Steering Mazda's UNIQUE COURSE

A chassis engineer at heart, Chairman Kanai challenges his engineers to think differently and embrace the Skyactiv technology that has made Mazda a benchmark.

In 1999 Mazda Motor Corp.'s current Chairman, Seita Kanai, had just taken over as program manager for the first-generation Atenza/Mazda6. The new car was a top priority and its success was deemed vital to the Hiroshima-based automaker's survival-this was Mazda's first new product in 18 months. Considered an “engineer's engineer” within a company that prides itself on technical creativity, Kanai was under significant pressure from both Mazda management and from Ford Motor Co., which owned a controlling stake, to deliver an exceptional car.

“It was then Kanai-san's dream-and he strongly believed-that Mazda would someday produce a car that would ‘beat up’ the German premium sedans,” recalled Masahiro Moro, the CEO of Mazda North American Operations and good friend of Kanai, who at the time was the young head of product marketing. But in his first benchmarking drive of the incumbent Mazda sedan on the German autobahn, Kanai was shocked.