As heralded earlier, Toyota president Akio Toyoda has announced a major restructure of the company and management team that sees the old-order chairman take an ‘honorary’ role, gives lower level executives more local authority and autonomy and divides the company into four divisions.
“The new structure is based on a review of the organisation’s way of working and making decisions, and is aimed at achieving real competitiveness and realising sustainable growth,” TMC said in a statement.
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Executive changes include a board reshuffle and the appointment of TMC’s first outside board members.
From 1 April the four new units are:
- Lexus International (Lexus business)
- Toyota No. 1 (North America, Europe and Japan)
- Toyota No. 2 (China, Asia & Middle East, East Asia & Oceania; Africa,
- Latin America & Caribbean)
- Unit Center (engine, transmission and other ‘unit’-related operations)
Lexus International remains the brand’s global headquarters, aiming for the establishment of Lexus as a global premium brand with Japanese roots.
Toyota No. 1 and Toyota No. 2 will have executive vice presidents in charge and will oversee all aspects of Toyota-brand vehicle development, from planning to production to sales.
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By GlobalDataUnit Center will develop globally competitive ‘unit’ components including major powertrain components such as engines and transmissions. The executive vice president in charge will oversee all operations from component planning and development to production technology and functions aimed at bringing products to market fast.
Regional groups have also been reshuffled. To improve products and services for and in growing markets, the Asia and Oceania Operations Group and the Middle East, Africa and Latin American Operations Group will be reorganised into the East Asia & Oceania Region, the Asia and Middle East Region, the Africa Region, and the Latin America & Caribbean Region. These new region groups, in addition to the existing China Region, North America Region, Europe Region, and Japan Sales Business Group, will total eight, an increase from the previous six.
In addition, as part of ongoing efforts to increase region head ‘globalisation’, as is the case currently in Toyota’s Europe operations, a non-Japanese executive – to be titled CEO – will be in charge of the North America, Africa and Latin America & Caribbean regions.
There are also new divisions not belonging to a group: TNGA Planning Division the Product & Business Planning Division will be reorganised. Both divisions will not belong to a group. The TNGA Planning Division will be in charge of technology-based medium-to-long term product (vehicle and unit components) strategy and the Product & Business Planning Division will be in charge of market-based medium to long term product strategy.
The executive reshuffle list covers eight pages and starts with the promotion of vice chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada to chairman and the departure of Fujio Cho to ‘honorary chairman’. Announcing the changes in Tokyo, Toyoda paid tribute to the long-serving Cho, who once headed Toyota’s Kentucky ‘transplant’ and said he would “continue to be a pillar of emotional fortitude that supports the management of Toyota”.
The three new outside board members are Ikuo Uno, executive advisor, Nippon Life Insurance Company; Haruhiko Kato, president, Japan Securities Depository Center; and Mark Hogan, described as an independent consulant and Independent consultant former General Motors group vice president.
Western names nonetheless remain a tiny minority though notable are two already well known: Jim Lentz, whose current roles include president and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, becomes a senior managing officer and CEO of the North American region and continues as head of Toyota North America while Toyota Motor Europe head Didier Leroy, already a senior managing officer, will now also be CEO of the new Europe region (he was already head of the European operations group).
Steve St Angelo, currently a managing officer at Toyota North America and head of engineering and manufacturing there, moves to CEO of the Latin America and Caribbean group and head of Toyota Brazil.
Mark Templin, currenetly head of the TMS Lexus Division, and general manager, Lexus Product Marketing Planning Division at TMC, will become a managing officer and executive vice president of Lexus International, where he will head global operations from Japan. He becomes the first non-Japanese executive to oversee a Toyota division within the company’s global headquarters in Toyota City.
It takes another two pages just to detail the changes in North and South America alone – these can be seen as issued by clicking on the ‘press release’ button below.
“The larger Toyota becomes, the more difficult it becomes to maintain a sentiment in which each employee feels that he or she plays a direct role in supporting Toyota.
“The objective of the organizational changes being announced today, as we enter a new phase of growth in vehicles sales, is to build an organisation in which its members can take ownership of their work,” Cho told reporters in Tokyo.
