What went wrong at Toyota?
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota and grandson of the company’s founder, testified in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform as lawmakers continue to examine Toyota’s record recalls. During the proceedings Toyoda remarked:”My name is on every car.”
In the past, Toyoda said, the company’s priorities were safety and quality, and sales came last. But as Toyota grew to become the world’s biggest carmaker, “these priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as possible.” It was a choice. Like every business, Toyota could have chosen to stop, think and make the right decisions. They chose not to.
By confusing the essence of his business with the numbers that essence produced, Akio Toyoda has dug himself into a very large hole. By turning Toyota’s obsession from quality and reliability to sales and profitability, he may have unwittingly destroyed the reputation — the brand — that took four decades to create.
Akio Toyoda is not alone in this misguided business approach; this rigid, inside-out focus on the organization and its “numbers.” Many leaders are losing their sense of empathy and becoming narcissistic; obsessed with their image as reflected by internal goals and measurements and by Wall Street analysts.
Why did so many Americans buy Toyota vehicles? Because we believed that the people at Toyota were obsessed. We believed that they cared deeply about us and our cars. We believed that they were passionately committed to the truth and to the pursuit of perfection. And so, we felt cared for and safe.Now we’re finding out that, indeed, they were obsessed. But, like so many businesses today, they just weren’t obsessed with us.As usual Einstein was right, “Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.”
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3 Responses to “What went wrong at Toyota?”
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these woes would hurt other Japanese brands as well. Toyota is the flagship for products from Japan.It’s hard to predict how much it could hurt the other Japanese auto brands, but clearly it has the potential to ripple through.
yaa.. it couldn’t come at a better time for American automakers. Not only does the industry need as much help as it can get, but it comes at a time when American quality has caught up to foreign imports.
Toyota brand is damaged. It’s in crisis..At least for a year, you’ll see some negative rub-off on other properties and people that associate with it.