The Intentional Creation of Culture

When Soichiro Honda started the Honda Motor Company in 1948 to design and build motorcycles in war-ravaged Japan, his ambitions were audacious. A black-smith’s son who usually wore the blue overalls of a mechanic, Honda stood on an orange crate in the company’s factory four years later and declared his intention to make Honda not just the number one motorcycle company in Japan but number one in the world.

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In classrooms and data centers, assembly lines and sales training facilities, Thomas Watson’s mantra, “Think,” gave visible form to the novel idea that a company could deliberately create its culture.

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