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1. What were the root cause? 2. What did the company do to cope with this issue? 3. The impact on Toyota’s Business/ Reputation 4. If I am the new Ceo( Chief Executive Officer) of the company what kind of actions I am going to undertake?

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1. From 2009 to 2010, Toyota recalled millions of cars for accelerator pedal sticking.
The first recall, on November 2, 2009, was to correct a possible incursion of an incorrect or out-of-place front driver's side floor mat into the foot pedal well, which can cause pedal entrapment. The second recall, on January 21, 2010, was begun after some crashes were shown not to have been caused by floor mat incursion. In March 2010, at the time of the recall, Toyota was unsure of the cause behind a spate of cars that would speed up without the driver's help. Hybrid’s breaking systems: Prius owners have reported that brakes momentarily fail when driving in icy or slippery conditions, or over potholes. Normally the anti-lock braking system engages and disengages many times a second as the system reacts to the slipping tyres. But - as Toyota puts it - some drivers have complained of "inconsistent brake feel" during slow and steady braking on some surfaces when ABS is activated.The solution involves an upgrade of the software in the braking system, which should take less than an hour and will be carried out for free by official Toyota service centres. Toyota stresses that the cars are still safe to drive and the brakes will stop the car. US safety authorities, however, have said they have received reports of accidents, including a small number of reported injuries.There have been no reports of accidents in Europe. The Japanese auto giant recalled 2.17 million vehicles because of carpet and floor mat flaws that could jam gas pedals. Toyota has recalled more than 12 million vehicles globally since November 2009, many of them related to unintended acceleration claims. Of those actions, 5.3 million vehicles were recalled to fix floor mat problems. Some of the cars were recalled because of a sticking accelerator pedal. It may not have been electronics, but there were problems. The information from NHTSA were floor mats and sticky pedals. Accelerator pedals: In some cases have become stuck. This is the result of the pedal becoming warm. The problems arose when "some people just got too big-headed and focused too excessively on profit," Mr. Toyoda said at a Beijing news conference in March. He acknowledged the "ultimate responsibility for mistakes... lies in me.”A week earlier, Jim Press—once the top Toyota executive in the U.S. before he jumped to a rival automaker—issued a statement declaring: "The root cause of their problems is that the company was hijacked, some years ago, by anti-family, financially oriented pirates."Those executives "didn't have the character to maintain a customer-first focus. Akio does," Toyota said that anyone in the UK who had suffered a problem with their accelerator pedal should call the company's hotline, and should not get the problem fixed independently. The first shipments of parts required will begin arriving in the UK next week and Toyota will be in a position to start repairing cars from 10 February. The carmaker is also working with the UK's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and will write to car owners whose vehicles could be affected - a process that could take 10 days. This will also include owners who have bought the cars second-hand. A website that would allow owners to check their vehicles registration number was also being developed. December 21, 2009, Toyota announced that cut auto parts costs by 30 percent. According to media, Toyota canceled contracts between its auto parts partners in Japan and made new contracts with much cheaper auto parts partners (mostly outside of Japan). In my opinion, Toyota’s pedal problem was caused mainly by the cheap auto parts it used.
2."Toyota's remedy plan is to modify or replace the accelerator pedals on the subject vehicles to address the risk of floor mat entrapment," the company said. Toyota's American arm has since issued a fix for the sticking accelerator issue comprising a "precision-cut steel reinforcement bar" fitted the pedal assembly to reduce friction between a shoe and the adjoining surface, the place where Toyota has found these defective pedals to sticking.Toyota has pinpointed the issue that could, on rare occasions, cause accelerator pedals in recalled vehicles to stick in a partially open position. The issue involves a friction device in the pedal designed to provide the proper “feel” by adding resistance and making the pedal steady and stable. The device includes a shoe that rubs against an adjoining surface during normal pedal operation. Due to the materials used, wear and environmental conditions, these surfaces may, over time, begin to stick and release instead of operating smoothly. In some cases, friction could increase to a point that the pedal is slow to return to the idle position or, in rare cases, the pedal sticks, leaving the throttle partially open.Toyota’s solution for current owners is both effective and simple. A precision-cut steel reinforcement bar will be installed into the assembly that will reduce the surface tension between the friction shoe and the adjoining surface. With this reinforcement in place, the excess friction that can cause the pedal to stick is eliminated. The company has confirmed the effectiveness of the newly reinforced pedals through rigorous testing on pedal assemblies that had previously shown a tendency to stick.
Separately from the recall for sticking accelerator pedals, Toyota has been in the process of recalling vehicles to address rare instances in which floor mats have trapped the accelerator pedal in certain Toyota and Lexus models (announced November 25, 2009), and is already notifying customers about how it will fix this issue. In the case of vehicles covered by both recalls, it is Toyota’s intention to remedy both at the same time.Action Plan of Mr. Toyoda : 1. Improve quality inspection process; 2. Enhance customer research; 3. Establish an automotive Center of Quality Excellence; 4. Support from outside experts; 5. Increased communication ; 6. Improve Regional Economy
3. Reputation Risk: Toyota's image has been damaged by confusing advice to customers, crisis communication experts say. Toyota estimates its losses will reach $2bn (£1.23bn) in costs and lost sales from its worldwide recall of vehicles. But the losses could escalate if it turns out that the trust and reputation the company built up over a period of decades has been demolished almost overnight. Crisis communication consultant John Huntley said: "Something has gone wrong and it seems people may have died," he points out. "I think it's going to take Toyota years to get out of this one."
"People want to know what they're going to do about it, and at this stage it's a complete dog's breakfast. There's just too much conflicting advice out there," he says. Mr Huntley is particularly critical about advice that says only customers who "experience any issues with their accelerator pedal" should contact their dealership, pointing out that any advice that relies on customers' own judgement about whether or not their actions are safe is flawed.
Ong Hock Chuan, from crisis management firm Maverick in Jakarta, agrees.
"In moments of a business crisis, people want to see the head ofa company take full responsibility, be empathic to the victims and their families and be in control by outlining the problem and how they intend to solve it," he says.
4. If I am the new CEO I will focus on : An improved public image, Seek new growth in emerging markets such as China and India, High focus on quality,Reducing board of directors from 27 members to 11, Adding two overseas executives to have a quicker response rate, instead of 13, there will be 15, Increase number of hybrids produced.A primary component of the vision is that the auto manufacturer learning from past mistakes that directly appear tied to quality assurance issues and the 2009 global financial catastrophe. In the consumer eye, this is likely an important factor because if Toyota cannot effectively regain the trust of the consumer market, the outlined goals, and the strategies to support them, will be much harder to attain. I will form a global quality committee. It’s also establishing new technology centers globally to gather local information on suspected quality problems and hurry decision- making on recalls. As a CEO I would also write out a detailed plan on how our company would overcome this obstacle and follow that plan precisely, this plan would consist of all the steps our company will take during the initial stages of rebuilding our brand. It’s important to return the good public image for the company. The plan that I have will include the following steps: 1) Stop the production until the problem is fixed. 2.Apologize and explain what happened. 3) Explain the corrective actions we would take and what we’re doing to do to prevent this in the future. 4) Advertise/Rebuild the brand. The first action I would take as CEO would be to stop the production of all models that were being recalled.

LITERATURE USED:

1. www.news.yahoo.com 2. www.toyota.com 3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/02/toyota-recall-models-list_n_445850.html 4. www.cnn.com 5. Articles from csc, bbc 6. ^ "Newsroom : Toyota Announces Voluntary Recall on 2010 Model-Year Prius and 2010 Lexus HS 250h Vehicles to Update ABS Software / Toyota". Pressroom.toyota.com. 2010-02-08. Retrieved 2011-01-30. 7. http://pressroom.toyota.com/safety-recall/ 8. www.finance.yahoo.com 9. http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=247148 10. http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=247148 11. http://sangecon.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/yabe%E3%82%84%E3%81%B9-im-screwed-toyota-recall-the-deep-root-of-the-problem/ 12. http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-06/justice/toyota.recall.appeal_1_sudden-acceleration-crash-free-man?_s=PM:CRIME 13. 11/09/toyota-recall-steering-problems_n_1083321.html 14. www.youtube.com – videos and clips 15. http://www.automallusa.net/01/toyota/recalls.html