week 4 c/i

Case Study

Case Incident 1

“TOYOTA’S TEAM CULTURE”

Many companies proudly promote their team culture. At Toyota, the promotion seems sincere.

Teamwork is one of Toyota’s core value, along with trust, continuous improvement, long term thinking, standardization, innovation and problem solving. The firm’s value statement says the following: “To ensure the success of our company, each team member has the responsibility to work together, and communicate honestly, share ideas, and ensure team member understanding.” So how does Toyota’s culture reflects its emphasis on teamwork?

First, although individualism is a prominent value in western culture, it is deemphasized at Toyota. In its place is an emphasis on system, in which people and products are seen as intertwined valued streams and people are trained to be problem solver so as to make the product system leaner and better.

Second, before hiring, Toyota tests candidates to ensure they are not only competent and technically skilled but also oriented toward teamwork-able to trust their team, be comfortable solving problems collaboratively, and motivated to achieve collective outcomes.

Third, and not surprisingly, Toyotas structures its work around teams. Every Toyota employee knows the Adage “All of us are smarter than any of us.” Teams are used not only in the production process but also at every level and in every function: In sales and marketing, in finance, in engineering, in design and at the executive level.

Fourth, Toyota considers the team to be the power center of the organizations. The leader serves the team, not the other way around. When asked whether he would feature himself in advertisements the way other automakers had (most famously, “Dr. A,” Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetshce), Toyota USA’s CEO, Yuki Funo, said, “No. We want to show everybody in the company. The heroes. Not one single person.”

Questions Based on case

1. Do you think Toyota has succeed because of its team oriented culture, or do you think it would have succeed without it?

2. Do you think you would be comfortable working in Toyotas culture? Why or Why not?

3. In response to the recession and the firm’s first ever quarterly loss, Toyotas managers accepted a 10% pay cut in 2009 to avoid employee layoffs. Do you think such a response is a good means of promoting camaraderie? What are the risks in such a plan?

4. Recently, DCH Group, a company comprised of 33 auto dealerships, decided to adapt Toyotas culture to its own, particularly its emphasis on teamwork. DCH’s CEO Susan Scarola said, “Trying to bring it down to day-to-day operations is tough. It was not something that everybody immediately embraced, even at the senior level.” Do you think the culture will work in what is typically the dog-eat-dog world of auto dealerships?

Why or why not?