I hear people say that we only use 10% of our brain a lot, and if i do research on it, i can totally just prove them wrong in front of everyone and have information to back it up. This would make me look smart. As i said, many of the general public believe that this is true. People get the idea that we only use 10% of our brain, mainly because that is what they have been told. Others may believe it, so they have something to blame if they don't know the answer to something. That the information is hiding in the other 90%. A study has been conducted and brain research, using imagery technology shows that we use 100% of or brain. A reason that the myth has endeared throughout the years, is to explain psychic powers. Tapping into the hidden 90% will somehow give you supernatural abilities. I do not think that this myth with die anytime soon. People won't believe that they are wrong when they have been told this for a long time. Others think that it is the reason why psychics exist. Science shoves all of that aside and proves with solid fact, that we do in fact use 100% of our brains.