Toyota Motor Corporation SWOT Analysis
The Toyota Motor Corporation was incorporated in 1937 and has many strengths being one of the industry leaders in the automotive industry. Toyota has three major brands underneath the company umbrella; Toyota, Lexus, and Scion. By having these three distinct brands, it lets the company reach many sectors of the globe in a choice of vehicle for customers. They produce their vehicles and target specific global regions, such as the Carina E for the European segment (Amherst). Toyota has traditionally also been the leader in Total Quality Management or TQM. The belief that no process could ever be declared perfect, and that therefore there was always room for improvement was introduced by Toyota Sakichi (Financial Times). This brought about the Japanese word, Kaizen meaning continuous improvement (Financial Times). By using the Kaizen theory of continuous improvement, Japan caught up the U.S. auto makers during the 1980’s (Financial Times). Toyota has also introduced it’s newest hybrid power car, Toyota Pirus, at the 2003 New York Auto Show and hit the dealerships in the fall of 2004 (Toyota). In September of 2003, orders for the new and improved Pirus totaled 17,500 which is five times more then the company target of 3000 (MSNBC). With the price of gasoline and oil ever rising, this is a great market for Toyota to exploit.
Toyota does have some company traits that are portrayed as a weakness in the industry. The brand Toyota is not perceived as many to be prestigious (Amherst). Another perceived weakness is that it is in the top five of sales but not in the top five in dividend payouts or stock performance (Yahoo Finance). This may put up a red flag to investors around the globe that Toyota is not paying dividends ...