Toyota, the leading automobile company in the world and the global benchmark for quality and continuous improvement came seriously. They faced recall unlike any they have seen before the crisis. Mr. Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota and grandson of the founder, was called to testify before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the company's response to the recall. Through the prism of the accelerator crisis makes documents compromises Toyota made in pursuit of a marketing strategy based on quality and customer service, while engaged in the operational cost of the overall strategy of leadership. Historical data tracks the evolution of the early focus on lean manufacturing, quality, and customer to the modern emphasis on aggressive cost management and rapid globalization, it also keeps track of the factors that influence the conditions in which the product failures occurred and documents Toyota failure to respond adequately and with sufficient speed . The case describes the evolution of the Toyota family of small entrepreneurial firms global status gigantic industry, their role in the development of industry lean manufacturing, continuous improvement and quality, known as the Way Toyota; their responses to a number of highly visible failures of the product, and the erosion of the reputation of Toyota. The case concludes with Akio Toyoda exhausted from his testimony, under which a combination of strategic, structural and cultural problems have led to the current crisis recall. If the company has lost sight of its long-term philosophy, the key principle underlying the way Toyota? If Toyota sacrifice quality and historical orientation to the client due to the extreme cost cutting? Nonfamily managers were really to blame for "stealing" Toyota? What is the role of the supply chain and the Toyota keiretsu structure of the game in the recall? Or just a Toyota with the latest media witch-hunt by the global economic crisis? "Hide
by Michael Greto, Andreas Schotter, Mary B. Teagarden Source: Thunderbird School of Global Management 24 pages. Publication Date: December 15, 2010. Prod. #: TB0243-PDF-ENG
Related Case Solutions & Analyses:
Pan Boricua: Developing a Market Strategy for the Hispanic Market in the United States
Transkin Income Fund: Leading Entrepreneurial Teams
Enel: Power Russia and Global Markets
Hong Kong Economic Times Group: Diversification and Differentiation
World Economic Forum (A)
CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
Cebu Pacific Air (B)
Central America: Strategy for Economic Integration
Corporate Restructuring and the Master Limited Partnership
Impact of Introduction of Green Resources as Substitute for Oil in Pakistan
