Case study example

Toyota Company. How does Toyotas approach to social corporate responsibility relate to the three concepts of social responsibility described in the text (profit responsibility, stakeholder responsibility and societal responsibility)?
Toyota has taken its society responsibility seriously. For instance, it created the Toyota USA Foundation and endowed it with ten million dollars. The Foundation supports environmental-focused programs and helps strengthen communities. Toyota has also contributed more than $500 million to several philanthropic activities in the USA (105). It has been very aggressive in its profit responsibility; using its programs and projects as means of communication to showcase its products and services to a larger population. This has demonstrated to be even more effective than the traditional way of holding advertising campaigns.
How does Toyota’s view of sustainable mobility contribute to the company’s overall mission?
The overall mission of Toyota is to contribute to the society and the economy by producing high-quality products and services. This is achieved through the Toyota way, which is a philosophy, built on five principles: challenging long-term visions and approaching them with creativity, Kaizen i. e. continuously improve business processes. Genchi Genbustu which, means going to the source to verify the facts in order to make accurate decisions; stimulating teamwork and performance and finally respect for the others and the environment by responsibility for it. Thus, Toyotas concept of sustainable mobility is key to achieving the Toyota way, which believes in respecting the atmosphere, and taking care of it.
Has Toyota’s National Parks projects been successful? What indicators suggest that the project has had an impact?
The Toyota National Parks project has been very successful. Parks included in this partnership are Yellowstone National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Everglades National park, the Golden Gate Bridge Foundation, Yosemite National park, the Grand Canyon and the Santa Monica National Recreational reserves. The program tries to engage with the visitors at the park personally and expose them to Toyota’s hybrid vehicles which when used in a natural setting are able to receive messages about sustainable mobility. A corporate image study which was recently conducted shows that Toyota ranked highest among its competitors namely Toyota, Honda, Ford and GM when it came to indicators such as ‘ Leader in High MPG’, ‘ Leader in Technology Development’, ‘ Environmentally Friendly Vehicles’ and in the ‘ Wins Environmental Awards’ (107).
What future activities would you suggest for Toyota as it strives to improve its reputation?
I would suggest that Toyota gets involved in even more activities that raise environmental-friendly awareness. They should be proactive about sustainability of the environment. Toyota should also be careful as to how its activities and decisions will have an impact on the environment, the economy and socially. The managers at Toyota should also be willing to listen to the ideas, opinions and criticisms of the organizations’ publics such as consumers, surrounding communities, nongovernmental organizations and regulatory bodies. Another crucial concern is the vehicle product quality especially after recent happenings when it recalled 16 million vehicles. This led to loss of credibility to the public about the quality of products. Toyota should strive to ensure that such an occurrence does not happen again and that it delivers vehicles of topmost quality to consumers to reclaim back confidence that may have been lost in it and maintain its brand superiority. It should also uphold its strategic partnerships with various organizations and as this help increase awareness on its products and technologies.
Works cited
Chapter 4 (book p. 105-107).