...Abstract Toyota Motors’ is one of the top automakers in the world and represents one of the top automobile manufacturer’s offices to work for. Toyota boasts that their, "integrity, passion, and innovation extends beyond vehicle manufacturing."(Welch, 2007) This is a part of what makes Toyota one of the top auto makers. Toyota prides itself on excellence and its very extrinsic hiring practices. Toyotas strategy is firmly rooted in the Toyota principles of continuous improvement and respect for its employees. With its continued support of its senior staff, established goals, accountability for each individual’s actions, training and education programs, and diverse management structure Toyota has used its forward thinking to remain at the top of their game. This analysis will look at the developmental approaches used by Toyota, the advantages and disadvantages of using retired workers to mentor new employees, how these developmental strategies are contributing to continued high quality suggestive auto approaches for outside firms and lastly how Toyotas human resource practices have created a competitive advantage over its competition. Toyotas developmental strategies involve retaining its existing culture by creating educational instruction with its own school to enhance existing employee’s skills to remind them that they “don’t have all the answers” (Noe, 2009). Because the industry is constantly evolving training is for existing personnel as well as new executives who...
Words: 821 - Pages: 4
...Baby Bloomers Baby Bloomers is a family enterprise specializing in floral arrangements. With its reputation as a high-quality florist, it has been immensely profitable. The success of the company led the family to expand into several businesses: restaurant, automobile. Dealership, wine importation, and other unrelated ventures. Saddled with debt problems, Baby Bloomers sought the services of Gabby Fernando, a management consultant. For more details on the company’s operations beyond the family circle, Gabby decided to pursue some “detective work” by having casual chats with the office secretary. Author: Arturo Benedicto M. Ilano Discipline: Strategic Management Industry: Flower Shops Issues: Expansion Strategy, mission and vision, rightsizing strategy Setting: Philippines 1987 Level of Difficulty: Undergraduate/MBA Case Number: 7-1994-02 Teaching Note: 7-1994-02T Prepared by Arturo Benedicto M. Ilano, Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines, as a basis for class discussion. The case is not designed to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of managerial situations. Names of persons and places have been change. The University of the Philippines Business Research Foundation, Inc. supported the writing of this case study. Baby Bloomers is a family enterprise specializing in floral arrangements. Having successfully established itself as a high-quality florist, it is widely known to the market and has been immensely profitable. However, problems...
Words: 1923 - Pages: 8
...Abstract This paper will discuss the four approaches to employee development and which of the approaches are used at Toyota. This paper will explore the advantages and disadvantages of using retired employees to coach new employees in their new positions. This report will also examine how these employee development programs contribute to Toyota’s strength and commitment to continuous improvement and high quality. Finally this paper will discuss how Toyota’s HRM practices have created a competitive advantage for the automaker and whether or not a HR executive at another organization would suggest using the same approaches to development at their company. Toyota’s All-Out Drive to Stay Toyota Employee development is a joint and continuous effort between an employee and the organization for which the employee works, to improve the employee's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Successful employee development should find a balance between an individual's career goals and the organization's needs in order to get work done and achieve company goals (Ohr@umn.edu, 2010). Employee development programs make positive contributions to organizational performance. A company with highly skilled employees and supervisors can achieve much more than those companies that lack developed and skilled workers. Employee development programs make positive contributions to organizational performance. Retaining an employee saves the organization a great deal of money, and one of the best ways to...
Words: 1174 - Pages: 5
...Toyota Toyota is currently the biggest car maker in the world. Toyota’s production model has been for long the envy of Detroit’s big three and the benchmark for the auto industry. The auto market in the US has showed signs of improvement, a sign of encouragement for the company. Toyota has invested billions of dollars to develop manufacturing capabilities and supplier networks to supply those markets. Toyota has many comparative advantages over it peers: a strong operational model that generates high margins; a strong global brand synonymous for quality and a business model that allows it to churn out multiple car models at low cost, high speed and high quality. Although Toyota’s supremacy is not uncontended; the so called big three are improving the quality of their cars, Volkswagen is currently buoyant of its success in Europe and the developing nations like China and Brazil and has announced that it will build a plant in the US, a return after an absence of 20 years. Hyundai has shown how favor for a Brand in the market can change quickly with the success of its Hyundai Elantra. Toyota’s competitors have learnt the merits of working with fewer platforms: reduced cost, increase profitability and better management of quality. Yet Toyota’s main challenge does not come from its competitors, rather from within. Although Toyota’s challenges are internal that does not reduce the magnitude of the issues, indeed the most difficult problems to identify and solve are...
Words: 3200 - Pages: 13
...― 109 ― Toyota and Why It Is So Successful Robert B. Austenfeld, Jr. 1) As of May 2006 GM was still struggling to stay out of bankruptcy. (Received on May 10, 2006) 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to describe one of the most successful companies in the world and explain the reasons for that success. Fortune magazine’s February 20, 2006 edition featured this headline on its cover: “The Tragedy of General Motors” and a story of GM’s woes by Carol J. Loomis. Two weeks later, Fortune’s next edition on March 6, 2006 had this headline on its cover: “How Toyota Does It: The Triumph of the Prius.” This stark contrast is typical of the stories circulating in the media these days. At a time when a company that was once admired and for many years held the lofty position of the world biggest automaker appears on the brink of bankruptcy 1) , Toyota is about to overtake it in global sales this year (O’Dell, 2005). Why is Toyota continuing to thrive at a time when other carmakers are struggling to survive? At the outset I would like to acknowledge the main source for much of the information in this paper: The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker (2004). This paper is organized as follows: 1. Introduction 2. The history of Toyota 3. The Toyota Way 4. Summary and conclusionPapers of the Research Society of Commerce and Economics, Vol. XXXXVII No. 1 ...
Words: 18612 - Pages: 75
...Toyota and Why It Is So Successful Robert B. Austenfeld, Jr. (Received on May 10, 2006) 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to describe one of the most successful companies in the world and explain the reasons for that success. Fortune magazine’s February 20, 2006 edition featured this headline on its cover: “The Tragedy of General Motors” and a story of GM’s woes by Carol J. Loomis. Two weeks later, Fortune’s next edition on March 6, 2006 had this headline on its cover: “How Toyota Does It: The Triumph of the Prius.” This stark contrast is typical of the stories circulating in the media these days. At a time when a company that was once admired and for many years held the lofty position of the world biggest automaker appears on the brink of bankruptcy1), Toyota is about to overtake it in global sales this year (O’Dell, 2005). Why is Toyota continuing to thrive at a time when other carmakers are struggling to survive? At the outset I would like to acknowledge the main source for much of the information in this paper: The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker (2004). This paper is organized as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction The history of Toyota The Toyota Way Summary and conclusion 1) As of May 2006 GM was still struggling to stay out of bankruptcy. Papers of the Research Society of Commerce and Economics, Vol. XXXXVII No. 1 2. The History of Toyota For organizational convenience I will discuss...
Words: 18553 - Pages: 75
...Toyota and Why It Is So Successful Robert B. Austenfeld, Jr. (Received on May 10, 2006) 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to describe one of the most successful companies in the world and explain the reasons for that success. Fortune magazine’s February 20, 2006 edition featured this headline on its cover: “The Tragedy of General Motors” and a story of GM’s woes by Carol J. Loomis. Two weeks later, Fortune’s next edition on March 6, 2006 had this headline on its cover: “How Toyota Does It: The Triumph of the Prius.” This stark contrast is typical of the stories circulating in the media these days. At a time when a company that was once admired and for many years held the lofty position of the world biggest automaker appears on the brink of bankruptcy1), Toyota is about to overtake it in global sales this year (O’Dell, 2005). Why is Toyota continuing to thrive at a time when other carmakers are struggling to survive? At the outset I would like to acknowledge the main source for much of the information in this paper: The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Jeffrey K. Liker (2004). This paper is organized as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction The history of Toyota The Toyota Way Summary and conclusion 1) As of May 2006 GM was still struggling to stay out of bankruptcy. Papers of the Research Society of Commerce and Economics, Vol. XXXXVII No. 1 2. The History of Toyota For organizational convenience I will discuss...
Words: 18553 - Pages: 75
...Collaboration In one automobile, it is typically features with 20,000-30,000 parts, which all of even the largest manufacturers cannot produce themselves. Therefore, the manufacturers have to either outsource the production or purchase finished products from suppliers (including 1st to 3rd tiers). In order to achieve effective supply chain integration, the use of collaboration and coordination among channel partners that share business information, to simplify core processes, streamline cross company operations and reduce consequent channel-wide costs are suggested (Lee & Whang, 2001), (Callioni & Billington, 2001) and (Hammer, 2001) Vertical SCC includes collaboration with customers, internally (across functions) and suppliers. Horizontal SCC includes collaboration with competitors, and non-competitors. In addition, SCC also can be divided into three levels; Strategic, Tactical, and Operational levels. the formation of SCC into 3 categories; Internal-organization factors, Inter-organization and External factors There are many supply chain processes that can be joined between the collaborative partners, for example; planning, scheduling, forecasting, sourcing, production process, delivery process, problem solving, selling, etc. Besides, collaboration can be made by sharing of resources, skill, or knowledge. The success of collaborative efforts cannot be assured unless performance is properly monitored and measured. The collaborative indexes and measurement should...
Words: 4359 - Pages: 18
...Innovation and Business Development Toyota Crisis: Management Ignorance? – A Swedish Case of Consumers Perceptions Master’s Dissertation in Management of Innovation and Business Development, 15 ECTS Final seminar 2010-05-27 Authors: Yuanyuan Feng Supervisor: Mike Danilovic Hamlstad University Feng(2010) TOYOTA CRISIS: MANAGEMENT IGNORANCE? – A SWEDISH CASE OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS Yuanyuan Feng School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, Sweden Abstract Since the late 2009, the famous vehicle manufacture Toyota has suffered a severe crisis due to unintended quality problems in its cars which had triggered Toyota’s largest officially recalls of its cars around the world. This crisis threatens the company’s previous reputation of good quality cars, as well as the brand image built up over time. This study aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to understand why Toyota faces this crisis and how they deal with the crisis; and investigate consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis, with a focus on Swedish market. A qualitative research along with a number of face-to-face interviews with Toyota Swedish dealer and Swedish vehicle consumers is conducted. The findings reveal that the impact of the Toyota crisis in Sweden is not as serious as that in America; there remain satisfied and loyal Toyota’s customers who are not swayed by the negative publicities; While Toyota should manage the crisis even in...
Words: 16008 - Pages: 65
...Michael Greto Andreas Schotter Mary Teagarden Toyota: The Accelerator Crisis The root cause of their problems is that the company was hijacked, some years ago, by anti-family, financially oriented pirates. Jim Press, former President & Chief Operating Officer (COO) Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. On February 24, 2010, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota Motor Corporation’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, endured a grueling question-and-answer session before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The committee represented just one of three Congressional panels investigating the 2009-2010 recall of Toyota vehicles related to problems of sudden acceleration and the company’s delay in responding to the crisis. Signs of the coming recall crisis began as early as 2006 when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into driver reports of “surging” in Toyota’s Camry models. The NHTSA investigation was closed the next year, citing no defects. Over the next four years, Toyota, known in the industry for its quality and reliability, would quietly recall nearly nine million Toyota and Lexus models due to sudden acceleration problems. Toyota’s leadership, widely criticized for its slow response in addressing the problems, now had to move quickly to identify a solution that would ensure the safety of its vehicles, restore consumer confidence, protect the valuable Toyota brand, and recoup a plummeting share price....
Words: 13407 - Pages: 54
...Michael Greto Andreas Schotter Mary Teagarden Toyota: The Accelerator Crisis The root cause of their problems is that the company was hijacked, some years ago, by anti-family, financially oriented pirates. Jim Press, former President & Chief Operating Officer (COO) Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. On February 24, 2010, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota Motor Corporation’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, endured a grueling question-and-answer session before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The committee represented just one of three Congressional panels investigating the 2009-2010 recall of Toyota vehicles related to problems of sudden acceleration and the company’s delay in responding to the crisis. Signs of the coming recall crisis began as early as 2006 when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into driver reports of “surging” in Toyota’s Camry models. The NHTSA investigation was closed the next year, citing no defects. Over the next four years, Toyota, known in the industry for its quality and reliability, would quietly recall nearly nine million Toyota and Lexus models due to sudden acceleration problems. Toyota’s leadership, widely criticized for its slow response in addressing the problems, now had to move quickly to identify a solution that would ensure the safety of its vehicles, restore consumer confidence, protect the valuable Toyota brand, and recoup a plummeting share price....
Words: 13407 - Pages: 54
...a separation between the two businesses and consequently Toyota Motor Company was born. In order to get a deeper understanding over the industry, Kiichiro studied the production system of Ford, the leading car manufacturing company at that time, and later adopted and improved it. Ten years later, in 1947, Toyota started to produce large-scale passenger cars, competing with Ford and General Motors but suffered from Japan’s economy that was going through a rough patch after the Second World War. In the beginning of the 1950’s Eiji Toyoda became president and developed a different process, the Just-in-time system and in the mid 1950’s the Kanban. The company entered the American market in 1958, but only had its first success there in 1968 with the model Corolla and in the 1990’s expanded to other places throughout the world. Throughout the last few years, Toyota, General Motors (GM) and Volkswagen (VW) have been the three main players competing in the automobile industry. In 2011, GM was the leader with 9.03 million dollars of sales, followed by VW with 8.16 million dollars in sales and finally Toyota with 7.9 million dollars. However, these results can be partly explained by not only the 2009-2010 recalls but also the Japanese tsunami and the Thailand floods that affected the supply of car parts. These results don’t mean that Toyota cannot make a comeback, opposed to that, data from the 1st quarter of 2012 shows that Toyota is the leader in sales, with a total of 2.49 million dollars...
Words: 1137 - Pages: 5
...Innovation and Business Development Toyota Crisis: Management Ignorance? – A Swedish Case of Consumers Perceptions Master’s Dissertation in Management of Innovation and Business Development, 15 ECTS Final seminar 2010-05-27 Authors: Yuanyuan Feng Supervisor: Mike Danilovic Hamlstad University Feng(2010) TOYOTA CRISIS: MANAGEMENT IGNORANCE? – A SWEDISH CASE OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS Yuanyuan Feng School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, Sweden Abstract Since the late 2009, the famous vehicle manufacture Toyota has suffered a severe crisis due to unintended quality problems in its cars which had triggered Toyota’s largest officially recalls of its cars around the world. This crisis threatens the company’s previous reputation of good quality cars, as well as the brand image built up over time. This study aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to understand why Toyota faces this crisis and how they deal with the crisis; and investigate consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis, with a focus on Swedish market. A qualitative research along with a number of face-to-face interviews with Toyota Swedish dealer and Swedish vehicle consumers is conducted. The findings reveal that the impact of the Toyota crisis in Sweden is not as serious as that in America; there remain satisfied and loyal Toyota’s customers who are not swayed by the negative publicities; While Toyota should manage the crisis even in a better...
Words: 16008 - Pages: 65
...Michael Greto Andreas Schotter Mary Teagarden Toyota: The Accelerator Crisis The root cause of their problems is that the company was hijacked, some years ago, by anti-family, financially oriented pirates. Jim Press, former President & Chief Operating Officer (COO) Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. On February 24, 2010, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota Motor Corporation’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, endured a grueling question-and-answer session before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The committee represented just one of three Congressional panels investigating the 2009-2010 recall of Toyota vehicles related to problems of sudden acceleration and the company’s delay in responding to the crisis. Signs of the coming recall crisis began as early as 2006 when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into driver reports of “surging” in Toyota’s Camry models. The NHTSA investigation was closed the next year, citing no defects. Over the next four years, Toyota, known in the industry for its quality and reliability, would quietly recall nearly nine million Toyota and Lexus models due to sudden acceleration problems. Toyota’s leadership, widely criticized for its slow response in addressing the problems, now had to move quickly to identify a solution that would ensure the safety of its vehicles, restore consumer confidence, protect the valuable Toyota brand, and recoup a plummeting share price....
Words: 13407 - Pages: 54
...Research Paper Group 2 Abstract This paper will provide an in-depth analysis of the Toyota Prius from a Marketing viewpoint. The research provides background information, market analysis, branding, services/ pricing and promotional information regarding the Toyota Prius. This paper provides the decision making and analytical processes necessary to implement a successful marketing program for the Toyota Prius. Description The Toyota Prius is considered a full size hybrid electric mid-size hatchback. The Prius design offers comfortable seating for five and has impressive cargo space, something lacking with its competitors. The Prius has an estimated fuel-efficiency rating of 50 mpg, when using the U.S. EPA combined cycle. This car is on the top of the list for the most fuel efficient cars on the market. With rising gas prices, this fuel efficient car is the most popular hybrid available to consumers today. The overall design of the Prius is characterized by a streamlined nose and curved roofline. This vehicle carries an impressive base price of about $19,000.00. The Prius has several models and trim packages to choose from allowing the customer more options in the current hybrid market. They have a standard model with a hatchback, a compact version and a new station wagon called the Prius V. “According to Hybrid Car Review (2012), “Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive System allows the Prius V to travel at “in town” speeds on electric power alone. Sensors decide...
Words: 10184 - Pages: 41
