Develop an 8–10 slide presentation that includes the following:

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Running head: DETERMINING LEADERSHIP AND TALENT OPTIONS AT TOYOTA

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DETERMINING LEADERSHIP AND TALENT OPTIONS AT TOYOTA

DETERMINING LEADERSHIP AND TALENT OPTIONS AT TOYOTA

Richard K. Hairston

GM543.01

Organizational Diagnosis and Design

1/1/18

Professor

Dr. Rebecca Herman

Introduction

As part of a continuum on the best practices in organizational design and diagnosis, milestone three of this series concentrated on the concept of strategy at Toyota Corporation. The paper outlined various quantitative indices as part of a proposal to the best approach for managing strategy within the company. Among others, concepts revolving around operating models and decisional analysis were comprehensively explored as part of creating a substantive argument that had been taken at that point. As part thereof and forming part of the argument presented in these series of papers hitherto, it was conclusively determined that work specialization, decentralization, a span of control and chain of command are integral components of decisional analysis. This series seeks to determine the talent and leadership possibilities at Toyota, with a keen emphasis towards the design of the concept in its entirety as opposed to giving a “report” about what should possibly be done within the company.

Top level reporting

General President

CEOn-1

CEO1

CEO2

CEO3

CEO0

General Managers under each CEO

The top-level reporting structure shall include a company president at the very top, Chief executive officers for the various brands of Toyota. It must be noted that Toyota operates various autonomous companies which produce the various types of the car such as Toyota Wish, Toyota Prado, etc (Russel, 2006). This justifies the need to have these two powerful positions, with the only need for a CEO reporting to a president being the fact that various aspects of the Company’s beliefs need to be maintained constant- such as the design of the company’s logo.

Regional managers will directly report to the CEOs. Since the company mostly exports its products to offshore markets (Cusumano, 2008), it is logical to have managers who understand how the market structures in these regions work so as to improve the company’s sales worldwide.

Executive Team

The executive team, as illustrated by the positions in the “top-level reporting” shall consist of the general president, chief executive officers, and regional managers. The designation of these individuals in terms of role play within the company will heavily hinge on the principles of networks, diagnostics, beliefs, and boundaries (four governance levers). The general president of the company will mostly coordinate and enforce the beliefs of the company, issues such as why the logo should be kept round and its relevance in the modern market. The chief executive officers will need to undertake all roles that involve networking and diagnostics. This shall involve liaising with various offshore and local authorities on what should be introduced into the market. The regional managers will entirely be answerable to all issues that are associated with boundary setting, the demarcation of operational markets and how Toyota will provide best leverage itself as worthwhile competitors in new or otherwise saturated markets. This will bank heavily on executing various research and development activities to ensure that the company remains profitable in these markets (Burmeister, 1988).

The current communication channels within the whole Toyota Company are very effective. They feature the latest integrative technologies within the various managers’ spans of control which has led to an efficient operational model (Fruin, 2008). An increase in the integration of the various managerial roles will be pivotal as part of a campaign of ensuring that the corporation is visionary enough to ensure a competitive advantage several years down the line.

Talent Pivot Points

The following table gives an illustration of Toyota’s pivotal points

Source of Competitive Advantage

Talent Needs

Organization Needs

Diversified products

Vastly experienced design engineers with a rich taste for the common car owner’s design requirements. Toyota engineers are very adaptive and can quickly come up with a new car design which fits the current market requirements

Accommodating the needs of a wide range of varied user requirements in various geographical markets.

Relatively affordable products

Design engineers, logistics, and management team capable of devising the most affordable way of producing a car without significantly reducing the overall profits that are realized by the company.

Reduce production costs, have a clear-cut assurance profit assurance plans for the investors and still manage to offer quality products to its customers. Most of the time, Toyota has been able to produce relatively affordable cars when compared to rival companies such as Audi, Mercedes Benz, and Chevrolet among others.

Established brand and deep market penetrations

Sales personnel with a vast practical experience throughout various Toyota auto-stores all over the world

Achieving global brand recognition. At some point, Toyota worked on developing the brand statement saying “The car in front of you is a Toyota.” On top of cementing the already well-established brand among the Toyota car owners, it also gives them some sense of pride for owning the car brand.

Recommendations for Leadership Development

Some of the common practices that are used for development among a vast majority of successful companies are centered on the “promise” of a potential leader in an already existing employee (Li, 2009). In this continuum, the same industry practices have at this moment been presented as the general rubric plan towards growing potential and promising leaders at Toyota. These revolve around presenting opportunities to individuals who show a capability to move the corporation upwards in the profits ladder, making regional managers and other low-level management personnel autonomous in most of the decision-making processes and holding frequent evaluations on the leaders who have already proved themselves very effective in their various capacities of operation.

Conclusion

The determination of talent and leadership options at Toyota requires assertiveness, a concerted effort and sheer determination of successful corporate design endeavors from the concerned stakeholders. Some of the vital components of this exercise involve examining the top level reporting protocols and structures, the due application of various governance structures, identifying the various pivot points and developing recommendations for leadership within Toyota.

References Burmeister, L. (1988). The Korean Road to Modernization and Development (review). Journal of Korean Studies, 229-234. Cusumano, M. (2008). Competing to be Really, Really Good: The Behind-the-scenes Drama of Capability-Building Competition in Automobile Industry (review). The Journal of Japanese Studies, 548-552. Fruin, W. M. (2008). Shifting Boundaries of the Firm: Japanese Company-Japanese Labor (review). The Journal of Japanese Studies, 144-148. Li, C. (2009). Where Does Confucian Virtuous Leadership Stand? Philosophy East and West, 531-536. Russel, J. (2006). Notes from Toyota-Land: An American Engineer in Japan. Labor Studies Journal, 116-117.