‘Mitsubishi’ – more than cars

The best way to know people is to live with them. Failing to do that, try to cram all you learn from your hosts.

Tokyo, Nagoya and Okazaki is a bit chilly and some times wet at this time of the year but that did not deter as in absorbing all we could on this educational tour. For the last five days, working Journalists and Broadcasters from the Philippines have taken planes, trains and bus rides that stretch anywhere from 4 to 6 hours round trip, getting out of bed as early as 4 or 5 am and returning to our hotel rooms dead tired just before 11 or midnight. The trips  are all about familiarizing ourselves with Japan as well as the Global company Mitsubishi and some of its businesses and property holdings. It has certainly been a good opportunity because we visited a manufacturing plant, a research and development center for Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. A vineyard and stayed in a hotel that were just some of the properties owned by the company all over Japan.Motors.Yes Mitsubishi is more than just cars. We also had an opportunity to meet and interview the Chairman of the Board and President, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan Osamu Masuko to learn all there was to know about the much talked about buy in of Nissan Corporation into Mitsubishi.

This “familiarization tour” of sorts is part of an effort of the Mitsubishi group to develop a better public understanding of who and what the Mitsubishi group is all about, and to share the philosophy of Mitsubishi beginning with “Shoki hoko” that promotes Corporate Social Responsibility – “Shoji Komei” or Integrity and Fairness in Business, and “Ritsugo Boeki” the philosophy of promoting global understanding through business.Historically speaking it all began with their founder Yataro Iwasaki who started out in shipping and trading in 1870 and from there he branched into mining,warehousing, financial services – banking, buying the Nagasaki shipyard and eventually going into ship building. By 1917, the company produced the first car in Japan which will mark 100 years of automotive history in 2017.

Only after seeing it on the big screen does one realize how far and wide the businesses of Mitsubishi are. In the Philippines, we associate the name with cars and elevators, but its not commonly known to Filipinos that Mitsubishi owns the photographic company “Nikon,” or that that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation are also involved in developing technology used in equipment used in the International Space Station and that they have their own satellite  or that they own “Kirin” brewery famous for their brand of Japanese beer and known in the Philippines as an investor in San Miguel Corporation. Mitsubishi also has chemical plants, heavy industries, investments in metals, shipping, banking, wine, and major real estate such as hotels, a  complex for premium brand “outlet stores,” as well as high value commercial and historical buildings. Aside from cooperations with the Philippine government, Mitsubishi is involved in the MRT-3, with San Miguel Corporation, Asahi Glass, Fuso Trucks  and many other companies in the Philippines either as a partner, supplier or investor. If none of that impresses you, what probably will is to find out as we did that the annual income of the Mitsubishi group is about 10% of the Japanese GDP or many times greater than the national budget of the Philippines.

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Personally speaking, the highlight of the trip was listening to MMC Chairman Osamu Masuko as he explained the need and the wisdom for Mitsubishi Motors Corporation to enter into a “partnership” with Nissan Motors in the form of a Nissan buy-in into MMC. Most people assume that such buy ins have to do with financial issues or capital requirements. But as Chairman Masuko explained it, the auto industry now realizes the need to cooperate instead of compete because new technologies and new industries may soon define the future of cars, driving and technology.  The auto manufacturers now face a similar challenge if not threat that companies like Kodak, Fuji and other photographic and video product manufacturers faced when digital technology arrived. From paper-based almost everything went paperless, electronic and digital.

In like manner, new technologies based on Artificial Intelligence are evolving and introducing concepts such as driverless cars that run on renewable – non-fossil fuel built with reduced metal components and highly computerized. They started out being presented as prototypes generated by Computer Assisted Design but in a matter of one decade there are now production models by companies who are not  car manufacturers such as Tesla. Word is Google, Apple and Dyson are talking out loud about venturing into cars that would be full of computer technology. Chairman Masuko pointed out that Artificial Intelligence will certainly be a game changer and ultimately much of the conventional standards for design, safety and production of future cars will be influenced if not dictated upon by developing AI technology. The challenge posed by the non-automakers is that they are under no pressure to manufacture and sell at the moment and have the luxury to dive head on into research and development of fully or totally computer driven vehicles.

The car makers on the other hand are pressured to out-design, out-produce and out-sell other car makers while the outside industries carry on unchallenged.  In response, MMC has developed their EV lines or Electric vehicles and they expect to see a major shift within the auto industry towards electric vehicle production by 2020 especially if breakthrough design and materials for EV batteries evolve soon. But they clearly cannot and don’t want to fight to wars. In the context of global competition and organizations, Chairman Masuko stressed that “smaller companies” fighting or competing against each other will not survive against big conglomerates or partnerships that have bigger funding and have the luxury and time for R&D. An added value to the “Alliance” is that it increases their efficiency in terms of material procurement, shared technology and platforms as well as complimenting each other in global markets.

The best news is that after the buy-in and the alliance made;”Mitsubishi (MMC) remains Mitsubishi.”

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