Bridgestone's journey began in a small city, in the island of Kyushu in Japan. The year was 1931, hopes were high. The older was fading. And the New World was waking up to a future, man had just dreamt of.
It all started with a dream. A dream to be a force to reckon with in the global tyre industry. Turning this dream into reality was the driving passion of Mr. Shojiro Ishibashi. To achieve his ambition, he even named his fledging venture with an english variation of his name to take on the world, and succeed in his mission, Mr. Ishibashi relied heavily on his able and trusted
Lieutenant - technology.
His relentless drive to serve the society with superior quality products changed the tyre market. Started his venture in a small factory in Kurume, he wanted his company and tyres to go places, perhaps that was the reason why he christened his fledging venture with an english variation of his name (Ishibashi translates as
"Stone Bridge"). Today, Shojiro Ishibashi's company is a US $23.2 billion
* Corporation with its headquarters at Tokyo.
Bridgestone controls 18.2% of global market
* and sells products in over 150 nations. The company has 47 tyre plants
** and 93 non-tyre plants
**, 3 technical research and development centers and 10 proving grounds.
Brands like Bridgestone and Firestone herald the company's strong presence in the tyre and rubber goods, automotive parts, industrial goods, chemical goods and sporting goods. Bridgestone Corporation has come a long way from Shojiro's Kurume days.
Bridgestone is a world-class tyre manufacturing, Japanese Company. The company having the punch line -
"Passion for excellence" is working with a clear sense of purpose, to serve society by providing people with quality products' the motto being to ensure
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. Bridgestone aims at
"Quality". Quality is paramount in all fields, be it Human Resources, be it Sales & Marketing, and be it Production. Bridgestone wants that there should be no defects in their products. To ensure this, the company has adopted the,
"ZERO DEFECTS" system. The organization also wants the things at right time, at right place, and for this it has adopted the
JUST-IN-TIME (JIT) technique.
Today, Bridgestone has a worldwide work force of more than 110,000 employees. Bridgestone is a global tyre manufacturing company, which emphasizes on Japanese traditions. It is still growing and expanding and aiming at increasing its share in the world tyre and tubes, industrial products like belts, hose, chemical products, sporting goods, automotive parts and marine products etc.
The founder was ambitious enough to dream that his quality products would earn the satisfaction of customers worldwide. He was getting ready for something international. But even Shojiro didn't know how spectacularly his company would fulfill his hopes.
* Source: Bridgestone Corporation Annual Report 2004
**Source: Bridgestone's Global website
