ON HOW TOYOTA BECAME TOYOTA

THE ULTIMATE TORTOISE

There's a long, but worthwhile cover story  in this New York Times Sunday magazine, outlining how

"...By year’s end, Toyota would record an annual net profit of $11.6 billion, and its market capitalization (the value of all its shares) would reach nearly $240 billion — greater than that of G.M., Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, Honda and Nissan combined."

This is all the more remarkable given that the company's start half a century ago in the U.S. back in 1957, was as humble as a California tech startup.  That's when the company's management in Japan,

"...decided to send three employees to California in the summer of 1957 on a survey mission;

a few months later, Toyota set up a small dealership in Hollywood to sell an austere, ugly and underpowered vehicle called the Toyopet Crown — “Toyopet is your pet!” its ads claimed.

The car went on sale in 1958 for $1,995; only 288 were sold.

That year, the Christmas party, held in the new company’s garage in Hollywood, consisted of about 30 people. The custodian’s wife cooked the food."

The 8,000 plus word piece also goes into some detail on how the Prius became the Prius, and how focused the company is on conquering the holy-grail of the auto market in the U.S., which actually happens to be the market for full-size trucks.  That's where the latest Toyota Tundra comes in, whose commercials saw their debut on the recent Superbowl.

Here's the bit that caught my attention, even though I'm not in the market for a truck:

"When the (Toyota) team discerned that the pickup has now evolved into a kind of mobile office for many contractors, the engineers sought to create a space for a laptop and hanging files next to the driver."

Very worthwhile piece to read, even if you're not into cars and trucks.  The single page version of the article can be found here.

Comments

[Mo]

Michael, I was talking to a sales manager in Texas when my Brother-in-law was buying a Sequoia this past Christmas. I was making small talk and mentioned the WSJ article in December about Toyota aiming to be #1 overall in 2007 and the manager said to me that just wait till the 2007 Tundra is out. He said 3-4 years from now when Toyota is a unstoppable juggernaut, people will look back at the release of this truck as the tipping point.