TMC to Establish Toyota Institute to Instill Toyota Way

Tokyo ― TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today it will establish in January 2002 the Toyota Institute, an internal organization for training executives and middle management from TMC and its overseas affiliates in the Toyota Way. The new body will be headed by TMC President Fujio Cho.

In recent years, with the geographic expansion of Toyota's businesses and the widening of its business domain, people with diverse perceptions have come to be part of the global Toyota team. While recognizing the importance of diversity, Toyota has also realized an urgent need to implement a set of common values, beliefs and business methods to support and guide the continuing evolution of its worldwide operations. Known as the Toyota Way, these work approaches ― which until now have been implicit in Toyota's corporate tradition ― were compiled into a brochure that was distributed worldwide earlier this year.

Toyota has also undertaken a fundamental review ― at both the tangible and intangible levels ― of its human-resource training structures to identify how best to ensure a continuous reservoir of personnel with a shared commitment to the Toyota Way, whose members will play key roles in Toyota's 21st-century business development. This retrospection led to the decision to set up the Toyota Institute, which is intended to nurture the growth of such a global workforce.

While TMC President Cho will serve as the Toyota Institute's first president, its Secretariat will be led by the general manager of TMC's Global Human Resources Division, who will take on the added task of overseeing the Institute's planning and operation. The appointment of full-time and other staff members will bring initial Secretariat membership to 16. Although plans include building a dedicated facility for the Institute in Japan in a few years, for the time being, its programs will be conducted at existing corporate training facilities from the Spring of 2002.

Regarding specific programs, the Institute will run a Global Leadership School, aimed at developing executive human resources for Toyota's global businesses, and a Management Development School, geared toward practical training in the application of the Toyota Way. Leading researchers and educational institutions, including the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Hitotsubashi University, have been enlisted to assist the Institute in developing program content.

Toyota sees human resource training as one of the most vital issues in today's increasingly challenging age of mega-competition. With the Toyota Institute acting as a global-scale nerve center to reinforce the organic bonding of different businesses built around the central axis of the Toyota Way, Toyota aims to keep on its path of harmonious growth by improving operational efficiency throughout its worldwide organization.