Toyota in the Driver's seat

Toyota in the Driver's seat

"GM has been the world's largest automaker since 1931, but Toyota Motor Corp. looks to claim that crown as early as next year as it continues to grow in the softening U.S. auto market as well as in Asia, Europe and South America."

"As GM tries to win customers with deep discounts, Toyota is raising prices on some models. Unlike GM, the Japanese automaker is winning market share by making quality vehicles that people want to buy."

" Toyota's Camry is the best-selling passenger car in the U.S., its Prius is the most popular gas-electric-powered hybrid, and for the last five years the company's Lexus has been the top-selling luxury brand."

 

Not to be off-track, since I started this thread, but everything you're saying translates into other aspects of decisionmaking.

What comes immediately to mind is.....school reform. I'm a teacher. Schools are doing better than they've ever done. But there is always room for improvement. However, most "reform" falls into the GM/ magic bullet/ instant results category. From phonics to whole language, no one stays the long haul and no one (I.E. administrators and politicians) never wait long enough to see the results of any changes that have been made. I've seen results that took six years to finally be significant enough to really prove themselves, but even then they weren't major enough because the change didn't go far enough (IMO).

Toyota isn't the only company operating on a long term plan. The Japanese culture operates this way. Their school system looks 20 years down the road, ours looks toward the end of the year test scores. We have no patience.

It's been my complaint about our government. Our politicians don't look 20 years down the road, they only look toward the next election. For that matter, so do the voters. We have no patience.

I don't know what, if anything, can be done to change this attitutude. Maybe I'm just really weird, but my life plans included getting a masters degree, buying a house and then long term "stages" of improvements to that house. I've finished two major changes and have one more to go in about 5-10 years. I started my retirement account at age 30 and have increased it periodically over the years. I'll retire at 58. I'm completing a second masters degree so I can start a second career after retirement.

Companies aren't like people. You don't have to make a long term plan that fits in a lifetime. You can plan for the next 50 years or 100 years. I'm sure Toyota has a 100 year plan. And that's why they spent the time and money to develop the Prius. They're looking at what people are going to be driving in 20, 50 and 100 years. They have peak oil very much in mind and they're planning for a future without oil.

And you're right. The 'get the money and get out' attitude of our domestic CEOs is what is killing some of our companies. People are losing their retirements to the "Enron plague". And our economy is suffering from the illegal activities and the bail-outs.

I don't have an answer.