Toyota Corporation

CASE STUDY: TOYOTA CORPORATION.

INTRODUCTION:

The Toyota motor corporation is a Japanese car manufacturer, which is the world's second largest manufacturer from general motors. Regardless of this fact it is ranked first in terms of profitability, its net worth and revenue collection. It was founded in 1937 as a subsidiary of Toyota industries.

ANALYSIS:

As a firm in the motor industry, the Toyota Corporation is also affected and or assisted by general changes within its market environment. The motor industry just like many other industries is affected by different national government policies or general industry changes.

There are some changes that have occurred within Toyota's line of field, that have had tremendous impacts on its operations.

One of the major changes has been the emergence of china as an economic power in recent times. The emergence of china as an economic power has had the effect of boosting Toyota vehicle sales remarkably. China is now the leading purchaser of Toyota vehicles and as a result has helped to push the profits of the company even higher. This emerging market has made Toyota to be the biggest seller of vehicles globally by the start of this year. The second change that has affected the companies operations has been the recent continuing increase in global fuel prices. The continued increase in global fuel prices has caused the firm to consider introducing more fuel-efficient vehicles in its production line.

ON MATTERS OF OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS:

Opportunities and threats are part of the wider swot analysis. Swot analysis incorporates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Opportunities are external advantages accrue to a firm depending on the working of economies or other stakeholders. On the other hand, the threats are the external disadvantages that affect a firm because of its involvement with other players in the industry.

On the side of opportunities, that the Toyota Corporation can take advantage of some advantages. One of the advantages is the emergence of china as an economic power. It is surprising to note that china is also one of the fastest growing corporations for the Toyota Corporation. With continued expansion of production within the country, the company will effectively reduce logistical problems and reduce the corporation's operations budget. In addition to this, the company is also favoured by a depreciating dollar. This has had the effect of increasing sales within the United States as well as reducing its purchasing costs.

Regardless of this fact, the company is also faced with some threats. Among these threats, one is the increasing price of global fuel prices. This has had the effect of scaling down the demand for fuel guzzlers as they are being rejected with consumers more keen on purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles. In addition to this, environmental laws and doctrines are increasingly becoming a threat to the operations of the company. This is because the required levels of pollutant waste require very costly pollution abatement materials. Furthermore, the relocation of factories to less regulated states is becoming a very costly venture as well.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The threats mentioned above can affect the firms business operations if not well addressed. What the firm needs to do is adopt new technologies and modes of production as time changes. On the first case, the firm should try to manufacture more fuel-efficient cars while the demand for them is still high. On the second issue, the firm should try to use less pollutant means of production or invoke some recycling professionals to recycle part of the firms waste into better uses.

REFERENCE:

Alan R. Rushton, John Oxley, Phil Croucher .2000.The Handbook of Logistics and Distribution Management. London: Kogan Page.

Mankiw, N. G. (2004), Principles of economics (3rd Ed.), Chicago, ILLIOIS: Thomson South-Western

Philip Hardwick (1982), an Introduction to Modern Economics, Longman, U.K

Rashi Glazer, Marketing in an Information-Intensive Environment: Strategic Implications of Knowledge as an Asset The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Oct 1991), pp. 1-19.