Late last year, a handful of retired Honda Motor executives started meeting privately to discuss the Japanese automaker’s troubles and the person they believed was the cause: Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe.
Over months of text messages, as well as meetings and meals that sometimes included current executives, they laid out a case against the former engineer, according to a written summary of their discussions and interviews with two participants.
They blamed Mibe for neglecting China, the world’s biggest auto market, and making a “failed” bet on electric vehicles that would leave Honda with its first annual loss in seven decades. They accused him of paying more attention to Honda’s golf sponsorship than its business.
