Osamu Suzuki, the longtime chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation, died from lymphoma on December 25, 2024. He was 94 years old. For many years, he made Suzuki one of the biggest car companies in the world and helped it become the largest automaker in India.
Under his leadership, Suzuki teamed up with famous car companies like General Motors and Volkswagen to sell cars in North America and Europe. In 2019, he formed a partnership with Toyota. As he said in his book, “I’m a Small-Business Boss,” “If I were to listen to everybody, it would make things too slow. Never stop, or else you lose.”
Although he stepped down as president in 2015, he remained the chairman and CEO. He even took a big pay cut after the company had issues with how it reported fuel mileage for its cars, saying sorry and taking responsibility for what happened.
Osamu Suzuki had a unique start to his journey. Born as Osamu Matsuda on January 20, 1930, he was the fourth son of a farming family. He once wanted to be a politician and worked at a bank. Everything changed when he married Shoko Suzuki, whose grandfather started the Suzuki company in 1909.
After marrying, he took her last name, a common practice in Japan when there are no male heirs. He joined the family business in 1958, and from there, he helped build Suzuki into a global name. In the fiscal year 2023-24, Suzuki sold around 3.2 million vehicles worldwide, with over half of those sold in India. They are now just behind Toyota, the largest car company in the world.
One of his biggest successes was creating a joint venture with the Indian government, which led to the Maruti 800, a popular car in India. He found out about this chance when he saw a newspaper article about the Indian government looking for a car partner. In 1982, he met with government officials in a Tokyo hotel to discuss the project.
Today, Suzuki is also one of the top motorcycle makers, selling about 1.9 million bikes in the same fiscal year.
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