Toyota chief stresses safe growth

After four tumultuous years book-ended by an unprecedented recall crisis and a return to the top of the global auto industry, Akio Toyoda is refashioning Toyota Motor Corp. into a leaner company that’s more imbued with the venture spirit of founder Kiichiro Toyoda, his grandfather.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Toyota’s president said he is putting new auto plants on hold for three years and reshaping the automaker’s structure to give more autonomy to regional divisions and foreign executives.

During his four years at Toyota’s helm, Toyoda has learnt the hard way the costs of blindly pursuing growth, a strategy inherited from his predecessor that he ruefully acknowledges got him slammed by a cascade of recalls.

The spectacular recall debacle in the US, which began in 2009 and involved millions of vehicles, got him grilled at US Congressional hearings over safety, but also rallied American dealers to his side.

Toyoda wept openly during one emotional show of support from Toyota dealers in the US. Then in 2011, an earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan wiped out auto suppliers and Toyota’s vehicle production plunged. Yet, the automaker’s comeback has been stunning. It sold a record 9.75 million vehicles last year, regaining the crown of world’s No. 1 automaker from General Motors Co.

Despite the turnaround, caution lingers.

Whatever growth “a reborn” Toyota pursues must be “sustainable,” Toyoda, 56, told AP at Toyota’s Tokyo showroom. .

“We have to keep improving, getting better and better, not taking for granted that we have recovered,” he said.

He was speaking after yesterday announcing an overhaul of management that was the clearest statement yet of his vision to create a more nimble, transparent and globally minded company to prevent any recurrence of the mistakes of recent years.

Toyoda said in the interview that the company won’t start building any new auto plants through 2015 to keep fixed costs down despite burgeoning sales and what he feels are good prospects for global auto growth. Plants already under way will still be completed.

He said that reflects a decision to focus on growing leaner and making better use of what it already has to boost profitability, not just sales.

“There are some plants that are busy, and some plants that aren’t so busy,” Toyoda said. It plans to be more flexible about shipping cars from one nation to another, such as the Yaris from Europe to the US, to improve factory efficiency.

Among the key leadership moves announced yesterday was the appointment of American Mark Hogan, an independent consultant and former GM group vice president, as a board director the first time in Toyota’s 76-year history it is appointing board members from outside the company.

Toyota also promoted four non-Japanese managers to oversee regional divisions, which will become more autonomous, including James Lentz, an American who already leads Toyota Motor Sales in the US, to head the North American region.

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