Koji Sato Jadi Pemerintahan Toyota Setelah Akio Toyoda Jadi Pengerusi

Koji Sato akan menjadi Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif dan Presiden Toyota Motor Corporation yang baharu dengan Akio Toyoda dilantik sebagai Pengerusi.

Industri automotif hari ini dikejutkan dengan rombakan peranan di Toyota, syarikat kereta terbesar dunia. Akio Toyoda telah menyerahkan gelaran Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif dan Presiden Toyota Motor Corporation kepada Koji Sato. Koji Sato ialah seorang jurutera yang bekerja keras untuk ke puncak rantaian pengurusan Lexus – berkhidmat sebagai Presiden Lexus.

Akio Toyoda telah menjadi Presiden syarikat yang diasaskan oleh datuknya sejak 2009. Dia mengemudi syarikat itu menavigasi melalui penarikan balik global yang besar-besaran pada awal kariernya dan mencergaskan semula aktiviti sukan permotoran syarikat selama ini. Di bawah pengawasannya, bahagian Gazoo Racing telah dicipta dan diperluaskan dan Toyota membawa pulang berbilang kemenangan Kejohanan Dunia dalam rali dan endurance perlumbaan ketahanan.

Lewat tahun lepas, di tengah-tengah kritikan terhadap kekurangan kenderaan elektrik bateri jenama itu, Akio Toyoda mendedahkan sejumlah besar kenderaan elektrik akan datang di bawah kedua-dua jenama Toyota dan Lexus sebelum menugaskan Koji Sato dengan hala tuju elektrifikasi masa depan syarikat.

Toyoda berkata dia meninggalkan peranannya sebagai Presiden dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif kerana Pengerusi Takeshi Uchiyamada akan meletakkan jawatannya pada April dan dia akan mengambil alih peranan itu. Berikut adalah kenyataan beliau sepenuhnya.

MEDIA RELEASE

Greetings to all of our Toyota Times News viewers. I am Akio Toyoda.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors today, it was decided that Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada will resign from his post in April, that I will be appointed the new chairman, and Koji Sato will be the new president.

We arranged this live broadcast on short notice to inform our stakeholders of this decision as quickly and accurately as possible.

Please let me start by sharing with you my thinking behind this decision.

These developments were triggered by the pending resignation of Chairman Uchiyamada.

I thought that the best way to further Toyota’s transformation would be for me to become chairman in support of a new president, and this led to today’s decision.

Chairman Uchiyamada has long supported me in all imaginable ways.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my most profound appreciation. Thank you, Chairman, truly.

I was appointed president immediately after our company’s fall into the red due to the global financial crisis.

Following that, our company faced a series of crises that threatened our survival, such as the global recall crisis and the Great East Japan Earthquake.

In retrospect, these 13 years have been a period of struggling to survive one day after the next. That is my honest feeling.

I believe that in times of crisis, two paths appear before us.

One is a path toward short-term success or a quick victory. The other is a path that leads back to the essential qualities and philosophies that gave us strength.

I chose the latter.

This was the path toward Toyota’s philosophy—to make ever-better cars and to become a best-in-town company beloved and relied upon by stakeholders in each region around the world.

In other words, it entailed centering our operations around products and regions.

This has been a rocky path requiring tremendous amounts of time to bear fruit, and one not understood or appreciated by those who focus on the short term.

And time, indeed, it has taken.

Even so, as a result of the 370,000 members of Toyota striving in their various roles in each town around the world to make ever-better cars, our products have been greatly transformed.

We have revamped long-time bestsellers such as the Crown and Corolla, and we have brought back sports cars in the form of the 86, Supra, and GR Yaris. At the same time, we have also paid attention to our commercial vehicles.

The synergy between the three pillars of TNGA, our in-house company system, and our region-based structure means we have people focused on fulfilling the world’s needs regardless of the genre of vehicle.

I believe that with them, we were able to create such genba within Toyota.

Then, in 2020, we laid down the Toyota Philosophy, which clearly states the beliefs and values that must be passed on.

I hope that the Toyota Philosophy will serve as a place to which the next generation of top management can return, should it ever lose its way.

I believe that, over these 13 years, I have built a solid foundation for passing the baton forward.

Next, I would like to explain the reasons for appointing Mr. Sato as the new president.

One is that he has worked hard in the workplaces of car-making to embrace Toyota’s philosophy, techniques, and practices.

Those are exactly the traits I would want whoever stands at the top of Toyota to embody.

Another reason is that he loves cars.

There was a time when Mr. Sato was struggling with what he should convey at a Lexus dealer convention.

My advice was: “Rather than try to be like me, I want you to value your individuality.” That’s all I said.

He responded by saying: “If Morizo is someone who loves driving cars, I am someone who loves making cars that make drivers smile.”

Being able to say that you love your company’s products is truly important.

I believe that Mr. Sato, as our new president, will take our product-centered management even further forward.

Another thing that he has going for him is youth.

To promote change in an era in which the future is unpredictable, the head of management must continue to stand on the front lines.

For that, stamina, energy, and passion are indispensable.

Being young is itself a key attribute.

I told Sato: “Don’t try to run the company on your own but as a team.”

He is not the only member of staff I have nurtured over these 13 years.

I believe that I have nurtured many colleagues with diverse personalities.

Innovation is essential for creating the future.

I believe that innovation is created when diverse personalities work together toward a shared goal.

When I look at incoming President Sato, I see someone who, rather than try to please me as company president, has pursued Master Driver and Morizo, and wanted to perfect the driving feel of Toyota and Lexus.

He has wanted to make ever-better cars.

He has wanted to earn a smile from the master driver, Morizo himself.

I think that is the passion that has driven him.

I am a carmaker, through and through. I believe that’s how I have successfully transformed Toyota.

However, a carmaker is all that I am. And I see that as my own limit.

The new team under upcoming President Sato has a mission to transform Toyota into a mobility company.

I think that Sato, too, is a carmaker like me.

He is now the same age I was when I became president. He has youth and like-minded colleagues. I expect this new team to go beyond the limits that I can’t break through.

I believe in the future that the next generation will create. I invite you to look forward to the future of Toyota. Thank you very much.