MGT499 - Strategic Management - Essay Example

Running head: MGT499 MGT499 MGT499 Throughout its history, Toyota has been the brightest example of the visionary company – in other words, Toyota used to be the company with a well-conceptualized mission, vision, and strategy, all of which were closely aligned. Looking through the recent documents and discussions on the Toyota’s official website, what the company wants to be can be conceptualized in a following way: “to understand market needs from the customer’s point of view, by making better cars and contributing to society” (Toyota, 2009).

Unfortunately, not always can companies successfully follow their principles and meet their strategic goals. Companies are not always able to be what they want to be; they fail to develop a clear strategy which will help them achieve their strategic goals and objectives. The reason for this positive tendency of Toyota’s activity and the stability in supplying and servicing its customers is in the fact that the company keeps to the principle of finding the rational balance in production – without overloading the equipment and overburdening the staff.

The basis of the organizational knowledge and the companys long-term philosophy should be under constant protection, which is provided through the stability of personnel and its slow promotion. Fast promotion may serve as a negative factor in companys vision as it will make the staff feel the easiness of achieving the highest posts, while the career path of each worker should go through the each stage of production, assuring that this worker totally accepts the long-term philosophy of the company and his future activity will be aimed at supporting it.

All 14 principles show, that Toyota has created a new quality system, which works effectively for the benefit of the company. Intensive training is performed with the following formation of project team, aimed at increasing the profitability, reducing non-productive actions and the time of production cycle.However, In 2010, Toyota has become the object of the peer professional attention. During the first half of 2010, customers came to associate Toyota with regular troubles and the beginning of a deep strategic crisis.

Whether these troubles are the result of the lack of strategic vision or a well-developed consumer fraud is yet to be discovered; but the company regularly recalls its cars for minor or major technical problems. The current state of literature treats Toyota like a company, which must learn the lessons of crisis and their influence on the company’s brand. For further analysis, the following sources may be of use:Flint, J. (2010). Toyota’s troubles are just beginning. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/04/flint-toyota-autos-business-tradein.

html Parker, L. (2010). Toyota’s troubles: Crisis or opportunity? Women Entrepreneur. Retrieved from http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2010/02/toyotas-troubles-crisis-or-opportunity.html Saporito, B. (2010). Behind the troubles at Toyota. The Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1963595,00.html ReferencesAnnual Report. (2009) "The Right Way Forward", Toyota Motor Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/ir/library/annual/pdf/2009/p10_16.pdf