Former GM Executive Tapped For Toyota Board

Wed, 03/06/2013 - 9:16am
Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer




TOKYO (AP) — Toyota has tapped a former executive at U.S. rival General Motors to join its board, the first time in the Japanese automaker's 76-year history it is appointing directors from outside the company.

The appointment of Mark Hogan, effective April 1, underlines efforts at Toyota Motor Corp. to become more internationally-minded, transparent and nimble in regional markets as it recovers from difficult years, including the massive recall fiasco in the U.S.

Under the changes announced Wednesday by President Akio Toyoda, Toyota will set up a new division to oversee North American, European and Japanese markets and another for emerging markets.

The world's biggest automaker also promoted four non-Japanese managers to oversee regional businesses, including James Lentz, an American who already leads Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. He will head the North American region.

Like other conservative Japanese companies, Toyota has been far more insular than its Western counterparts, and had been closed in the past to the idea of board members from outside company ranks.

The changes reflect soul-searching at the company following the massive global recalls over sticky gas pedals, faulty floor mats, problem breaks and other defects that spanned several years from 2009, and affected more than 14 million vehicles — some models being recalled repeatedly.
The recalls tarnished Toyota's reputation for quality and raised questions about its ability to respond to problems that crop up in its rapidly expanding global empire, and to reassure international authorities and customers of its trustworthiness and transparency.

Besides Hogan, two Japanese, from the insurance and securities industries, were picked as outside board members. They are Ikuo Uno, an executive advisor at Nippon Life Insurance Company and Haruhiko Kato, president of the Japan Securities Depository Center.

Hogan, an independent consultant and former GM group vice president, has been Toyoda's friend since they worked together more than a decade ago at NUMMI, or New United Motor Manufacturing, a California auto plant jointly run by Toyota and GM. Hogan has also previously advised Toyota.
The board appointments require approval from shareholders at a meeting in June.

Toyota has had a foreigner on its board just once in the past, in 2007, with Jim Press, an American who had headed Toyota's North American operations at a time when fears were growing about a possible American backlash over Toyota's stupendous growth. But Press left shortly afterward for a job with Chrysler.

Toyoda acknowledged that he has learned "many lessons" since becoming Toyota president in 2009, including the risks of rapid growth.
"Rapid growth can also mean rapid descent, creating havoc for many people," he said.
Toyoda referred to the quality woes, as well as the other recent crises such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan and the flooding in Thailand that followed. Both disasters destroyed key suppliers and hobbled Toyota's production.

But he promised Toyota will be more responsive in each region, while staying competitive and quick, even as it keeps growing as a global manufacturer, now employing 320,000 people.
"The larger Toyota becomes, the more difficult it becomes to create the mood for each worker to feel he or she plays a direct role in supporting Toyota," Toyoda said.

"The objective of the changes being announced today is to build an organization where people can take ownership of their work as we enter a new phase of growth in vehicle sales."
Toyota was No. 1 in global vehicles sales last year, dethroning General Motors, which had been the top-selling automaker for more than seven decades before losing the title to Toyota in 2008. But GM retook the sales crown in 2011, when Toyota's production was hurt by the Japanese disaster.
Toyoda, the grandson of the automaker's founder, stressed that the changes he hopes to spearhead herald a return to Toyota's roots.

The Toyota Way, a production method that empowers each worker for quality control, also encourages each employee to be innovative and independent. That spirit of valuing the people on the ground needed to be revived for Toyota's future, he said.
Among other changes outlined by Toyota:

— A new division called "Unit Center" oversees the operations related to engines, transmissions and other key auto components, including technology, production planning, and manufacturing.
— Lexus International, Toyota's luxury-vehicle division, which already exists as a relatively autonomous group, will be beefed up further, to become a premium brand overseen directly by Toyoda.
— Former President and current Chairman Fujio Cho will become honorary chairman and leave the board, while Takeshi Uchiyamada, a board member and engineer known as "the father of the Prius," Toyota's prized hybrid model, will become chairman.
— The other key non-Japanese promotions include Steve St. Angelo, an American overseeing North American production who will lead Latin American operations and South African Johan van Zyl. He has worked for Toyota in the Middle East and Africa and will lead the business in the African region.

 

Good news!!

 

Now, I'm generally not a Toyota loyalist at all, having grown up with and always loved the American brands.....but is it a wise move on Toyota's part to hire a new board member who has been an executive of a company that has been plagued by financial troubles?

 

I believe that it is a wise move to increase the breadth of experience of the board members, and a large, international automaker should have respresentation on its board from around the world (remember, that Toyota is the world's largest automaker).

It will help in future fights with regulators (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for example) to have board members who are experienced working locally with those regulators.

It is also a political move to be able to show off to the American government and regulators that the giant Japanese godzilla can show a "white face" who is (or at least has been) a member of the "old boy's club". Mark Hogan is an American who is being hired to get things done in America that Japanese board members could never get done.

The fact that he comes from GM means little (all three Detroit automakers have had financial troubles); what matters more is that he has American auto industry insider knowledge.

 

Did folks notice that Templin is being moved to Japan to what it looks like run Lexus?

I have typically been a Templin hater for all the FWD and less than their bast effort products coming to market (including the new GS and soon to be released IS)

He did catch my attention by saying something like he would like the ES to go away.

I have a feeling the new GS is already in trouble as sales for Feb 2013 dropped big time and per a salesman I spoke with, it is due to the fact that the normal Lexus customer cannot justify the higher price for the GS relative to the ES

 

I'm surprised they haven't tried to get former GM Exec Bob Lutz (if he's willing to come out of retirement). Lutz, unlike most of the bean-counters/managers in his field, was a true car guy. His influence at GM helped set the stage for the company to offer some of the excellent products it has today.

 

The GS isn't going anywhere. If the "normal" customer can't see the differences in the GS and the ES, they are morons. They aren't even comparable, other than the fact they both have a spindle grille.

 

idiot that almost run GM to the ground? right.

if not for govt bailout, during the Lutz reign, GM would have gone down completely.

Lutz was known for over-promising and under delivering... Volt, Solstice, G8, all his babies.

 

 

To the G8's credit, it didn't get enough time to make ingrains being a 2008 and 2009 model by the time GM needed a bailout and axed Pontiac. It was a great offering if you've ever driven one, and a great step forward from older GM models

 

I agree.One of the very few GM vehicles I would ever buy.

 

I disagree. Most of the problems at GM came from his predecessors...particularly Roger Smith (a complete disaster, when some of GM's worst cars were built) and Rob Stempel. Stempel did a little better than Smith (he was an auto engineer by trade, not a bean-counter), but the company still suffered. Lutz was an ex-fighter-pilot, someone with a good sense of things mechanical, and a guy who genuinely loved cars. He (along with the bailout/reorganizaton)helped set the stage for many of the impressive GM products we have today.


Well, personally, I think the Volt is way overpriced and a dash/ergonomic disaster (I've said that several times)...but almost every person who has biten the bullet and actually bought or lease one simply loves it. It has one of the highest customer-satisfacton rates in Consumer Report's database. The Solstice had great potential (if lacking the Miata's reliability)...but its main problem was the relative difficulty in raising and lowering the roof, where the Miata's simple one-arm operaiton trounced it. The G8 GT was an impressive car and, IMO, a blast to drive (I reviewed one)....but, typical of Pontiacs, had a cheaply-done, overly-black interior.

 

He's also an arrogant ***** with a serious attitude problem. I doubt he would fit in the Toyota "way: of doing things.

 

CincyBrad

I am not saying the GS is getting dumped

I do believe Lexus will have to add incentives to keep this thing moving off the show room floor due to their laziness regarding the drive train updates (lack there of) and will have to rush a refresh

Regarding the ES customers, I just think they are not enthusiasts and morons would not fit their profile (when you see ES drivers on the road, most just look like upper middle class folks in their 60s)

 

Thank you sir. The ridiculous beat up the GS bandwagon needs to go. When it sold well they didn't say ****. When it was not as sporty as others they got loud. When the GS became sportiest in class they shut up. When the GS has a good selling month it's quiet. When the GS has a bad selling month they come out the woodworks to hate.