Toyota faced a major crisis from 2009-2010 due to a series of recalls that damaged its reputation for quality and safety. The company took three key steps to recover: 1) Improving communication with customers and dealers to rebuild trust. 2) Empowering regional operations to quickly solve quality issues. 3) Clarifying the company's vision and brand strategy with a renewed focus on exceeding customer expectations. By prioritizing quality improvements, maintaining open communication, and empowering regional autonomy, Toyota was able to recover its brand value and global market position within four years.

1. 1.As a critical thinker I stage I am at is in stage 1-2 around
there. I think I am there because it is sort of truth as a dualism
viewing something as wrong or right is something so true it will
be either that as answer if I am taking a test for example.
Another is binary thinking which is to choose between two
possibility like asking myself what I should do after work play
video game or go bed early. As a little relativism stage
sometime viewing thing in my own opinion matter if it is true or
not.
2. After reviewing the characteristics as a good Critical thinker.
One of them I feel is my strength is research and inquiry skill
because I am pretty good at that for example when I was going
for an interview for a job I was able to get the work by having
this skill. Also, when I was asking to make a presentation on a
certain subject I use this skill to find what I needed to get the
best score and it was useful too. another as my strength is
creative problem solving because I could think fast for certain
problem occur and can solve it example when I was in middle
school someone try to jump off the building and I was quick to
save him by calming him down asking him question and helpful
advice and it save him. what I need to improve is analytical
skill because I am not good and finding solution to sort of
things I don't understand like mathematical problem find hard
time to get it. To try to get better at it I just must practice more
and study it much. Last that I need to improve is open minded
skepticism because sometimes I doubt a little to certain question
and the possibility of knowledge of certain kind. Trying to get
better at it is by really read it carefully to see if it is really
something that is real or not.
Crises at Toyota and Your Client Company

2. In this discussion, review Gerondeau's 2015 article, "How
Toyota Recovered From a
Huge Crisis. What Can Be Learned From It." (as found in this
unit's Studies). Respond to
some or all of the following questions:
o How might Toyota have improved its response to this crisis?
o How does the crisis described in this article relate to the
difficulties your client
company is facing?
o What else have you learned in this unit's readings and
resources that is relevant
to your own Operations Improvement Plan project?
Resources
o Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.
o How Toyota Recovered From a Huge Crisis. What Can Be
Learned From It.
Posted on September 23, 2015

3. (https://thethirdroad.com/?p=280) by ggerondeau
(https://thethirdroad.com/?author=1)
Starting in 2009, Toyota was hit by one of the biggest series of
recalls in the
automotive history. Even though it was later proven that there
was no intention from
Toyota to hide anything and that eventually it was established
no defect affected the
electronics of the car, the damage to the company’s reputation
and business was huge.
In 2007, Toyota had become the number one automotive maker
in the world. This
fantastic continued growth was the result of its reputation on
superior quality and
safety. A lot of literature had described the recipes of Toyota. It
had become the
benchmark for almost every company in the world and a symbol
of quality and
operational efficiency.
All of a sudden, particularly early 2010, everywhere in the
world, the headline of the
news was about Toyota cars having become unreliable and
Toyota having lost its way.

4. The impact was huge for Toyota in terms of sales loss that
could be counted in
hundred thousands. But more importantly, the essence of
Toyota, its reputation was
hit in what was the most important for customers, safety. As
measured by Interbrand,
the brand value of Toyota decreased from 2008 to 2010, in just
2 years, by an
impressive 25% globally and lost 8 billions from 34 to 26
billions US$.
In 2014, Toyota brand value, still according to Interbrand, had
more that recovered
from its pre-crisis level and achieved more than 42 billion
dollars up 62% or 16 billions
US$ from 4 years before in a comfortable first position among
automotive brands.
What made Toyota come back in the race?
I would like to bring here a perspective from inside as I
experienced it of how, under
Akio Toyoda’s leadership, the company recovered.
How Toyota recovered from a huge crisis. What can be learned
from it
Page 1 of 7How Toyota recovered from a huge crisis. What can
be learned from it | The Third Road

5. 10/15/2018https://thethirdroad.com/?p=280
In 2010, I was in charge of marketing and product planning of
Toyota in Europe at
TME (Toyota Motor Europe). In 2011, I was called to Japan to
take the responsibility
of the global “brand project” which eventually became “brand
strategy” in the
marketing arm of Toyota in Japan. I could witness the rebound
from a privileged
position.
There were 3 phases of the recovery.
1) Go back to basic and communicate with customers and
dealers:
What struck me during the crisis was that everybody stayed
relatively calm. We knew
that the foundations and values of the company were still here.
Toyota was about
contribution to society as I could witness everyday.
The first thing we did was to communicate a lot with our
customers and dealers. We
had to explain in all transparency that some things had gone

6. wrong in the company
but that the base, what had made Toyota so successful, had not
disappeared. After the
peak of the crisis, we communicated using our real people to
show that Toyota was
made of people really dedicated to quality. In Europe this
campaign was called: “Your
Toyota Is My Toyota”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tuXDB-i7sU)
Akio Toyoda who had been appointed a year earlier at the helm
of the company, went
in front of the congress to apologize and explain that Toyota
was fully committing to
work transparently to reestablish its reputation.
What was very important is the reaction we got from our
customers and dealers. They
fully supported the company during that period. Customers
appreciated that we made
the effort to contact each of them individually. In fact if our
ability to conquest new
customers was impacted, we did not lose any sales to our loyal
customers at all.
Dealers remained very supportive and loyal too. Akio Toyoda
likes recalling how he

7. was moved to tears during a long standing-ovation in front of
the American dealers.
The famous internal motto, “customer first, dealer second,
Toyota third” proved very
precious in this time.
2) Empower the regions:
Akio Toyoda had the feeling that the company had grown too
big too fast and lost its
way in chasing volume and profit. He established a new
organization to pilot quality
improvements. The base of this organization was to empower
the regions and make
sure that once detected, any defect could be solved in the region
and get the support of
headquarters if necessary. The function of regional Chief
Quality Officer (CQO) was
established. Like-wise, regular organization to identify and cure
the quality issues was
created. In a few months, the time to find and bring solutions to
quality issues was
reduced dramatically. Rather than increasing the level of
control, Akio Toyoda made
Page 2 of 7How Toyota recovered from a huge crisis. What can

8. be learned from it | The Third Road
10/15/2018https://thethirdroad.com/?p=280
the bet that trusting people would be more efficient and it
worked. On a regular basis,
Akio gathered the CQO to make sure that they had the necessary
support from HQ’s.
Akio Toyoda decided to stop the increase of manufacturing
capacity and froze all new
projects of plants. He decided to dedicate temporally a big part
of engineers to quality
issues with the impact that some projects of new cars would be
delayed. By doing so,
he clearly showed where the priority of the company was.
Restoring quality and
confidence was more important than growth or profit.
3) Improve the brand:
A very important move that is less known partly because of
when it was
announced was the clarification of the company vision. Akio
Toyoda considered this
was a key milestone of the company recovery. We needed to go
to basic and define a

9. guidepost so that everyone at Toyota could make decisions
according to the company
vision. It was unveiled on the 9 of March of 2011 two days
before the terrible
earthquake and following tsunami that struck the north east part
of Japan. The link is
here. (http://www2.toyota.co.jp/en/news/11/03/0309_1.html)
The company vision
reemphasized the values and foundations of the brand: quality
and safety first,
contribution to society and continuous improvement. But it
brought what Akio Toyoda
likes calling his personal seasoning: exceeding customers’
expectation and bring a
smile on their face. In short, he brought a customer driven spice
of emotion in the
company policy. It was later summarized in the Japanese
onomatopoeia: “Waku-Doki”
or the feeling of excitement when you anticipate a great
experience. It is on this base
that, in 2011, we started establishing a brand architecture with
the regions, under the
initiative of Hiroshi Takada, head of Toyota Sales and
Marketing after the proposal of

10. Bob Peterson. The goal was to define our own brand journey.
The first 18 months, we
received the support of Jim Stengel, a marketing champion well
known for his
conviction that companies need a purpose. We, collectively with
the head of regional
marketing functions, defined our brand promise, which KPI’s
we wanted to focus on,
which common methods and rituals were to be established,
which actions we wanted
to collaborate on and what our ideal situation should be. This
idea of “freedom within
a frame” was of upmost importance. We defined the frame
collectively, the role of the
leader was to listen, understand, analyze, suggest and inspire
rather than to decide.
Each region would decide to implement its own plans following
the common frame
freely. Transparency in the group, not control, had become the
rule and the level of
emulation and communication became very high. All the
elements of the
communication, from digital to motor-show, from each region’s
tagline to hybrid

11. communication, Toyota was fighting to bring more emotion and
eventually a smile on
customers’ face.
What I learned from those five years had a huge impact on my
life and on how I think
big companies should be managed. It will be a big part of my
book.
I would like to summarize in three key points:
th
Page 3 of 7How Toyota recovered from a huge crisis. What can
be learned from it | The Third Road
10/15/2018https://thethirdroad.com/?p=280
• All organisations should have a purpose that is beyond profit
and growth but
contribute to improve the world
• Company need to have a clear strategy and this strategy cannot
be centrally
defined only
• Management should be left to operations in the frame of the
strategy.

12. Transparency is more important than control
The model of pure consensual bottom-up approach relying on
operational efficiency to
outperform competition has gone, especially when competition
is becoming multi
form. The model of top-down approach relying on control to
ensure implementation
does not work either. Ideas come from everywhere and speed
has become key. It is
time for companies to embrace the “Third Road” of
management.
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17. Due Date: weekly
Percentage of Course Grade: 30%.
Graduate Discussion Participation Grading Rubric
Criteria Non-performance Basic Proficient Distinguished
Apply relevant course
concepts, theories, or
materials correctly.
25%
Does not explain relevant
course concepts, theories,
or materials.
Explains relevant course
concepts, theories, or materials.
Applies relevant course
concepts, theories, or
materials correctly.
Analyzes course concepts,
theories, or materials correctly,

18. using examples or supporting
evidence.
Collaborate with fellow
learners, relating the
discussion to relevant course
concepts.
25%
Does not collaborate with
fellow learners.
Collaborates with fellow
learners without relating the
discussion to the relevant
course concepts.
Collaborates with fellow
learners, relating the
discussion to relevant
course concepts.
Collaborates with fellow learners,

19. relating the discussion to relevant
course concepts and extending the
dialogue.
Apply relevant professional,
personal, or other real-
world experiences.
25%
Does not contribute
professional, personal, or
other real-world
experiences.
Contributes professional,
personal, or other real-world
experiences, but contributions
lack relevance.
Applies relevant
professional, personal, or
other real-world

20. experiences.
Applies relevant professional,
personal, or other real-world
experiences to extend the dialogue.
Support position with
applicable knowledge.
25%
Does not establish
relevant position.
Establishes relevant position. Supports position with
applicable knowledge.
Validates position with applicable
knowledge.
Participation Guidelines
Actively participate in discussions. To do this you should create
a substantive post for each of the
discussion topics. Each post should demonstrate your
achievement of the participation criteria. In
addition, you should respond to the posts of at least two of your

21. fellow learners for each discussion
question—unless the discussion instructions state otherwise.
These responses to other learners should be
substantive posts that contribute to the conversation by asking
questions, respectfully debating positions,
and presenting supporting information relevant to the topic.
Also, respond to any follow-up questions
the instructor directs to you in the discussion area.
To allow other learners time to respond, you are encouraged to
post your initial responses in the
discussion area by midweek. Comments to other learners' posts
are due by Sunday at 11:59 p.m.
(Central time zone).
Print
Graduate Discussion Participation Scoring
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