"Moving Forward" on many levels

What do you think of when you hear the word Toyota? In the early 70's it was seen by many competitors as an inexpensive (cheap), and small (cheap) car for low income (poor) consumers. At that time the Big Three: Ford, General Motors & Chevrolet, were gaining greater revenues from their larger more expensive models and ignored the growing trend for more fuel efficient vehicles. Fast forward 30 years, and well you can see for yourself:







How was Toyota able to go from making it's first auto in 1936 to being the largest global automobile manufacturer with over 2.5 Million cars sold in 2006 in the U.S. alone? It wasn't easy but I believe it has something to do with its mission:

"To attract and attain customers with high-valued products and services and the most satisfying ownership experience in America." - source

In today's market companys are faced with many challenges. The ones of primary importance are Customers, Competition and Change. A company is succesful if it can meet each of those challenges head on, and a mission statement helps them do this.

The mission statement is an organization's goal. It's their reason for being, and requires a lot of thought before announcing it to the public. This is because an organization's mission statment should encompase four characteristics:

1. Must be customer driven (pun unintended) - The world is moving so quickly, and today customers have so many products to choose from and so many places to find out more about products. Focusing on shareholder equity and ignoring your customer's needs is done at your own risk.
   
2. Must be forward thinking - A company's mission statement should challenge the organization to constantly improve to better prepare itself for the future. While it is ok to be somewhat vague about specific strategies, an organization needs to have a solid grasp on what it wants to do and where it wants to be in the future.
   
3. Accountability should be built in - The average person should know if/when a company is working towards achieving its mission statement, and more importantly, when it has lost focus.
   
4. Corporate Social Responsibility needed - CSR should be built into every mission statement the same way spell check is built into every word processing program. An organization has a responsibility to serve the public not the other way around.

As I mentioned earlier, Toyota is a solid example of a mission statement that works. Firstly, the mission statement tells you within the first five words who they are targeting. The customer is the most important stakeholder in Toyota's view, and they want to focus their resources on attracting and attaining more customers.

Secondly, Toyota is giving you the blue print on how they hope to achieve this goal. With a focus on high-value (quality) products and services, Toyota believes they can succeed now and in the future. Most importantly, it's providing the public with a measure with which to evaluate Toyota.

Lastly, this mission statement shows a clear commitment to discovering and working out solutions to issues that affect the consumer and the greater society as a whole. By focusing on owner satisfaction, Toyota is helping to solve many larger issues that were thought inreconcilable with big business interests. For example, the price of oil is trading at over $108 a barrel. Why is it that the Big Three are just now getting their hybrid vehicles out within the last 5 years or so while the Toyota Prius has been around since 1997 ?

If Toyota were not following its mission statement, would they be as successful as they are today, or in such a great position for continued growth tomorrow?

Toyota is certainly moving in the right direction, and their mission statement has everything to do with it.