Suzuki names son to succeed as company president

Osamu Suzuki (85), the chief executive of Suzuki Motors, who has spent nearly four decades running the Japanese small car maker, has named his eldest son as his successor as president.

Toshihiro Suzuki (56), now the group’s executive vice-president, will take over as president from his father, who will stay on as chief executive and chairman. It will be the first change in the presidency of the group since 1978.

Concerns over the company’s future leadership have been simmering since Mr Suzuki’s son-in-law, who was at one time being groomed for the role, died of pancreatic cancer in 2007.

For Suzuki and Japan’s other big family-run businesses, finding suitable heirs has proved a challenge in recent years, especially as companies have had to expand the operations globally to combat a shrinking domestic market.

Mr Suzuki snr is credited with building the car maker’s footprint in Asia. It was also one of the few Japanese car makers to remain profitable during the global financial crisis, helped by Mr Suzuki’s ultra-aggressive cost controls. However, its global strategy outside Asia has been less successful and the group remains embroiled in a long-running spat with Volkswagen. In 2009, the two carmakers formed a partnership that ended in an acrimonious split only two years later. Arbitration proceedings have continued since then and Suzuki now awaits a ruling over VW’s 19.9 per cent stake in Suzuki.

“The Volkswagen problem was taking too long and I couldn’t wait any longer,” Mr Suzuki snr said at a news conference. “We need to have the younger generation take over the management.”

Toshihiro Suzuki said the car maker needed to “break away” from the dominant presence of his father, saying the company would now be run as a “team”. Investors have welcomed the new management, lifting Suzuki’s shares by 2.7 per cent on Monday. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015