Every day goes by, and it seems that a new Toyota drama series is exposed, which makes the “Will Toyota Survive” question relevant. For instance a recent article Toyota Recall Class-Action Suits Could Cost The Automaker $3 Billion delves into the potential costs if class-action suits are accepted by the courts. It states,
Such class-action lawsuits “are more scary for Toyota than the cases where people actually got injured,” said Tom Baker, a University of Pennsylvania law professor. “A super-big injury case would be $20 million. But you could have millions of individual car owners who could (each) be owed $1,000. If I were Toyota, I’d be more worried about those cases.”
The AP conducted an extensive review of federal court filings and uncovered a total of 89 class-action lawsuits filed nationwide as of Monday.
Then on Monday, March 8, while Toyota is declaring that electronics is not the cause of unintended acceleration, a Prius owner/driver calls 911 in California reporting he is at the wheel of a runaway car. The driver even states that he reached down with his hand, physically pulling the gas pedal back to no avail. He states that he will never drive that car again.
As each of these stories unfold, they add to the fodder of a great company gone bad. For close to two months now - its been front page news. How is Toyota reacting to their problem? Toyota is planning on turning up the volume by going on the offensive. It is going to change the story from “fear of driving” back to the “passion of driving and the passion for the Toyota brand.” And this is where the story could get interesting. Michael Rose pens an interesting article, Toyota: Learning the Wrong Lessons? Rose presents the interesting parallels between GM in the 80s and 90s, to what Toyota is doing today. And we all know what happened to GM and its slide from stardom lasting over 20 years.He closes the article,
Harry Pearce staved off the attack on GM with his public relations sleight of hand that demolished the opponents. However, the company didn’t use its reprieve to fix its problems.
If it turns out that Toyota is just embracing the lessons of the old GM and its troubles keep simmering long enough, there might be a glimmer of hope for the former big three that are now producing vehicles that actually do rival the competition.
The future of Toyota lies in the hands of Toyota. What did they learn, if anything? Will they change the culture inside Toyota, so it more closely resembles the culture inside their assembly plants? Will they quit blaming and start owning the problem? Will they learn from their mistakes?
My guess is, Toyota will survive. However, whether or not Toyota thrives is a different question. For Toyota to thrive, it will have to show the world it deserves their trust, and to achieve this, Toyota will have to change their ways. And as we have come to learn, this is very difficult to achieve in the Japanese culture.
