As Honda Motor (HMC) announced plans in mid-July for its 2010 hybrid vehicles, the company introduced a leader with a hybrid role: Takanobu Ito, its new president and chief executive, is also Honda’s director of research and development. The decision to take on multiple roles while steering the automaker through the worldwide downturn is strategic. “The direction of the business and the direction of the technology need to be aligned as early as possible [in my tenure as CEO] so that we can maximize efficiency and effectiveness,”