New Toyota CEO's Speech on Their Recovery Plan

Akio Toyoda:

was appointed president of Toyota Motor Corporation at the board of directors meeting held on June 23, following the Ordinary General Shareholders' Meeting on the same day. In addition to my comments here today, our executive vice presidents will provide remarks on their areas of business.

The global automobile industry has been facing extreme hardships since the latter half of last year. As for Toyota, we ended the last fiscal year with an operating loss of 461 billion yen. We expect our losses to deepen this fiscal year, and so all of us in the new management team at Toyota feel like we are setting sail during a storm.

Since the birth of Toyota, the company's philosophy has always been to "contribute to society." The first article of the Toyoda Precepts, our original statement of purpose as a company in 1935, states that we must contribute to the development and welfare of each country we operate in by working together - regardless of individual position - in faithfully fulfilling our duties. In other words, we must manufacture high-quality vehicles for the benefit of society.

"Contributing to society" at Toyota means two things. First, it means, "to manufacture automobiles that meet the needs of society and enrich people's lives." And second, "to take root in the communities we serve by creating jobs, earning profits and paying taxes, thereby enriching the local economies where we operate."

Unfortunately, we are currently losing money and that negatively affects the amount of revenue we pay the government in Japan and our host countries. Like everyone in the company, I am extremely frustrated about this.

So, we must start again from the very bottom up.

The 70-year history of Toyota has been filled with many challenges. Toyota stood close to the verge of bankruptcy in 1950 and suffered a labor dispute that reduced its workforce by a quarter. As a result, the president and other top executives chose to take responsibility for the situation by resigning. But this experience also marked the starting point of the strong labor-management relations that have supported Toyota to this day.

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Rather than asking, "How many cars will we sell?" or, "How much money will we make by selling these cars?" we need to ask ourselves, "What kind of cars will make people happy?" as well as, "What pricing will attract them in each region?" Then we must make those cars.