Suzuki revamps global 2W business, Koichiro Hirao appointed president for India operations

Suzuki Motor Corporation is looking to make its global two-wheeler business profitable, and has decided to revamp its organisational structure to make it more agile through “individual accounting”.

The Japanese major has decided that the motorcycle company will be newly established as an in-house company, which will report directly to the president and the motorcycle operations will be abolished. And to make the motorcycle business into a profitable business, Suzuki will proactively find solutions to normalise the business through individual accounting.

Top-level management changes
Suzuki Motor Corp has also made changes in the key management which will see representative director and president Toshihiro Suzuki appointed as the executive general manager for the Motorcycle Company.

For Suzuki Motorcycle India, Koichiro Hirao, Group Manager, ASEAN Motorcycle Group, Motorcycle Operations, has been appointed as the new president. Meanwhile, Satoshi Uchida, deputy executive general manager (India/Middle East/Africa Motorcycle), Motorcycle Operations, and president, Suzuki Motorcycle India, will take over charge as the managing officer in charge of marketing and India - Motorcycle Company.

In terms of individual accounting from operations, Suzuki Motor's organisational structure will be divided into four key companies - Motorcycle Company, Corporate Planning Office, Automobile Engineering and Research & Development. Under this programme, specific departments will be established (as detailed below).

Koichiro Hirao, who is familiar with Suzuki’s Indian operations as part of his earlier stint as the group manager, ASEAN Motorcycle Group, Motorcycle Operations, will be looking to further grow the company's sales in the country.

In the first 11 months of FY2019 (April 2018-February 2019), Suzuki Motorcycle India has sold a total of 746,839 units (+2.73%), which gives it a market share of 3.78 percent.