Toyota Product Recall - Competitiveness

"You live by the sword; you die by the sword." Toyota's weapon of choice has always been quality, a competitive advantage that prompted many Americans to stop buying GM and Ford brands

Focusing on the growth without the concern on quality is a reason why Toyota has lost the quality culture which has been the reason for its growth.  A company which has grown on its ability to provided good quality cars has been attacked on the quality of its cars.  The diminshed image of the car manufacturers, vague and whishful statements from unknown middle managers, low visibility of the top management all have contributed to the lost competitiveness of the Toyota brand.

The CEO has to take the issue straight on and install systems and processes where people accept the existence of a mistake and improve the quality of operations under their purview for improved quality in all process across Toyota.  It needs the recognition of the existence of a quality issue by the Top management and resource allocation to address these factors

The cost cutting and focus on short term profits at the cost of quality by Toyota today has laid to rest the quality perception regarding Japanese companies.  The thoughts of Deming on Quality still holds true and Toyota is well advised if it follows the true spirit of quality improvement and quality management and does not restrict itself to quantified measurment metrics of quality, which have lost its relevance. 

A link to a interesting read from HBS Working Knowledge is provided below on the above issue:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/rss/6381.html