Toyota president says product lineup under review

[June 25, 2009]  TOKYO (AP) -- Akio Toyoda promised a nimbler Toyota that will be more responsive to regional needs in his first public appearance as head of the Japanese automaker his grandfather founded.

Toyoda, the automaker's first president from the founding family in 14 years, said Thursday the company's entire product lineup will be reviewed to better focus its offerings to each global region.

He also hinted Toyota was stepping back from its recent go-go years of global expansion and returning to basics and simply making good cars.

Toyoda, 53, one of youngest presidents in Toyota Motor Corp.'s history, also said he will put customers and the rank-and-file first to steer the world's biggest automaker out of its worst crisis since being founded in 1937.

"This ship is setting sail in a storm," he told reporters at a Tokyo showroom. "We are making our start from rock bottom."

The global auto slump has battered Toyota, which lost 436.94 billion yen ($4.4 billion) in the fiscal year ended March, its worst loss ever. Toyota is expecting more red ink this fiscal year.

But hopes have been high in Japan that the charisma of a Toyoda, long known as "the prince" in the Japanese media, will deliver a morale boost in the rank-and-file as well as among suppliers and dealers to steer the company toward recovery.

Toyoda, who received a master's degree in business administration at Babson College in the U.S. after graduating from Keio University in Tokyo, is the son of Shoichiro Toyoda, a former Toyota president.

He is also the great-grandson of Sakichi Toyoda, a visionary who founded a machinery maker, which later became an automaker under Kiichiro Toyoda, Akio's grandfather. (The company's name was changed slightly from the family name because "Toyota" was considered to have a luckier number of brush strokes.)

Toyoda's news conference was short on specifics. He said the company will focus aggressively on some auto model sectors, while dropping others that it couldn't hope to do well. But he declined to give details, saying the plans will be reviewed region by region.

Executive vice presidents will each oversee a global region -- North America, Europe, Japan and emerging markets- to respond to changing consumer needs, Toyoda said.

He stressed that hybrid technology -- seen in the success of the third-generation Prius, which has sold briskly since going on sale last month -- was an example of a Toyota strength.

Although officials said the company was keeping its global production capacity of 10 million vehicles, and not planning plant closures, Toyoda appeared to break somewhat from the expansion policies of his predecessor Katsuaki Watanabe.

Watanabe oversaw Toyota's strong growth since becoming president in 2005. Last year, the company surpassed U.S. automaker General Motors Corp. as the world's top automaker in annual vehicle sales.

Since the 1990s, Toyota has appeared almost unstoppable, boosting sales year by year, riding on its reputation for small cars with good mileage like the Camry and Corolla.

It appeared to be on track to hit global sales of 10 million vehicles until the global financial crisis sent sales plunging. Toyota is now expecting to sell 6.5 million vehicles in the year through March 2010.

Aiichiro Mizushima, who has written a book about Akio Toyoda's rise, said Toyota was no different from other global companies such as DuPont and Ford Motor Co. where founding family members have shown managerial leadership.

Toyoda checks things out firsthand, listens to colleagues and may be able to forge a new auto culture when the market is rapidly changing toward green cars, Mizushima said.

A board member since 2000, Akio is not an engineer like the Toyodas who came before him. But he has overseen China operations, Japan sales and Internet businesses, getting experience in various sectors, like any Toyota employee on a career track, reportedly because his father did not want to give him special treatment.

He also served as vice president at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a Fremont, California-based joint venture with GM, giving him key experience in the U.S.

"It will work as a plus that he personifies this powerful family," Mizushima said. "It may take time, but Toyota is certain to stage a recovery."

Toyoda alluded to the views of his great-grandfather, Sakichi Toyoda, who believed a company must make good products, create jobs, pay taxes and enrich the community. He acknowledged he was frustrated Toyota had not completely fulfilled those aims lately because of its recent losses.

"No matter who becomes president, this job is going to be tough," said Toyoda.

[Associated Press; By YURI KAGEYAMA]

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