International Business across borders - A Case Study on Toyota

The report provides a brief overview of Toyota's market conditions in Australia, its role in knowledge management and innovation, and competitive dynamics. It concludes that Toyota is one of the leading companies with respect to auto vehicles, but its competitors also attain a key position with respect to technological innovation.

RUNNING HEAD: TOYOTA
International Business across borders

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Company overview..........................................................................................................................2
Competitive Dynamics....................................................................................................................2
Market conditions............................................................................................................................2
Knowledge Management.................................................................................................................4
Innovation........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The research report is prepared on the title ‘International Business across borders’. The
first section provides a brief overview of Toyota. It includes market conditions faced by the
company with respect to Australia. The next section focuses on Toyota’s role in knowledge
management and innovation. The key purpose of the report is to pour light on some of the
important aspects of Toyota in Australia. Additionally, it provides an opportunity to upgrade the
knowledge based on the given title.
Company overview
It is a multinational vehicle manufacturing company from Japan. It was one of the
companies with fastest-selling cars and nameplates. It has also emerged as a leading green brand.
As per the research, it is studied that Toyota has a leading market in 28 countries including India
and Australia (Liker, 2012).
Competitive Dynamics
In order to lower down the competition and attained a specific position in Australia and
global market, Toyota has relied heavily on Knowledge management system and Innovation
techniques. It has also adopted sustainable practices like development of hybrid vehicles.
Additionally it provides more valuable, innovative, reliable and green vehicles from competitors
like Ford and Honda (Forbes , 2016).
Market conditions
As per the research, it is examined that Toyota has sold around 6.6 million vehicles in
Australia. It has around 1300 employees that are serving Australian customers. Its strength of
high number of employees suggests that it has subsequent demand for its vehicles. Despite
Japan, Australia acts a good international market for Toyota. It was one of the leading companies
in Australia with a sales growth rate of 3.3% and industry growth rate of 0.9% (Toyota , 2017).
Its high sales growth was one of the factors that have assisted the company in achieving a
respectable market position. Thus, it suggests that Toyota attained a fine market conditions in
Australia (Toyota , 2017).

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However, because of the high manufacturing cost, competitive market and low
economies, gradually it has started facing heavy losses (BBC, 2014). Additionally, it has also
faced intense competition from the companies mentioned below:
Figure1: Toyota major competitors
Source: (Owler , 2019)
Ford Motors Company: It has relied on the use of technically upgraded mass
production methods. Additionally, to develop technological advancement, it is investing billions
for adopting the new technology. Further, it is planning to develop a technology named as F3T
that will lower the manufacturing cost (Corporate Ford , 2019).
Hyundai Motors: With respect to technological innovation, it is adding new features to
its cars like ‘Driver Assist Package’ and ‘Adaptive Cruise Control’ (Livemore Ford, 2019). It
includes heated steering wheels and rain-sensing windshield wipers (Stroh , 2015).
Nissan Motors Corporation: With respect to technology, it has recently launched an
electric van. It is also planning to develop autonomous drive vehicles (MSN, 2014).
Therefore, from the year 2017, it has stopped the operations of manufacturing cars in
Australia (ABC , 2014). Thus, it suggested that Toyota should have upgraded its technological

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innovation and have invested in ‘Research & development’ and ‘Green Technology’ to lower
down its competition.
Knowledge Management
It is a system assisting the individual to share, access and upgrade the business
knowledge and information in an organization. In order to develop knowledge management,
various approaches are taken to provide knowledge to the right individuals. Toyota has
developed various practices with respect to knowledge management. It used to select specific
employees groups and provide them required training in its existing factors. Thus, it helps the
new workers to gain knowledge from highly experienced worker. It also provides document to
its workers that provides detailed description of the task assigned. Thus, it lays prior attention in
improving its workers knowledge (Becerra-Fernandez, 2014).
Innovation
Toyota is one of the innovative car companies in the global world (Basulto, 2011). This is
because the high contribution in innovation. Some of them are mentioned below:
 It was the first mass producer of hybrid vehicles.
 It has developed a vehicle named as ‘Mirai’. It is a commercial vehicle with a function to
run off hydrogen (Fastcompany, 2019).
 It has launched two innovative safety technologies. These are ‘Pre Collision System’ and
‘Automated Highway Driving Assist’. These enhance safety without compromising on
the driver’s enjoyment level.
 It has developed ‘Wireless EV charging’.
 In order to strain out of walking, it has developed ‘Toyota Winglet’. It mainly benefits
ageing population as it has capacity to travel 6 miles (Budde, 2015).
Conclusion
Thus, the above discussion suggests that Toyota is one of the leading companies with
respect to auto vehicles. However, it concludes that besides Toyota, its competitors also attain a

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key position with respect to technological innovation. Thus, they provide tough competition to
Toyota in the Australian market.

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Bibliography
ABC , 2014. Toyota timeline: Carmaker's closure to end long history in Australia. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-11/toyota-timeline/5251444 [Accessed 16
September 2019].
Basulto, , 2011. How Toyota became the most innovative car company in the world. [Online]
Available at: https://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/how-toyota-became-the-most-innovative-
car-company-in-the-world [Accessed 16 September 2019].
BBC, 2014. Toyota to end car production in Australia by 2017. [Online] Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-26114894 [Accessed 16 September 2019].
Becerra-Fernandez, I.a.S.R., 2014. Knowledge management: Systems and processes. Routledge.
Budde, B..A.F.a.H.M., 2015. On the relation between communication and innovation activities:
A comparison of hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles. Environmental Innovation and Societal
Transitions, 14, pp.45-59.
Corporate Ford , 2019. 100 Years of the Moving Assembly Line. [Online] Available at:
https://corporate.ford.com/articles/history/100-years-moving-assembly-line.html [Accessed 16
September 2019].
Fastcompany, 2019. Toyota. [Online] Available at:
https://www.fastcompany.com/company/toyota [Accessed 16 September 2019].
Forbes , 2016. Why Toyota Is More Valuable Than GM, Ford & Honda Combined -- Part 1.
[Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/05/31/why-toyota-is-
more-valuable-than-gm-ford-honda-combined-part-1/#250da9ee6ae7 [Accessed 16 September
2019].
Liker, J.K.a.C.G.L., 2012. The Toyota way to lean leadership. McGraw-Hil.
Livemore Ford, 2019. New Technology in Ford Vehicles. [Online] Available at:
https://www.livermoreford.net/research/ford-technology.htm [Accessed 16 September 2019].

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MSN, 2014. What makes Nissan an innovative company? [Online] Available at:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/projectinnovation/what-makes-nissan-an-innovative-
company/ar-BBaolai [Accessed 16 September 2019].
Owler , 2019. Toyota's Competitors, Revenue, Number of Employees, Funding and Acquisitions.
[Online] Available at: https://www.owler.com/company/toyota-global [Accessed 16 September
2019].
Stroh , P., 2015. Why Ford is leading the way with innovation that goes beyond vehicles.
[Online] [Accessed 16 September 2019].
Toyota , 2017. Toyota Australia Closes Manufacturing Operations. [Online] Available at:
https://www.toyota.com.au/news/toyota-australia-closes-manufacturing-operations [Accessed 16
September 2019].