Toyota reverses decision, chooses to again seek quality over market share

Toyota reverses decision, chooses to again seek quality over market share

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

It was back in 2002 when Fujio Cho, then-President of Toyota Motor Corp., set the company's goal of achieving a 15 percent share of the global automotive market sometime after 2010. Seven years ago, it didn't seem much of a stretch as the automaker had already captured 10.7 percent, and the seemingly-unstoppable company was rapidly growing.

While the Japanese automaker's train hasn't completely derailed, the self-imposed deadline looms and Toyota is reeling through a global slump that has served the company its first loss in decades. With market share taking a back seat to survival, current Toyota President Akio Toyoda (right) has dumped Cho's goal in favor of a back-to-basics focus on quality. And, nobody needs to point out that the automaker's latest forecast represents a production decline of nearly one million units compared to last year. An anonymous company executive summed the new president's directive up in just seven words: "Our president doesn't like figures or documents."

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]
Toyota reverses decision, chooses to again seek quality over market share originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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