|
Even the best and most hardworking of companies go through difficult challenges, and how these crises are overcome can serve as valuable corporate lessons everyone can learn from. In 2009 and up to the beginning of 2010, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) had to do a massive recall of some vehicle models that were reported to experience unintended acceleration. The move made vehicle owners doubt the integrity of the company’s products and the company itself. How did TMC pick itself up after such a blow? The answer is given to us by Jeffrey Liker and Tom Ogden who wrote about just how TMC dealt with the situation. According to them, the TMC culture helped the company face the challenges positively. They noted that this culture, which believes in holding fast to the organization’s core values and vision, helped in overcoming the tough times. Let’s take a look at the lessons we can learn from the crisis experienced by TMC. The first lesson is all about how a company’s culture and people regard crises. A company that has a culture of transparency, that accepts responsibility for mistakes is off to a good start in crisis resolution. Also, a good organizational culture encourages people to strive for improvement and to take on even the most difficult of challenges. By investing on people and their capabilities, companies are sure to have a good team that takes pride in their work, and that no amount of failure will make them stop striving for the best. Lesson number two deals with responsibility. Toyota has accepted responsibility for the mechanical issues in their cars. In the response to correct this, the company has had to analyze where they went wrong, and of course several factors would come up. Of course, one could say that in every problem, there are certain factors that are beyond one’s control. The challenge—and lesson—here then is to consider why these factors were overlooked, and then respond in such a way that you could then take these into consideration. The third lesson opens our eyes to see that even the best culture can develop weaknesses. This could be taken positively as a way to strive to continually improve, to work on the weaknesses so they would become strengths. It’s another way of saying “learn from your mistakes.” In any business, making mistakes is inevitable, but what’s good about this is that you can correct these mistakes to improve your products and your business decisions. The fourth and last lesson from Toyota’s response during their crisis is about learning to respond according to the demands of the times. In TMC’s case, one of the root causes identified was the centralized decision-making. The commands come from one principal, making those at the periphery—those who are knowledgeable about the local culture—powerless. To amend this, the company has started to pursue a regionalization strategy to give decision-making power to those who have the training, understanding, and knowledge to undertake the task. As we can see from these lessons, having a strong corporate culture can be greatly beneficial in a time of crisis. If ever you find yourself in a corporate quandary, just look to Toyota for inspiration, and you are sure to overcome it.
Related Articles -
Toyota, used cars, japanese used cars,
|
