Honda: Case Study in Exploiting and then Losing its Unique "Unfair Advantage"

With all the talk about "green" investing, and partially in celebration of Al Gore, Nobel prize winner, now becoming a venture capitalist at the preeminent firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, I was reflecting today about Honda Motors and its greatest success, and more recent failure.

Few seem to remember the origins of the CVCC engine, which happened during the 70s gas crisis, and propelled Honda from being a motorcycle vendor into a major auto manufacturer and technology firm, which is now attempting to even sell jet aircraft. They attempted to reprise this success with Hybrid cars, and lost out to Toyota. Read more ...