Osamu Suzuki, the charismatic former head of Suzuki Motor Corp. who helped make the Japanese mini-vehicle maker a globally competitive company, has died, the company announced Friday. He is 94 years old.
Suzuki was known for his candid remarks and friendliness, calling himself an “old guy from a small to mid-size company.” He became CEO of Suzuki in 1978 and was leading the company when it became the first Japanese automaker to start local production in India, where its cars proved hugely popular.
Born on January 30, 1930 as Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki worked in the banking industry after graduating from Tokyo’s Chuo University School of Law. He joined Suzuki Motor, founded in Hamamatsu, central Japan, in 1958, when he married the daughter of Shunzo Suzuki, then the company’s president, who belonged to the company’s founding family. As is customary in such situations, Matsuda followed his wife’s maiden name.
In 1979, a year after becoming the fourth president of Suzuki Motor, he introduced an affordable minicar, which became a huge success and was promoted in global markets.
Under Suzuki’s leadership, the company’s sales grew more than tenfold to 3 trillion yen ($19 billion) in the 2000s.
Suzuki also entered into business alliances with other global leaders such as General Motors and Volkswagen AG in the 2000s. Amid intensifying business and holiday transformation, Suzuki also formed an equity alliance with Toyota Motor Corp. Array in 2019 to develop jointly autonomous vehicles.
While other Japanese automakers expanded into the U. S. and Chinese markets, offering a wide diversity of vehicles, Suzuki limited itself to mini and compact cars, basically in South and Southeast Asia.
Suzuki stressed the importance of understanding the grassroots level.
“Making quality smart products at low cost is the foundation of manufacturing,” Suzuki said in an interview with NHK television. “We can’t cut costs by sitting in the president’s office. So I have to be in a factory to see the paintings and get ideas. “
Suzuki stepped down as chairman at the age of 85 in 2015, leaving the position to his son, Toshihiro Suzuki. He served as an advisor to the company after stepping down as chairman in 2021.
The company said Suzuki died Wednesday of malignant lymphoma.