For the first time in the history of Motoneigistes.com and the Web portal Motoneiges.ca, we met with the head of marketing for worldwide snowmobile sales at Yamaha Motor Corporation. Mutsuhito Kojima, who works at Yamaha’s corporate headquarters in Shizuoka, Japan, made a special trip to participate in a ride organized by Yamaha Motor Canada. The Web portal Motoneiges.ca was invited to accompany the delegation. The event, which took place January 21, 2005, in the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve, brought together engineers and representatives from Japan and Canada. During the dinner that followed the ride, Kojima shared with us his thoughts about the day’s events, as well as his—and Yamaha’s— vision for the future of snowmobiles.
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From left to right: Takahiko Kubota (Supervisor, Engineering Division), Mutsuhito Kojima (International Sales and Marketing Director), Teruo Nagai (Assistant to the President, Yamaha Motor Canada), Jon Blaicher (Assistant Product Manager), Norman Payeur (Regional Marketing Manager), Marc Thibeault (Vice President, Business Development, Web portal motoneiges.ca), and Denis Lavoie (President and Chief Executive Officer, Web portal Motoneiges.ca)
Kojima, with Yamaha for more than 24 years, has worked within different departments in several countries. He became head of the recreational vehicles division by choice more than anything else. He confided to us that the vehicle for which he has the greatest fascination and passion is the snowmobile. “It is, in my opinion, the most exciting sport I have ever tried,” he said. As head of the division for more than 10 years, he stressed that the company’s current policy, adopted several years ago, is to shift all of its snowmobile production to four-stroke engines. Senior management decided to continue to pursue the adventure that has lasted more than 35 years now, but with a clear goal in mind—building the best sleds in the world. The results of this decision began to emerge in 2003, with the arrival of the clean, high-performance four-stroke engines used in the RX1. But don’t go thinking the Japanese manufacturer was just improvising! “We have been working on the concept of a four-stroke snowmobile engine for more than 15 years,” confided Kojima. “What’s more, our expertise with four-stroke engines and the breakthroughs we’ve made in the sledding industry have enabled us to create a line of engines especially for snowmobiles, but that doesn’t sacrifice performance or reliability.” Indeed, Yamaha was first to market a few years back with a performance snowmobile equipped with a four-stroke engine.
Yamaha has made a clear commitment to producing ecological, economical, and reliable snowmobiles, and according to Kojima, there’s more to come. “You will be impressed by the new line of snowmobiles in 2006,” he added, noting that the Canadian unveiling would once again take place in Quebec City, at the Château Frontenac from February 5 to 7, 2005.
When questioned about the importance of the Quebec market, Kojima said unequivocally that Quebec was a very important market for Yamaha. The time that Kojima and his entire team spent listening to Quebec sledders on this day in particular is clear proof of their interest. “We are serious about that,” he said. “We teamed up with the Portal and the “4R Project” in order to get both positive and negative feedback from Quebec sledders about our Vector snowmobile. We certainly don’t want to hear that we are good in an area if we are not,” he added candidly. He explained that it was important for them to come to Quebec to see and understand the habits of Quebec sledders as well as the conditions in which sleds are used.
Kojima said he was delighted with his tour of Quebec’s trails. “The quality of the trails we rode was impressive,” he said. The different sites and scenery that he saw on the 250 km of trails covered also pleased him immensely. He was impressed to learn that the good trail conditions in Quebec are the result of the work of thousands of volunteers. Despite the cold (between –25 °C and –30 °C) that had the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve in its grip the day of their visit, Kojima and his entire team were eager to take part in the extraordinary day and go on the ride.
In closing, we asked Kojima what Yamaha’s priority would be for snowmobiles in the coming years. “We are definitely moving toward four-stroke engines, and we are convinced that we’ve got it right,” he said. Designing engines more powerful than the Genesis 145 HP doesn’t seem to be a priority; rather, the goal is to improve the weight/power ratio. In fact, Yamaha takes a methodical approach to its sleds. Kojima gave the example of the RX1: “Each year we try to reduce the weight of this model.” For two years now, the RX1 has indeed gone on a diet and lost some of its heft. It appears that the new RS series will undergo the same slimming in the coming years. In addition, a four-stroke engine smaller than the Genesis 120 HP should soon be on the market, which will add to the selection already on offer.
The suspensions are definitely another priority. “Yamaha listened to sledders’ comments on previous models. We had to improve on this front, which we have done and will continue to do,” said Kojima. But above all, Yamaha’s ultimate goal is to surpass the expectations of consumers in Quebec—and everywhere else, for that matter. Two points constantly came up during the interview: “meet consumers’ needs” and, especially, “exceed their expectations of our sleds.”
