Introduction
Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1937 by a gentleman called Kichiro Toyora. The company has been named as one of the most admired company dealing in cars for a myriad of years. The company made a serious mistake in 1960s after it had produced Toyopet. This was labeled as a defective car which was unsuited for hilly terrains in the US.
The company later came strong and has since managed to be at the heart of a myriad of Americans with various car innovations, creational of job opportunities through the process of building assembly lines in different parts of the world specifically in the US. Currently, the company has continued to top the truck (Tacoma), sedan (Camry), mid range vehicle (Camry) and Van (Sienna) markets.. (Fujimoto 1999)
The company has the largest share in the global auto mobile industry due to its high outstanding financial records, market, areas of opportunity and finally data. In 2010, the company employed 300,734 people across the world and it was ranked as second in the automobile production in 2010 in terms of production.
By 2012, Toyota reported that it had manufactured almost 200 Million vehicles. Toyota is currently traded in Osaka, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Tokyo. The company is foreign listed in the London and New York Stock Exchange. (Fujimoto 1999)
Strategy (or combination of strategies) used by Toyota to turn it into a powerhouse
The company was able to change its image in 60s and 70s attracting million of customers across the world. The company went greatest upgrade when they introduced the kaizen principle. This was a philosophy which saw increased improvements in the company. The company is important as it’s seldom for the time and progress to remain still.
It is the largest producer in the world and has remained true to the Kaizen principle. The company also applied the two major strategies and principles which were relevant to Porter’s goals. According to Porter, the strength of the company falls into two major strategies; law costs and differentiation. (Nemoto & Lu 1987)
Going by the strength, the company can keep four other strategies; differentiation, cost leadership strategy, differentiation focus strategy and low cost strategy. The company had a marketing strategy which made it possible in the conquering of the world market though facing stiff competition from German companies such as Volkswagen. The company took the steps towards the prevention of promotion of the production of the Volkswagen in the US.
The Japanese experts conducted thorough investigations of the causes of high competitiveness of the cars from German and high to curb the competition superior than those of the competitors. The company followed the policy towards the introduction of the car to the whole world. The company made a car which was better than Volkswagen in terms of the car interior and also the price of the same.
To what extent has Toyota’s strategy (or combination of strategies) changed over the years, or been constant
Toyota Company has undergone different stages in terms of its management and strategies which are meant to ensuring that the sales of the company went high. The kaizen principle has in the past undergone different strategies which have helped it remain the top of the automobile industry across the globe. The marketing strategy which the company applied helped be one of the most lucrative companies in the industry.
The strategy was meant to attract many clients worldwide and reducing the operations of Volkswagen in the US. The continuous upsurge in the sales of the company has been as a result of different changing strategies with time. Given the divergent nature of the market, various combinations of strategies have been changing from one time to a number so as to attract many people in the economy. (Mirza 1998)
How does Toyota’s strategy (or combination of strategies) “fit” with the environment of the automobile industry?
The environment in the automobile industry has been changing from 1960s to date. The company has one a myriad of stages relating from suppliers, competition, financing among others. The first consideration is the threat f new entrants. The strategy of the company has made it easier for them to reduce the existing of new entrants and others from expanding.
The presence of less suppliers of a given product and also the absence of substitutes for the particular product supplied shows the real pressure which is exerted by the real suppliers. The strategy by the company has ensured that those suppliers which are extremely important for the successful operations of the company are availed. (Nemoto & Lu 1987)
Marketing environment in the automobile industry has been competitive. In the auto mobile industry, the major factors which are taken into consideration by clients are price and quality of the product submitted. Toyota ensured that the products they presented to the market were o f very high quality and price friendly. This has made it possible for them to i9ncrease the number of recorded sales on annual basis. (Mirza 1998)
How does Toyota’s strategy (or combination of strategies) “fit” with the internal resources and competencies of the firm?
During the 1960s the company was not operating in the economies of scale and had to use the scarce resources which are there. The strategy which is adopted by Toyota is driven towards ensuring that the revenue which the company records surpass the costs which it adopts.
The planning department works towards ensuring that the values which are presented to the cost accounting department are enough towards the production of the number of cars that helps the company remain profitable. The strategies which the company has implemented has worked t9owards ensuring that they fit with the competencies that the firm has besides taking into consideration the internal resources that it has. (Magee 2007)
Recommendations
For any company to remain profitable, it is important that it minimizes the costs as possible. This paper advances some of the below recommendations to help improve its operations;
Strategies towards reducing the costs; Toyota should ensure that the marginal revenue at any point of its operations is also equivalent to its marginal costs. This will make the company remain profitable.
Marketing should be advanced to convince the populace so as to purchase more of the company products. This will help increasing the company sales.
The company should increase its expenses on the marketing research. This will enable the company know what the customers need. From here the internal and external fittings will be in line with the requirements of the customers. This will see the increase of the company sales as the products which are manufactured will be easily demanded by customers. (Magee 2007)
References
Fujimoto, T. (1999). The evolution of a manufacturing system at Toyota. New York: Oxford University Press.
Magee, D. (2007). How Toyota became #1: leadership lessons from the world’s greatest car company. New York: Portfolio.
Mirza, H. (1998). Global competitive strategies in the new world economy: multilateralism, regionalization, and the transnational firm. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Nemoto, M., & Lu, D. J. (1987). Total quality control for management: strategies and techniques from Toyota and Toyoda Gosei. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc..