Preview

Compare and contrast Toyota and Volkswagen in terms of their international business strategies

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1318 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare and contrast Toyota and Volkswagen in terms of their international business strategies
The lean production which pioneer by Toyota is widely recognized by the world 's automotive industry, that is because Toyota shakes the American automaker 's dominance. This suggested mode of production insists on human-centric, achieves manufacturing just-in-time and automation, reduces and limits the cost to a greatest extent.� When Volkswagen entered the Chinese market, and established the FAW-Volkswagen, it phases the lean production system, and the staffs optimize from the initially more than 8000 to 5700 people.�

However, as an old Japanese industrial enterprise, Toyota carried out a Japanese-style management notion, which is the obedience from senior management and reflected a kind of Japanese spirit.� In the wake of globalization of production, cultural clash has gradually emerged. Enterprises should face the changes from a single culture to multicultural environment. In addition, employees who have different nationalities, different beliefs work together, the dealing with administrative affairs will inevitably different. The core management absolutely expected that the overall enterprise could correspond with their own management notion; therefore it promotes enterprise culture which could influence the company from top down. But, just relying on several managers who are strange from Japan, it seemed to exceedingly slight to change numerous local employees.� Ultimately, the perfect Japanese management model is broken down, that is not because the original design makes mistakes in structure, but the conflict with the lower-level managers in carrying out. Thus, the enterprise culture should be not the pure from top down, it needs to listen more from the people on the ground, and gradually form an integrated cultural environment.�

In reality, in Volkswagen Company, it is always appeared that gaps remain between local employees and senior managers. And to be a local employee or a small junior & middle-manager, it is sometimes very hard to understand why the



References: Dougherty, C. (2007) _Volkswagen Prepares Reorganization to Centralize Management_ [Online]. Available at: <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10iht-vw.4163537.html> Downs, J Liker, J. K. & Hoseus, M. (2007) _Human Resource Development in the Toyota Culture_ [Online]. Available at: <http://www.edcoinfo.com/CEDocuments/Downloads_GetFile.aspx?id=316006&fd=0> Smith, P Volkswagen Annual Report (2008) _Driving Ideas-Annual Report 2008_ [Online]. Available at: <http://www.volkswagenag.com/vwag/vwcorp/info_center/en/publications/2009/03/GB_2008.-bin.acq/qual-BinaryStorageItem.Single.File/Y_2008_e.pdf > Wartzman, R � Environmental & Social Report (2003) Toyota Social and Economic Aspects-Employees [Online]. Available at: <http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/environmental_rep/03/jyugyoin03.html> � Wartzman, R � Anand (2008) Volkswagen Orients Human Resources Work Worldwide to Its Growth Strategy [Online]. Available at: <http://machinist.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1322&Itemid=2> � Dougherty, C � Downs, J. (2009) Toyota Employment Tradition in Jeopardy [Online]. Available at: <http://www.jobbankusa.com/News/Employment/toyota_employment_tradition_in_jeopardy.html> � Smith, P � China Information News (2001) The Revelation of FAW-Volkswagen 's Innovative Management [Online]. Available at: <http://auto.sina.com.cn/news/2001-08-01/12180.shtml>

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The risk of entry by potential competitors in the automobile industry is weak because a substantial amount of capital is needed to begin an automobile company and to maintain it as well. Companies already in the automobile industry have an absolute cost advantage against potential new automobile producers. Toyota’s “lean production system” was an innovative process of producing vehicles in a cost effective manner without forgoing quality. The lean production system was imitated by America companies after 30 years of its existence. It is a superior production process that was not simple for an established company to imitate and would be exponentially harder for a new company to imitate.…

    • 1239 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The United States has been a world leader in manufacturing for the greater part of the 20th century. However its previously seemingly unassailable position as an automotive production powerhouse has been gradually eroded since the 1980’s. Japanese manufacturers with their innovations in, so called, lean production techniques, have consistently outperformed their American counterparts and have been able to come up with a better…

    • 2038 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The evolution of Toyota's advanced human resource management can be traced to the period immediately following the Second World War when the economic outlook was uncertain and human, natural and capital resources were in limited supply. The company developed a highly efficient production system, called lean production to utilize human resource more efficiently. Today, Toyota's philosophy of empowering its workers is the core of a human resources management system. It grows creativity and innovation by encouraging employee participation, and brings high levels of employee loyalty.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Culture on Toyota

    • 4144 Words
    • 17 Pages

    This case study analyses the corporate culture of Toyota by using two theories and then analyze the national cultures of Japan and USA by using two theories and its impact on the corporate culture of Toyota. The models of “Edgar Schein” and “Charles Handy” will be used to analyze the corporate culture of Toyota while the models of “Greet Hofstede” and “Fons Trompenaars” will be used to analyze the national cultures. Afterwards the case study will discuss the climate of Toyota and the impact of the same to its success. Also the case study will analyze the reasons as to why the Toyota Company had to face failures and whether the company culture had any impact in the same. It will also point out on how the culture of Toyota had become inflexible over a period where the company was facing rapid expansions in to other countries and how it had impacted the success of the company. Finally the author will provide with suggestions and advice as to how Toyota could do in the future on developing their corporate culture.…

    • 4144 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    of employees: 338 875 (03/31/2014) 3 LOGO History of Toyota 1937: Toyota Motor Co, Ltd established 1938: Just in time launch 1950: Toyota Motor Sales Co, Ltd established 1957: Toyota Motor Sales Co, USA Inc. established 1982: Merger of Sales and Motor Co. 4 LOGO History of Toyota 1984: Production commenced at NUMMI 1995: International Business Plan announced 1996: Global Vision 2005 announced 2001: Toyota Way announced 2002: Global Vision 2010 announced 2011: Global Vision 2020 announced 5 LOGO History of Toyota - Growth of Japan economy & enhancement of Toyota’s Management - Rapid expansion of Globalization Leaping forward as a Global Co 1980s~2020s 1960s~1980s - Mass production and continual developments of new models - Satisfy public needs Entering the Automotive Business - From textiles to Automobiles - Establishment of Automotive business 1930s~1960s Taking on the automotive business 6 LOGO History of Toyota Part 2: Entering the Automotive business (1960s ~1980s)  Mass production and continual development of new models:…

    • 1143 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dore, R. P. (1973). British factory, Japanese factory: The origins of national diversity in industrial relations.…

    • 3793 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    HRM Toyota

    • 1577 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Human resources may be defined as the knowledge, creativity, skills, and talents of an organization, as well as the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the individuals involved and towards the organization. Human resource management is a undoubtedly important role in a company, which is why I chose the company Toyota. Toyota offers a full line of products for just about every need and lifestyle such as cars, trucks, SUV’s, hybrids, motorcycles and minivans. Toyota a massive car empire manufactures vehicles every day; this company has 53 production sites in 27 countries around the world (Piotrowski Chris 2010). In the fiscal year 2009 Toyota sold approximately 7.5 million vehicles worldwide in about 170 countries under the Toyota, Daihatsu, and Hino brands which ranked them as the 5th largest company in the world (Piotrowski Chris 2010). In 2005, Toyota was 8th on the Forbes list of over 2000 leading world companies but due to a largely financial crisis in 2008 the company had an enormous debt and had to borrow 3 billion dollars to keep on producing (Piotrowski Chris 2010). “A fatal car crash in Southern California in August 2009 led to the start of a massive recall” (Andrews Anthony P 2011). This lead to the entire reason of the terrible human resource management Toyota had to deal with the recall, they did handled the entire recall poorly. Toyota did not act quick enough to the public about the information of the mechanical failures of the vehicles which led to a fine by the US government of 16 million dollars in addition Toyota had to deal with massive public pressure and legal lawsuits (Andrews Anthony P 2011).…

    • 1577 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Autolatina, a joint venture of Ford and Volkswagen (VW), was created in 1987 in Brazil. The partners created the new company in order to serve the highly protected car markets of Brazil and Argentina from within. In addition, their goal was to create a giant theoretically invincible in the Latin American market. The partners’ strategy was to share the risk of operating in a volatile market and support a wide model range. Soon after the fusion, Autolatina market share reached 60% in the Brazilian market and 30% in Argentina.…

    • 2235 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Toyota motor group has been a major manufacturing company for many years and has continuously given great products. According to Kramer, “Toyota has had legendary success as an international company over the last quarter of the Twentieth Century and the first decade of the Twenty-first Century. However, the highly publicized safety problems the company has faced in the recent past have somewhat diminished the company's image for some.” First I am going to discuss the history and why their company is so successful. Then I am going to discuss the recent safety issues that Toyota has had and how is it has impacted their company. Also, as many companies are very production and marketing based, I am going to discuss which factor influences Toyota the most. As previously stated, Toyota is a great company and it has influence on many other companies. I will be discussing those influences and why Toyota continues to be a strong company despite some major downfalls in their past.…

    • 3981 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Strategic Human Resource (SHRM) management is human resource management with a strategic edge, linking both business strategy with human resource (HR) strategy of an organization. Human resource management has become an integral part of almost all the companies all over the world. Human resource management concerns not only how peoples are managed but also how managing people could maximize the competitive advantage in that market sector (Tyson, 1991 p2). Business strategies are defined as a strategy of a particular business unit (Tyson 2000, p66). Human resource(HR) strategy is a series of policies and programs designed to achieve a people management objective (Tyson, 2000 p66) .SHRM on a broader term is a overall sense of mission and direction, an appreciation in general terms of where the company is going and why. This may include articulation of core values, distinctive competencies and corporate vision. SHRM also focuses on translating the complex and dynamic set of internal and external variables, which an organization faces, into a future oriented framework which can then be implemented on a day to day basis (Watson, 1999). In the subsequent paragraphs, This study tries to explain why and how different automobile companies adopt different business and HR strategies. For this study focuses on works of two authors Porter (1980) who has classified business competitive strategy into three types: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus and of that of Schuler and Jackson (1987) who has classified business strategy into three types: cost reduction, innovation, and quality enhancement (Huang 1999). At the end it would try to reach at an particular point where by the help of the practical and secondary data it can identify the best HR and Business practices.…

    • 2427 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Toyota

    • 13534 Words
    • 55 Pages

    ^ "Toyota: A history of the First 50 Years", Toyota Motor Corporation, 1988, ISBN 0-517-61777-3, p102.…

    • 13534 Words
    • 55 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tqm Success Stories

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages

    From the beginning, Toyota has had "Continuous Improvement" and "Respect for People" as its pillars, and as its moral foundation the Toyota Way summarized in the five keywords, "Challenge," "Kaizen," "Genchi Genbutsu," "Respect" and "Teamwork." For employees, Toyota steadily promotes various measures including human resource development and healthcare so that the employees could work with confidence, vigor and enthusiasm. Also, under a labor-management relationship based on mutual trust and mutual responsibility, Toyota respects for employees' diversities such as culture, nationality, race, language, religion, gender, age or view/perspective.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    attitudes and values

    • 7065 Words
    • 29 Pages

    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate employee values and work-related attitudes in…

    • 7065 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    HR Practics In Toyota

    • 2007 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational automaker and the headquarters is located in Japan. The capital value of Toyota is 397.05 billion yen and it has employed 317,716 employees. Main business activities of Toyota are that motor vehicle production and sales but it has diversified the business to housing, financial service, e-TOYOTA business, marine, and Biotechnology & forestation (www.toyota-global.com, accessed April 2012). The main competitor of Toyota is General Motors and Volkswagen. The total market share of Toyota is 11%, accessed April 2012). The Toyota Way (TTW) was introduced in 2001 with the philosophy of continues improvement and respect to people (www.toyotauk.com, accessed April 2012). This philosophy allowed Toyota to implement many human resources strategies to gain the competitive advantage through its human resources. This assignment is based on the human resources practices of Toyota Motor Corporation.…

    • 2007 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Toyota Report

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Toyota Motor Corporation is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading multinational companies by Forbes 2000 list (Forbes 2000 2005). Our acuity of experiences in dealing with environmental initiatives and sustainability issues has allowed us to have the sufficient capacity to provide recommendations to the Local Network. As specified in our guiding principles on our company’s website (Toyota), we acknowledge the importance in supporting environmental initiatives and also for respect and support of social viability. In order to achieve better compliance, we suggest the following recommendations:…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics