Strategic management

MGT499 – Strategic Management Module 3 SLP- Internal Analysis and SWOT Introduction Toyota is a Japanese parent company of the Toyota group, and it is among the largest manufacturers of automobile manufacturers in the world. Most of its companies produce automobiles, automobile parts and commercial and industrial vehicles. Toyota has its headquarters in Toyota city. Toyota Motor Corporation is a subsidiary of Toyoda, and it was established in 1937. Toyota has been the largest automobile manufacturers in Japan (Algoe, 2012). Toyota is committed to putting its customers first by providing high quality vehicles at an affordable price. This is a niche, which is valued by customers, and Toyota Motor Corporation has taken advantage of it (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009). SWOT analysis-Toyota motor corporation strengths Toyota has the biggest strengths in developing unique cars, and this is done through innovative technologies. This is evident when there is a vast market sale of Prius hybrid cars in the United States. These vehicles are fuel-efficient. This is what consumers’ want since they are becoming aware and conscious about the fuel-efficiency ratings. This has led to customer satisfaction and loyalty to the company (The Japan times, 2007). The second strength is being able to have the largest amount of sales at $ 185, 524. 00 million, which is 15% of the global markets sales. This has encouraged the Toyota Motor Corporation to emphasize on the human resource department so as to equip itself with the latest research and development tools, which will enable it to maintain this profit and even gain much more. Their next project is to make two hybrid vehicles (Highfill, Baki, Copus, Green and Whineland, 2004). The third strength that Toyota has established is being able to be environmental friendly throughout their production. The company had accomplished this when Toyota moved on to develop a new generation of cars that are cleaner in combustion and are environmental healthy (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2011). Internal weaknesses The biggest weakness the company ever witnessed was that of Toyotas recall of more than 8. 5 million vehicles, and because of these, they suffered an annual net loss in the year 2009. Despite this problem, Toyota was able to bounce back by setting up regional quality committees world-wide, to be able to gain customers loyalty (Takahashi, 2008). The second weakness is that, other competitors have moved on to sell their brands across borders while Toyota Motor Corporation only offers its brands in Japan and United States. This has been a considerable setback to the company, because the company is not gaining as much profit as it should be gaining. For this reason, Toyota Motor Corporation has moved northwards in order to attract Toyota assembly plans and to gain more customers. This will in turn help the company to grow and will in turn be globally efficient (Krugman, 2005). Competitive advantage of Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota Motor Corporation has been remarkably successful, the past decade, and this is because it has a clear philosophy that makes it have a competitive advantage over it competitors in the field of manufacturing and selling of automotive. Toyota Motor Corporation has a clear philosophy, which is usually referred to as a production system. This system is dependent on Toyotas human resource management policy, to be able to operate. This human resource management policy helps employees to be loyal and creative. Toyota Motor Corporation also encourages its employees to be efficient in supplying its commodities. The Human resource management philosophy was formulated to encourage employee participation and; therefore, bringing up a high level of employee loyalty; hence, gaining a significant advantage over those competitors who majorly emphasize on high quality vehicles, without taking a keen interest in understanding customers’ needs and wants (Oppapers, 2012). Lesson learned Toyota Motor Corporation is the largest manufacturing and sales company in Japan. It is keen on understanding the customers’ needs and being able to put them into practice. They accomplish these by creating vehicles that are based on customers’ needs and are of high quality, which the customer can afford. The company also puts more emphasis on fuel-efficiency, since customers are now becoming conscious on the fuel-efficiency ratings as a result of economic inflation. In conclusion, Toyota Motor Corporation through its human management policy is keen to encourage employees to participate in creativity and innovations, due to the increasing technological changes. They are ready to welcome ideas that might be brought forward, one that will boost their company’s profit up. Toyota Motor Corporation leans on the employees’ loyalty and a network of suppliers that are highly efficient and on components of manufacturers that are highly of efficient. References Algoe, S. (2012). History of Toyota Motor Corporation. Phoenix: Hubpages Inc. Highfill, D., Baki, M., Copus, S. Green, M., and Whineland, M. (2004, November 14) Automotive Industry Analysis-GM, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Ford, Honda. Academicmind. com. Retrieved from http://www. academicmind. com/unpublishedpapers/business/management/2004-11 000aaa-automotive-industry-analysis. html. Krugman, P. (2005, July 25). Toyota, Moving Northward. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www. nytimes. com/2005/07/25/opinion/25krugman. html Oppapers. (2012). Creating sustainable, competitive advantage: The Toyota philosophy and its effectiveness. Retrieved from www. oppapers. com/essays/creatingsustainable-competititve-advantage-toyota philosophy/72926. Plunkett Research (2011). Market Research, Industry Statistics, Trends and in-depth Analysis of Top Companies . Retrieved from, http://www. plunkettresearch. com/automobiles%20trucks%20market%20research/industry%20overview. Takahashi, Y. (2008). Toyota Sees First Loss in 70 Years. Wall Street Journal. Vol. 1, pp. 23-30. The Japan Times, (2007, January 7). Toyota as No. 1. The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://search. japantimes. co. jp/cgi-bin/ed20070107a1. html Toyota Motor Corporation Annual report (2009). The better way forward. Retrieved from, http://www. toyota-global. com/investors/ir_library/annual/pdf/2009/pdf/p10_16. pdf Toyota Motor Corporation (2011). SWOT-analysis. Retrieved from www. yousigma. com/comparativeanalysis/toyotamotorcorporation. html