Toyota and General Motors Case

Abstract: The company we chose are Toyota and General motors and will be discussing the changes they have gone through and were they successful in handling change or failed. Also we have concluded by saying that if an organization needs to survive, it must respond to changes in its environment.

What do most successful corporations have in common? This is a million dollar question but it has a 50- cent answer. Organizations are entities that pass down a set of principles and vision from the top that allow its workers to be productive and motivated simultaneously. “organizational culture” is the one key distinction between companies engaged in the same industries and having the same access to resources. It is the vision and philosophy that the upper management lays down in conjunction with its workers that affects how well the company performs.

In our change management analysis, we will focus on the General Motors Company (GM) and Toyota. These are companies engaged in the same business but their internal view of themselves and how they impart their philosophies to their employees is very different. We will therefore have a look at the differences amongst the organizational culture of the two companies.

GM, one of the world’s largest automakers, was initially founded by William Durant in 1902 and held a remarkable presence in the automobile industry for almost a century. It is predominantly engaged in the designing, manufacturing and marketing of cars, trucks, and other automobile parts in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific regions. Additionally, GM also provides vehicle safety, security and information services through GM OnStar. This company sells not only cars but also trucks under several brands such as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. By providing quality vehicle security, and information services, GM was always listed as one of the best choices that customers from different ages and social classes tend to pick. But recently, due to poor management decision, the recession of 2008, and its inability to be flexible to change and the loss of market share to foreign competitors.

Secondly, Toyota company is also one of the largest automobile manufactures in the industry, it was first founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937, Japan . One of the main differentiation strategies of the company is that they managed to keep the same organizational culture and strategy throughout the years of their existence. In 2013, Toyota Motor Corp. passed General Motors Co. to become the world's largest auto company after selling 9.75 million vehicles globally last year. GM's management, under CEO Dan Akerson, has crippled the company's bottom line with successive poor decisions. The company has their own “Guiding Principles at Toyota” and the “Five Main Principles of Toyoda” that have been successfully implemented in