You would have to be in a cave for the last couple of months not to know that Toyota has got some very big problems right now. First there was the recall of 4.2 million Toyota and Lexus cars late last year to deal with faulty floormats, spurred by the horrific crash of a California Highway Patrol officer and his family in San Diego in August 2009. Then there was the announcement last week that the company would recall 2.3 million more vehicles to replace accelerator pedals that could become stuck. Toyota considers the latter problem to be so serious that it has done something that I believe is unprecedented in the modern history of auto manufacturing. The company has halted production and sales of eight different models of its cars until it can work with its American parts producer to come up with a solution and then get new parts to its factories and dealers. This understandably has caused problems for dealers who have been barred from selling these cars, including Toyota's popular Rav4, Corolla, Matrix, Avalon, Camry, Highlander, Tundra, and Sequoia models.
What would you do if you found yourself in Toyota's shoes?
Watch what Toyota does over the coming weeks and months very closely, because I'm certain that how the company addresses and resolves these problems will create a blueprint for how ANY company can respond to a business crisis, survive it, and then come out stronger than ever. In fact, I'm sure some business author somewhere is already submitting a proposal to his or her agent for a book that will organize Toyota's lessons into a nice, concise framework.
Toyota has already taken some big very painful big steps, and there will be much more pain to come. But Toyota didn't become the world's largest auto manufacturer for nothing. You can bet that the company and its managers will direct every resource at their disposal to dealing with this crisis and then once again making the Toyota name synonymous with quality. Because if they don't, then this will be the beginning of the end for this great company.
