Toyota Motors Case Study: Business Communication Strategies

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Table of Contents
Industry Background and Data..................................................................................................3
Key competitors, suppliers, customers, and challenges faced..................................................4
SWOT Analysis of Toyota Motors..............................................................................................6
The competitive situation of Toyota by Porter five forces..........................................................7
Key issues faced by Toyota.......................................................................................................7
Key findings and conclusion......................................................................................................8
References:...................................................................................................................................9
Part 2...........................................................................................................................................11
Introduction..................................................................................................................................11
Reflection on the Employability skills which I have learned during this course.......................11
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................13

Industry Background and Data
Toyota is a multinational automobile company originated in Japan. According to the recent data,
it has been found out that the total employee working in Toyota currently are 3,65,445. The
Toyota automobile company is sixth in the world, ranked according to the total revenue. Toyota
automobile company was the world first company to produce 10 million cars per year which is
the biggest number for any car manufacturer. Toyota has been the market leader among hybrid
car manufacturing. Toyota had also some hydrogen fuel-driven cars and is the market leader in
this segment also. Every organization comes along with the issues and challenges which they
have to face on a day or another. Toyota which is a leading automobile company, in Japan and
has been delivering its services and products all around the world, has faced issues and
challenges which we would be discussing n this report. These issues and challenges are due to
external influence factors. The biggest challenge or we can say issue which Toyota had faced is
its aging boring cars which are getting a tough competition by the modern-day car
manufacturers. There are two different environments in every business, one is internal and one
is the external environment. These environments are affected by business one way or other.
The external environment is affected by certain factors such as political factors, legal factors,
social, cultural and environmental factors. The effect of such factors over the business of Toyota
would be analyzed and discussed in this particular report.

Key competitors, suppliers, customers, and challenges faced
Toyota is an international company in the automobile sector. The innovation of Toyota has
increased the competitiveness in the market, where certain companies which are giving tough
competition to Toyota like:
Mercedes Benz is a great competitor for Toyota having a good amount of revenue in the
premium segment cars. Mercedes Benz has a division with Daimler AG, which is a German
origin organization. The portfolio of Mercedes includes buses, cars, lorries, and coaches.
BMW is also a top competitor for Toyota, headquarters in Munich, Germany. Their main
business portfolio includes motorcycles and cars. If we review the production unit of BMW, a
total of 103080 electric vehicles and 2456535 automobiles have already delivered. BMW is
giving a tough competition to Toyota in the electric car segment.
Ford, which is originated in the United States, is one of the top old automobile companies and is
a tough competitor for Toyota. The business portfolio of Ford includes design, sales, production
and services for various kind of vehicles. Regarding the emission of CO2 gas, they are also
working towards producing electric cars, which in terms of innovation and production of electric
cars, is a tough competitor.
In the suppliers for the Toyota motors, Tesla motors are one of the leading suppliers. Tesla had
signed for a $100 million agreement to supply Power train for their electric cars. While Samsung
also is one of the major suppliers which supply their Samsung car mode app which connects
Toyota radio with Samsung devices. Bridgestone supply Tyres for leading SUV and sedan cars
of Toyota (Debnath, 2015).
The challenge which Toyota faces includes bad market analysis and tough competition due to
too many companies selling new modern cars. Toyota aging design of their cars is not
appreciable and they are facing serious revenue loss due to such cars.
The strength of Toyota can be said that the company is very much capable to put themselves
up along with the challenges which they are facing.
The main strengths of Toyota are their Strong brand image, Global supply chain including
leading brands such as Tesla Motors and Samsung. Toyota can improve and innovate their
products rapidly (Stewart, 2018).

There are major weaknesses which are identified in Toyota, such as hierarchy organizational
structure is not effective, their organizational structure and culture is confidential, and the major
setback and call off of major cars around the world is a big issue which they had faced.

SWOT Analysis of Toyota Motors.
Strengths
 A big organization would require a
skilled human resource and Toyota is
successful in getting a strong skilled
group of human resources around the
world. as of December 2015, a total of
3,47,567 employees working in
Toyota. Toyota is failed to use such
skilled human resource for innovative
car production.
 Toyota is famous among the car
enthusiast and such big and reputed
brand image is a strong point of
Toyota.
Weaknesses
 The kind of suppliers Toyota has, like
Tesla and Samsung for their interior
designing of car, they have to depend
on these big giants.
 The large recall of vehicles of Toyota
hurts the image of Toyota, hence it
became negative publicity of their
cars and brand.
Opportunities
 The growth in the demand for vehicles
in the developing countries is a big
opportunity and positive target to sell
future cars.
 Toyota has a good opportunity to get
the advantage of green vehicle
technology as this segment is not yet
used by any of its competitors.
 Growing concern for environmental
pollution can make a positive brand
popularization. As Toyota is already in
electric car innovation,
environmentally friendly
advertisements can impact the brand
image positively.
Threats
A growing competitor in the automobile
segment is a big threat for Toyota, as it
increases competition.
The suppliers of Toyota such as Tesla,
Samsung, etc., Has increases the prices of
their raw materials which they are suppling,
hence it increases the cost of the product.

The competitive situation of Toyota by Porter five forces
In the automobile sector, Toyota has to face some strong competition from other top
competitors. Porter’s five forces describe how firms affect each other in terms of competition. In
the business case of Toyota, these are the following strong forces of competition such as:
 The large giants’ firms are less in the automobile industry.
 Aggressiveness of firms
Bargaining power of Toyota’s customer: This force explains how the buyer or customers of
Toyota are influencing the industry. When the bargaining power of customers is high, then it
affects the revenue made by Toyota. The following are the factors which are affecting the
strong bargaining power of customers such as:
Low switching cost
High-quality knowledge in the automobile sector
Substitutes are easily available.
Bargaining power of Toyota’s suppliers: The suppliers of any organization like Toyota needs
to influence them so that the cost of the raw materials which they are selling, cannot be
bargained. The suppliers such as tesla and Samsung are themselves, big giants, which is not
possible to bargain much with such companies. It is difficult for Toyota to cut the cost of raw
materials.
The threat of substitutes: This force shows the impact on Toyota from the substitutes
available for the products sold by Toyota. There are many car manufacturing companies
available, giving tough competition to Toyota, producing capable strong substitutes, which is
affecting the production of Toyota (Wee, 2017).
The threat of new entrants: The force of the threat of new entrants is weak in Toyota's case
because it is not easy to build a new automobile company and grow it. The high cost of raw
materials and cost to develop a new company weaken this force.

Key issues faced by Toyota
In late 2009, Toyota had faced a big call off of the vehicles which they had sold. The problem is
faced due to sudden unintended acceleration and had been the main reason for the crisis. The
sudden unintended acceleration occurs when the vehicle moves from the stationary object,
unintentionally without a driver in it.
The centralization of the management working in Toyota backfires, as this organizational
structure has performed badly, due to recalling of the vehicles. Due to the centralized structure,
no one is authorized to make any critical decision in any regional offices around the world, all
the main decision making is done in Japan. The decision making should be autonomy and some
other authorities like country head, the regional head should give the authority to take decisions
(Onar, 2018).
Key findings and conclusion
The automobile industry is quite competitive but the cost to make a new company for a new
entrant is high, upon which the threat of new entrants is quite low, which is a plus point for
Toyota but if we see the automobile industry, the competition is quite high which increases the
threat of substitutes.
Toyota has to decentralize its organization structure because such centralized structure creates
issues during problems like recalling of vehicles. Hence Toyota should provide certain authority
to somebodies like regional head to take some crucial decisions.

References:
Collet, C., Hine, D., and Du Plessis, K., 2015. Employability skills: perspectives from a
knowledge-intensive industry. Education+ Training, 57(5), pp.532-559.
Wee, C.H., 2017. Think tank—beyond the five forces model and blue ocean strategy: an
integrative perspective from Sun Zi Bing. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 36(2),
pp.34-45.
Debnath, S.C., 2015. Environmental regulations become restriction or a cause for innovation–a
case study of Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195,
pp.324-333.
Stewart, J., 2018. The Toyota Kaizen continuum: A practical guide to implementing lean.
Productivity Press.
Or, O.C., Chinthavali, M., Campbell, S.L., Seiber, L.E., White, C.P. and Galigekere, V.P., 2018,
June. Modeling, Simulation, and Experimental Verification of a 20-kW Series-Series Wireless
Power Transfer System for a Toyota RAV4 Electric Vehicle. In 2018 IEEE Transportation
Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC) (pp. 874-880). IEEE.

Part 2
Introduction
This course has helped me to understand how Toyota and such organizations use certain tools
and strategies to overcome issues and to achieve the goals set by the company. The skills
which are developed from this course are communication skills, analytical skills, and
researching skills. These skills have helped me to understand how to work inside a team, and
how to research for a topic and understand the organization deep. The business management
course has helped me to understand the key things about research and how management can
be developed to overcome certain issues like recalling of vehicles faced by Toyota.
Reflection on the Employability skills which I have learned during this course
There are certain employability skills which I have gone through in this course and upon which I
have completely helped by my teachers to know and understand deep in an affirmative manner.
I appreciate the work and dedication with which my teachers had taught me about the
employability skills which are necessary to have as an employee. There are certain
employability skills which I would say important and required for an employee to have are:
Communication skills: In the earlier part of me modularize week 1, I was positively influenced
by the communication skills of my teachers, and heavily inspired and understood a lot of basics
to develop my communication skills. It is because listening is also a crucial part of the develop
of communication skills. The effort and the communication skills which my teacher had shown
me have helped me to know all the basic involved in communication. Within the week 1, we
have got the change to learn about business management during the module. The module of
business communication motivated me to understand the communication involved in the
organization like Toyota, upon which I have completed my business case analysis.
I have learned about verbal communication skills from the operations of managers which they
use this skill at their workplace. It is important to practice verbal communication skills on daily
basis, as more and more practice can improve verbal communication. There are various
projects and practices which were involved in the course to enhance employability skills. The
presentation skills have helped me to enhance my oral communication skills which enhance and
reduce the fear of stage.
Teamwork skills: The teamwork skills are taught to us in week 2, in the module which is going
on in week 1. There are certain teamwork activities are arranged in this week 2, which have
helped me to develop teamwork skills, teamwork also develop leadership skills. Teamwork

practices and activities have helped me to develop that I am cooperative and impulsive. The
projects which the teacher had provided us has helped me to understand my teamwork skills
better.
Problem-solving skills: This skill is very important to have as an employee. There are certain
activities which have helped me to develop problem-solving skills. Issues or problems can arise
any day and any time, and hence it is important to have such skill to counter those issues
individually at the workplace. In week 3 and 4, I have been taught about the environmental
impacts which companies face during their work. There are problems along which we have
been put by my teachers to solve individually. I have been worked under teams and individual
also. Hence this two way of working has helped to develop such skills.
Initiate and enterprise: The skill of initiating things, to solve is very important in the workplace.
In this course, I have learned about how things should be done without asking anything. This
course had helped me to think out of the box and to become creative. There are certain times,
when changed which is required were not appreciated by anyone, there I have initiated and
stood to complete that task which was almost impossible. These instances have helped me to
develop the initiation and enterprise skills.
Planning and organizing: Planning and organizing means how the task has been meant to do
and how it has been completed. I have met the deadlines and project timelines, during this
course which made me organized and well planned during my work. My teachers have provided
me with an individual project with a strict timeline and deadline which helped me to develop this
skill by organizing.
Self-management: It is important to have this skill and teachers have helped me to develop this
skill. Teachers have given me individual tasks which I have to manage with time and even
check the tasks. Teachers have forced me to stay up to date and over deadline which will help
me to develop self-management skills.