Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Yamaha President Takashi Kajikawa Continues Things are going well for Yamaha - both here and abroad By ! HENNY RAy ABRAMS also, the MotoGP organization." Their expectations weren't high for the start of the 2004 season. Honda had refused to release Rossi from his 2003 contract prior to the end of the year. Which meant that Rossi and his team, led by Jerry Burgess, who also came over from Honda, weren't able to start testing the M-I until late in January. The time frame was very short to the season-opening South African Grand Prix in early April. "Honestly speaking, I was not sure," Kajikawa said of Rossi's odds for success in Welkom. "Maybe SO-SO or 40-60, because he said, when I ask him when he joined what the possibility to win was, he said during the first period it could be very, very difficult. That's what he said. He said he would try to do his best. "It was astonishing when Valentino won already the first race," Kajikawa said. "It was a big excitement for all of our organization. A fantastic experience." hen Valentino Rossi clinched the 2005 MotoGP World Championship in the desert kingdom of Qatar, it continued what has been a joyous 50th-anniversary celebration for Yamaha Motor Company. Not only has Yamaha denied rival Honda the most prestigious title in motorcycle racing two years running, with little evidence that 2006 will be any different, but they've also performed beyond expectations in the W salesroom. Yamaha is forecasting motorcycle shipments to total nearly 4 million units in the calendar year 2005, up 14.7 percent over 2004, even though the home market of Japan is declining. U.S. shipments are forecast by Yamaha to reach a record 224,000 in 2005, with the arrival of the well-received new sportbikes and the TT-RSOE sure to be a hit for the Christmas season. In the first nine months of the 2005 calendar year, Yamaha's share price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange has risen from a low of 1530 yen, on April I, to 2395, on September 30, an increase of 57 percent. All of which is music to the ears ofTakashi Kajikawa, a 36year veteran of the company who took over as president of Yamaha Motor Company at the beginning of the year. Kajikawa was in New York recently on a brief stopover en route to the Canadian dealer meeting. Urbane, facile in English, qUick to laugh, and dressed in the yellow-and-black bumble-bee colors of Yamaha U.S., Kajikawa and a number of senior managers came to Central Park for the public unveiling of Yamaha's rac- 42 oaOBER 19,2005 • CYCLE NEWS The grudge match with Camel Honda's Max Biaggi went to the flag, with Rossi prevailing by .210 of a second. Rossi considers it one of his greatest triumphs. Asked how much the budget had increased when Rossi signed on, Kajikawa laughed and said: "I don't know. I said to Furosawa, in the racing department, when we made a contract with Valentino, the first contract was to win, then the budget." ing-inspired sportbikes. Kajikawa also said he didn't believe that the budget Racing was clearly on his mind, especially after watchincrease had affected any other racing programs, partly ing part of a 2S-minute video chronicling Yamaha's distinbecause it was offset by sponsorship from Atladis, the guished racing history that began with a victory less than parent company of Gauloises. two weeks after the company's start on July I, 1955. "Overall, it should have been increased; our expendiPrior to the Rossi years, Yamaha's last Grand Prix suctures were not so much different," he said. cess came with Wayne Rainey in 1992. Kenny Roberts The connection between Rossi and sales was consisran the factory Marlboro Yamaha team at the time, and tently demonstrated when he rode for Honda, especialboth he and Rainey often said they didn't get the support ly in his home country of Italy. What about now? they needed because they won with what they had. "There's definitely a connection to racing," Kajikawa Rainey says that effort was comparable to a satellite team said, but, he added, "It's very, very difficult to measure. today, a notion that Rossi didn't dispute when I interOne thing which I can definitely say is, if we stop racing, viewed him in Japan during the Grand Prix at Motegi. gradually, sales will go down in two to three years. Even "Yes, in the past, everyone say this about Yamaha," if we win the races, the direct relationship... I don't Rossi said. "Maybe in the past it was real, especially know. It's very, very difficult to measure how much. It's when Wayne [Rainey) raced." definitely contributing to the total results." And it continued into the four-stroke era with Max Worldwide unit sales have increased each of the past Biaggi, Rossi said. When he arrived, Rossi was told by racseven years for Yamaha. The original forecast of 5.6-pering boss Masao Furosawa that Yamaha wanted to change. cent growth in the U.S. market has been upped to over "We need to beat Honda," Rossi said, "always push, 10 percent. The bottom line is much stronger overall. push, push, push. And now I think also the character of Their financial position was improved by cutting costs by Yamaha is changed. Now the important thing is to win, not 30 percent and reducing debt from $2.3 billion to $970 just make a good result. Under this point of view, Yamaha, million over the past three years. Though it seems to for me, is a big surprise, because they work very hard." have happened suddenly, Kajikawa credits his predecesKajikawa piCks up the thread. sor, Toru Hasegawa. "For 12 years before Valentino [Rossi) joined, we did"We started this project during the last, the previous, n't win. Our engineers, including ourselves, our whole midterm plan [a three-year plan that ended last organization... we got used to not winning," he said with December)," Kajikawa said. "We started in 2002. At that a laugh. "That's a very big danger, so I wanted to change time, the previous president Hasegawa tried to make a it. [Masao) Furosawa, our chief engineer, he tried to drastic change during that period. At the moment, the completely reorganize the working staff and the team, results are very much due to the midterm plan project.

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