Case Study - Toyota Motors / Dell.com
(The Competing Organizational Values Framework)
In 1937, Kiichiro Toyoda founded the Toyota Motor Company in Japan as a spin-off from Toyoda Automatic Loom Works to manufacture cars roughly based on the designs of Chrysler and Chevrolet. Toyota emerged from the rubble of war in the late 1950s to become Asia’s premiere manufacturing company and swiftly moved from a regional to a global brand. Gaining a foothold in the United States during the oil embargo of the 1970s, Toyota systematically extended its product array from compact cars, like the Corolla, to mid-size sedans. In the late 1980s, Toyota accomplished the previously unimaginable by successfully introducing, Lexus, a luxury car line to compete with European blue bloods BMW and Mercedes. In fact, the newly introduced Lexus established previously unimaginable initial quality records, and may be said to have been the car that most sparked the quality revolution in the North American auto industry. Today, Toyota is Japan’s biggest carmaker with over $120 billion in annual sales. Toyota is one the few companies that has demonstrated an ability to pursue several directions simultaneously. The traditional organizational identity at Toyota was highly focused and internally directed. Perfecting “lean production” and “just in time” manufacturing techniques, Toyota became symbolized by quality and efficiency which made it a benchmark for automobile manufacturing worldwide. Engineering, extensive product testing and process redesigns are competencies for which Toyota has become renowned. More recently, Toyota became more adaptive in order to respond to external challenges confronting the firm. In the face of internal calls for protectionism, Toyota diversified its manufacturing and assembly plants from its core location in Toyota City in Aichi, Japan, to new plants in many regions