Thursday
Feb112010
Oh Toyota! Where to from here?
Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 1:18PM
There is a lot of press on what is happening to Toyota these days. With the problems of sticky accelerators on some models and brakes that don’t seem to want to stick on others, the company that was the icon of quality for three plus decades is in uncharted territory. The problems the company is facing are not just fit or finish. The problems are not the annoying rattles or squeaks that once plagued other nameplates on their way down as Toyota was ascending. These problems are not even the durability and reliability problems other makes had when Toyota cars ran on and on with significantly lesser cost of ownership.
These problems, these quality problems of Toyota, are significant. Cars that accelerate on their own and cars that do not stop as reliably as they should strike at the heart of what a car is supposed to do: get people safely from point A to point B. These are serious quality issues. Toyota Motor Company is having serious quality issues. I never thought I would ever utter or type such a sentence.
There is an old boy scout adage that if you are at the North Pole, the only step you can take is south. If Toyota is, or was, the company that embodied quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction, there is no reason to believe that they would be there forever. People were saying the same thing about General Motors in the 1950s and 1960s. You would have said the same thing about Sears versus that upstart Wal-Mart outfit during that same timeframe. How about the companies that seemed invincible but were only that because of their charismatic leader: Sony under Akio Morita and GE with Jack Welch at the helm. Why is it I never see anyone around me using a Motorola or Nokia phone?
Nothing lasts forever. Countries come and go. Languages come and go. The Roman Empire fell. Species become extinct. What makes us believe that companies are immune to the same fate? Simply, they seem too big and too strong to fail. Yet, if the environment changes and the management does not adapt, sticking instead with what was successful, they risk extinction or becoming much less imposing. Ask General Motors, Sears, and Sony. Ask IBM why they are essentially out of the hardware business. Ask what part of the Jack Welch secret sauce was missing when his lieutenants took over Home Depot and other companies only to fail. What made us think that this could not and would not happen to Toyota… and maybe someday to Wal-Mart, Apple, and others.
Toyota is at a crossroads. This is uncharted territory for them. It will be fascinating to see how they handle this. Will they adapt and come out of this period stronger and better than ever? Or, will they survive but be something much then they were just a few short months ago. This will be about leadership, integrity, and doing the right thing for the consumers. It is about quality with a capital Q.
I am an avid Toyota Consumer, still loyal and hopeful for the company!
These problems, these quality problems of Toyota, are significant. Cars that accelerate on their own and cars that do not stop as reliably as they should strike at the heart of what a car is supposed to do: get people safely from point A to point B. These are serious quality issues. Toyota Motor Company is having serious quality issues. I never thought I would ever utter or type such a sentence.
There is an old boy scout adage that if you are at the North Pole, the only step you can take is south. If Toyota is, or was, the company that embodied quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction, there is no reason to believe that they would be there forever. People were saying the same thing about General Motors in the 1950s and 1960s. You would have said the same thing about Sears versus that upstart Wal-Mart outfit during that same timeframe. How about the companies that seemed invincible but were only that because of their charismatic leader: Sony under Akio Morita and GE with Jack Welch at the helm. Why is it I never see anyone around me using a Motorola or Nokia phone?
Nothing lasts forever. Countries come and go. Languages come and go. The Roman Empire fell. Species become extinct. What makes us believe that companies are immune to the same fate? Simply, they seem too big and too strong to fail. Yet, if the environment changes and the management does not adapt, sticking instead with what was successful, they risk extinction or becoming much less imposing. Ask General Motors, Sears, and Sony. Ask IBM why they are essentially out of the hardware business. Ask what part of the Jack Welch secret sauce was missing when his lieutenants took over Home Depot and other companies only to fail. What made us think that this could not and would not happen to Toyota… and maybe someday to Wal-Mart, Apple, and others.
Toyota is at a crossroads. This is uncharted territory for them. It will be fascinating to see how they handle this. Will they adapt and come out of this period stronger and better than ever? Or, will they survive but be something much then they were just a few short months ago. This will be about leadership, integrity, and doing the right thing for the consumers. It is about quality with a capital Q.
I am an avid Toyota Consumer, still loyal and hopeful for the company!
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