Strategic Management
Q1: What were the drivers of Toyota’s accelerator crisis? Why was Toyota facing a recall crisis?
The drivers of Toyota’s accelerator crisis are the quality issues with its vehicles. Within six months, millions of cars had been recalled back for modification under the potential problems with the floor mat, acceleration pedals, and braking which were related to sudden or unintended acceleration problems by public. Even though Toyota has already a full-blown crisis on its hands, but the problem has been compounded by a long-delayed and less-than-reassuring response from Toyota.
Toyota abandoned its mantra of quality, and aggressively seek market share. Toyota expended rapidly in order to become the top global manufacturer, but its quality began to decline and also leading to its reputation beginning to slip. Toyota developed a pattern of slow reactions and secrecy in regards to safety concerns and defects in its vehicles. When definitive causes were found, their marketing team should have publicized the investigation to show that the company was listening to consumers and in complete control of the situation. Lentz said Toyota 's recall crisis taught the automaker need to be "much more transparent, both inside and outside the company." "You have to be able to listen to your customers, not just hear them, but listen to what they 're telling you -- and be quick about it." (Rechtin, 2014)
Q2:Michael Porter claims that “operational effectiveness” is not a strategy. Why was operational effectiveness such a focus at Toyota? What are the downsides of “lean manufacturing”?
Michael Porter believes that a strategy is based on how the company differentiates itself from its competitors while operational effectiveness is on improving on what the organizations have.(Porter, 1996/11) Toyota’s focus on operational effectiveness is to build and improve on the company’s very own resources “Kaizen”, and to save costs as well as time in terms of production against its rivals,
The drivers of Toyota’s accelerator crisis are the quality issues with its vehicles. Within six months, millions of cars had been recalled back for modification under the potential problems with the floor mat, acceleration pedals, and braking which were related to sudden or unintended acceleration problems by public. Even though Toyota has already a full-blown crisis on its hands, but the problem has been compounded by a long-delayed and less-than-reassuring response from Toyota.
Toyota abandoned its mantra of quality, and aggressively seek market share. Toyota expended rapidly in order to become the top global manufacturer, but its quality began to decline and also leading to its reputation beginning to slip. Toyota developed a pattern of slow reactions and secrecy in regards to safety concerns and defects in its vehicles. When definitive causes were found, their marketing team should have publicized the investigation to show that the company was listening to consumers and in complete control of the situation. Lentz said Toyota 's recall crisis taught the automaker need to be "much more transparent, both inside and outside the company." "You have to be able to listen to your customers, not just hear them, but listen to what they 're telling you -- and be quick about it." (Rechtin, 2014)
Q2:Michael Porter claims that “operational effectiveness” is not a strategy. Why was operational effectiveness such a focus at Toyota? What are the downsides of “lean manufacturing”?
Michael Porter believes that a strategy is based on how the company differentiates itself from its competitors while operational effectiveness is on improving on what the organizations have.(Porter, 1996/11) Toyota’s focus on operational effectiveness is to build and improve on the company’s very own resources “Kaizen”, and to save costs as well as time in terms of production against its rivals,
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