When Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda finishes speaking before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Washington later today, Toyota shares may drop, but he will have done the right thing.
After presiding over the most inept crisis communications plan in recent corporate history, Toyoda will tell his audience worldwide that he takes personal responsibility for the crisis, and the ultimate burden of sorting it rests with him. The chain of events has been entirely logical in the Japanese way – which is why it will ultimately work, even though it appears baffling to Western eyes.
The Japanese do not put PR above all else as some organisations do – their view is: why bother with the message when much hard thought needs to go into getting the product and the probity right. This is still an island in the Pacific which operates to centuries-old traditions and values developed completely independently from the rest of the planet. That explains the complete lack of publicity when the first problems came to light. And it explains the astonishingly raw ‘mea culpa’ from Toyoda, and the fact that, now it has been completed, a full transcript has been sent to every news organisation in the world before it is delivered to the Committee.
In Toyoda’s speech, the essential rules of crisis management are rigorously followed. A full acceptance of the seriousness of the situation. Personal responsibility. Clear analysis of the root cause. Apology. Robust plan of action to deal with it. It may appear much too late for the frantic appetite of the Western press. But it is right, and it will ensure Toyota’s survival.
Leave a Reply