Strategies Execution:
The 5 Secrets of Toyota Motor Corporation Responded to COVID-19
Junnel Duluguin, 11 August 2020
Choosing an article such as this in this unprecedented time is crucial not only for the entrepreneurs but also for students in business strategies who want to learn how to respond swiftly to COVID-19 impact on the global economy.
- ) Smart Working. In this unprecedented time, every company is trying to develop strategies on how to respond to the impact of COVID-19. Even though no one has the experience to deal with it, but overall, companies were trying to reconstruct their organizational policies of the business. For example, in the communication perspective, Toyota Motors Corporation in Italy have shifted from analog communications into a digital way to communicate with their employees. Adopting this kind of communication offers more advantages to the company. Labor costs will drop down because they can do their work remotely at home, as well as repair costs since they stopped agents or research teams from traveling. To mention a few.
But because of more freedom, it decreases employee’s work or life balance. How would you feel when you wake up, and your working desk full of paper works besides your bed? How important building a relationship with your co-workers? Working remotely from home makes it more challenging to establish relationships among co-workers. I would say, in the conventional sales process, this part relates to the Approaching with the Customers and a part of Developing a Prospect Base, which are falls in module two.
2.) Decision Making. According to Sabrina Caputi, one of the senior managers at Toyota Motor Italy, she confirmed that risk and crisis mitigation are made from top management in every department of the organization. This approach is so-called a top-down communication approach based on business Harvard review.
The pros with this one are more knowledgeable in a bigger perspective in steering the future direction of the company — high-quality decisions in dealing with the facts because of the high diversity of views.
The common downsides are time-consuming as a result of diversity, and a few members can dominate it. But overall, the effectiveness of the risk and crisis mitigation weighs more heavily, and it relates to Prospecting during the sales process, which is the finding or reaching who are the decision-makers of the purchases.
3.) Brand Awareness. I would say Toyota has crafted well their brand. The way they increase the consumer perceptions towards the company’s brand is by supporting the communities, especially giving back through donations to the hospitals or any non-for-profit organizations. Also, in their latest innovation, they help in protecting the environment by introducing their new battery-operated model, which is capable of controlling pollutions. Despite remote working disadvantages, it is not just controlling the operating costs. Still, it offers advantages as well, which shows how they are taking care of their people’s safety and health from getting infected with COVID-19. As a result, consumers will put more trust in their brand, and it increases customer loyalty too despite COVID-19.
This strategy would relate to the second video clip in module two about how the prospective customers perceived the salesperson’s credibility by looking at his certificates on the wall and his long of selling experience about his product. Additionally, it expresses as well the strategy of “GIVE and TAKE” — We felt obligated to give back.
4.) Alignment. Toyota was founded in 1933 by Toyoda Kiichiro, which originated in the eastern city of Nagoya, Japan. The company had long experience in terms of managing the business. With 87 years in the motor industry, for sure, they experienced different trials and successes in the market. In fact, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the company had shut down its production facilities resulted from WWII. Persistence made the company successful and thrived until the 2020th century. This trait is running within the stream of its business operations, where the company is good at it. Alignment in every aspect of business process operation plays a critical role in launching ideas and strategies for responding to COVID-19. Namely, from continuous employee development via webinar training and the sharing of economy platforms with business partners as well as to customers.
However, according to CustomerThink, facilitating this platform will decrease customer loyalty and a high risk of fraud and scams. But, the level of negative impact all depends on what time of business the company is operating. Integrating all these aspects in the business process requires careful planning to align and achieve business goals together.
In the same manner, these strategies aligned with the second week of module two. Following the well-designed sales process and ask probing questions, proponents will have a better insight on how to match up to their product or services to the customer needs and wants before their product presentations.
5.) Agility. COVID-19 reaped thousands of businesses across the globe. Only stable companies and have concrete strategies in place survived. Recent research has found that for those who refrain from adapting to change and stay in their comfort zone; there is a high chance to close their business doors. In my view, sometimes generational differences would significantly impact small-businesses which generally run by the family. Often, past successes blind founders to shift or embrace change. They still believed that their execution strategies would work.
At this beginning of a new era, I would say the business race has just begun, and only forward-looking companies seem who are leading the competition in the market now. Sooner or later, companies who fail to shifts eventually would lessen their grips, and products or services would settle in its decline stage life cycles. In contrast, this not what happened with Toyota Motor Corporation. Indeed, according to Sabrina, the company has quickly recovered, as a result of its innovation culture, everyone has benefited.
For this reason, the agility of the company saved the business and responded strategically to COVID-19 smoothly concerning its plan. But there are some drawbacks as well. Challenging to design the solutions as it requires more details, organizational transformation, and more amount of training before the principles will fully understand.
All in all, agile is not appropriate to all the solutions, and some different solutions appropriately fit with the specific situations. This methodology has proven effective, especially in an auto manufacturing company such as Toyota. This part corresponds to Creating the Consultative Sales Presentation. During the probing questions, proponents would quickly recommend products or services that will provide maximum need satisfaction (Hans, K., 2020).
During this uncertain time, what did you find most useful?
References:
Borello, D. (n.d.). RepTrak: Communicating During a Crisis: How Toyota Motor in Italy Responded to COVID-19, Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.reptrak.com/blog/communicating-during-crisis-how-toyota-motor-italy-responded-to-covid19/
Reeves, M. (2020). Harvard Business Review: How Chinese Companies Have Responded to Coronavirus. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2020/03/how-chinese-companies-have-responded-to-coronavirus
Hans, K. (2020). Strategic Selling: Module 2.
Chappelow, J. (2020). Inventopedia: Sharing Economy. Retrieved August 10, 2020,
from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sharing-economy.asp
n.a. (2020. Disadvantages of Remote Work. Retrieve Augst 10, 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sharing-economy.asp
Cobb, C. (n.d.). High Impact Project Management: Agile Project Management. Retrieve August 10, 2020,
from https://managedagile.com/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-agile-scrum/
Piletic, P. (2018). Customer Think: 7 Major Disadvantages of the Sharing Economy. Retrieve August 10, 2020, from https://customerthink.com/7-major-disadvantages-of-the-sharing-economy/
