<div dir="ltr"><h1>Honda adopts English as official language in global meetings</h1>
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<span class="">November 22, 2013 - 11:25 am ET
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<p>LOS ANGELES (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. made English the official
language of global meetings as the Japanese carmaker shifts
decision-making power to regional units.</p><p>CEO Takanobu Ito informed
global employees of the change in April, John Mendel, executive vice
president of the company's U.S. sales unit, said in an interview at the
Los Angeles Auto Show. Mendel was promoted to Honda's North American
management committee in 2012, in an earlier move by Ito to localize
business decisions.</p><p>The carmaker's move follows language
conversions by Japanese companies including Fast Retailing Co., Asia's
biggest apparel seller and Rakuten Inc., the country's biggest Internet
mall. Honda's new rule applies to in-person meetings and video
conferences, raising the chances top executives will use interpreters,
as Fast Retailing President Tadashi Yanai and Ito himself have done in
media interviews.</p><p>"Imagine the shock sent through the operation,"
Mendel said in an interview Thursday. "The CEO stands up and says, 'All
discussions about global operations will be conducted in English and oh,
by the way, if you don't understand it, get an interpreter.'"</p><p><strong>English only</strong></p><p>Rakuten
announced its shift to English as the company's official language in
2010 and phased in the language's use over two years. The online
retailer's billionaire President Hiroshi Mikitani, Japan's third-richest
person, earned an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1993.</p><p>Yanai
implemented English as Fast Retailing's official language last year,
while tiremaker Bridgestone Corp. decided last month to gradually
implement the English requirement.</p><p>For Honda, change comes as the
Japanese automaker revamps its Honda and Acura lines to hold off
improving Asian and European competitors and the best vehicles from U.S.
automakers in a generation. Honda this week announced further
modifications to its Civic, the best-selling small car in the U.S., to
stay ahead of Toyota Motor Corp.'s new Corolla, Hyundai Motor Co.'s
Elantra and Ford Motor Co.'s Focus.</p><p>Honda's sales in the U.S.,
where it's the fifth-largest automaker, are up 8.5 percent this year
through October and should end the year at a record high, Mendel said,
without providing a specific number. The company's best year in the U.S.
was 2007, when Honda and Acura sales reached 1.55 million vehicles.</p><p><strong>Ghosn's English</strong></p><p>Honda
isn't the first Japanese automaker to make such a language shift.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, implemented a
similar policy at Nissan more than a decade ago.</p><p>North America accounted for 47 percent of Honda's revenue in the 12 months ended March 2013.</p><p>The
adoption of English for global company meetings is a "small, but not
insignificant" change, Mendel said. It's part of a "series of things
that are being put in place to kind of provide a different context for
our business," he said.</p><div style="overflow:hidden;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-align:left;text-decoration:none;border:medium none"><br>Read more: <a style="color:rgb(0,51,153)" href="http://www.autonews.com/article/20131122/OEM02/131129932/honda-adopts-english-as-official-language-in-global-meetings#ixzz2lTpf1jpt">http://www.autonews.com/article/20131122/OEM02/131129932/honda-adopts-english-as-official-language-in-global-meetings#ixzz2lTpf1jpt</a>
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