Toyota Case Study

Toyoda had more opportunities than Takanobu Ito, as he was raised in Toyota founder home; he was prepared for leading the company since he was a kid, and he had passion about cars, he had his law degree from Japan and his MBA from USA, but he had difficulties as his English language ability was poor. Takanobu Ito has the advantage of being an engineer, but Toyoda had extensive training to become the company’s top prototype test driver in order to be able to communicate with the engineering and design teams.

Takanobu Ito, his ethics is closely related to his spiritual dimension, and it seems that he is more religious and ethical than Toyoda as mentioned that he prayed on New Year’s Day at the Toshogu shrine in Nikko, Japan, for the company’s recovery, in contrast to Toyoda, who was reluctant in facing the recall crisis, and moved just to save the company’s image. Both Toyoda and Takanobu Ito are transformational type leaders, Toyoda won Auto car’s premier end-of-year award in 2012, while Takanobu Ito was chosen by the Automobile Magazine In 2009, as the Man of the Year.

Both leaders faced same demanding situations as they are located in Japan, but as Toyota is a bigger company, it had more losses, but at the same time had huge resources to face them. Both had the ability to lead their companies in face of disasters and lead the companies for success. We can say that Toyoda is luckier than Takanobu Ito, as he is considered the youngest president for Toyota; also he was born and raised for this job Akio Toyoda, as the grandson of the company's founder, he was promoted in the company so quickly.

Toyoda's Core Unique competencies are his ability to bring changes in the organization, his openness to new ideas, innovation, and determination to get things done quickly. While Takanobu Ito's Core Unique competencies are his optimist and resilient nature, his confidence, and his positivity. Akio Toyoda is one role model for collaborative leader. He embraces the principle of genchi genbutsu which means "see it for yourself. Takanobu Ito also has done a remarkable job in encouraging collaboration among Honda’s associates around the world. Toyoda is known to be a risk taker, as shown when he took the risk of losing the whole venture in China or taking the risk and making a profit, while Takanobu Ito is following the Japanese culture of uncertainty avoidance.

Akio Toyoda didn’t communicate properly with his employees or customers during the recall crisis. Akio Toyoda was reluctant and did not communicate with customer except after long time, but this was a wakeup call for him to improve communication in Toyota, while Takanobu Ito followed Honda’s tradition to encourage its management “to enjoy work and encourage open communication” (Honda’s Philosophy, 2013). He himself delivers a purposeful and strong message when he addresses his constituents. Toyoda is more successful in capturing