Yamaha must “pursue true Yamaha-ness and break out of our old norms” if it hopes to increase profitability, says Hiroyuki Yanagi, the company’s president and chief executive officer. In an open letter released by Yamaha, Yanagi discussed what his company needed to do in order to reach its goal of producing 12 million units this year and collecting 2 trillion yen (US$22.5 billion) in sales.

Yanagi’s message offered little in specific details but provided a glimpse of Yamaha’s overall strategy for the next few years. The message provides added context to Yamaha Motor’s “New Medium-term Management Plan” for 2013 to 2015 which includes introducing 250 new models to its motorcycle, snowmobile, marine and powered bicycle product lines.

The company’s plan centers around the Japanese concept of “monozukuri“, a word comprised of the Japanese words “mono” for products and “zukuri” for the creation process. For Yamaha, monozukuri is the combination of engineering, manufacturing and marketing. Moving forward, the Yamaha aims to reduce the lead-in time for product development while lowering prices for its products. Continue Reading »