Automotive DesignLine Blog
Toyota plays the lobbying game
George Leopold
2/22/2010 11:23 AM EST
According to the Post analysis, Toyota has for several years been spreading cash around in the form of campaign contributions and corporate sponsorships. The Post report says Toyota has just hired a "crisis-management" firm as it girds for a congressional hearing on recalls prompted by sticking gas pedals, faulty brakes and improperly installed floor mats.
The new lobbyist joins the 32 already working on Toyota's behalf on Capitol Hill, the Post reports.
In learning the ways of Washington, Toyota has adopted U.S. corporate management tactics and took its eye off the ball. In so doing, Toyota forgot that manufacturing quality was the key to its dominance. Instead, it is now caught up in the tawdry lobbying game that reflects the absolute worst in our current political system.
I've been to Toyota headquarters in Nagoya, Japan. I was very impressed. At the time I was there, during Nagoya's Expo 2005 (what used to be called a "world's fair"), Toyota executives were talking about the future of transportation and rolling out futuristic prototypes.
That's a distant memory now as Toyota digs in to play the public relations game. The only winners in this game are the lobbyists.
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TiMan
2/23/2010 12:24 PM EST
So, once again, a moral failure results in business failure. These events are interesting in light of Kenneth Hopper's book, "The Puritan Gift", which lays blame for the degradation of US, and now multinational, businesses at the feet of b-schools that placed quarterly results (read "Greed") above all else.
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TomNorman
2/23/2010 1:47 PM EST
It's a shame. When I rent cars, I prefer Toyotas. I fear they will cease to be available at the rental agencies. My second preference is for the Nissan brands, followed by Ford. I try very hard to steer clear of Government Motors, as I believe it is a travesty for the U.S. Government to be in the car business, owning the company it buys cars from.
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Work to Ride, RIde to Work
2/23/2010 1:48 PM EST
Nah, the (slimy) laywers salivating over the recalls are the ones who stand to profit the most from the consumer. Remember, the consumer ultimately pays for it all in the end.
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Etmax
2/23/2010 6:32 PM EST
Hmm I read the cartoon at Dilbert.com regularly and it seems Toyota's management has been too, but learning the wrong lesson from it.
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EET.com
2/24/2010 12:10 PM EST
I recently had to drive back to Washington from Orlando after all flights were cancelled. The rental car clerk asked whether I'd mind taking a Toyota Camry that had gone through the recall process. "I'll take it," I replied. The front-wheel drive helped get me back into my snowed-in neighborhood in northern Virginia. Still, it was interesting to see a rental car agent reluctant to offer a customer a Toyota.
George Leopold
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Work to Ride, RIde to Work
3/2/2010 9:18 AM EST
For an alternative view of "greed" be sure to look at the writings of George Mason University professor Walter Williams. He speaks the common sense missing from so much of today's public dialog.
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bcarso
3/9/2010 12:00 PM EST
Greed will always be with us, and depending on how it is defined it is in and of itself not so negative. But what I see lacking is individual responsibility and rationality---we are seeing more nakedly now the deleterious effects of corporatism, of individuals hiding behind the corporate "veil". This is labeled by some as "capitalism" or "free markets", but I think "corporatism" is more appropriate. It could also be described as "fascism", where the essential characteristic is the interpenetration of government and business, although the f word has highly charged connotations that don't always properly append---at least not yet.
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