卖有趣的汽车：丰田如何重回巅峰

    有些人将他视为丰田汽车（Toyota Motor）的啦啦队长，在过去几年间负责代表这家深陷困境的企业抛头露面，对公众笑脸相迎。持有这种观点的批评家人数正在减少。在他们眼里，丰田仍处于灰色官僚的控制之下。这些企业官僚认为汽车就像人们生活中一个低调的伙伴，只要不出毛病就好。而丰田章男就像青楼里的乐师——替人助兴，但对企业而言并非不可或缺。

    不过如今，越来越多的观察家认为，丰田章男引导了这家世界上最大汽车制造商的文化变革。这家企业如今专注于制造顾客想要拥有的汽车，而不是应当拥有的汽车。某种意义上说，他给这家竞争力十足却缺乏激情的企业倾注了他自己对于汽车的一腔热情，用这种方式推动了一场设计与工程的革命，同时引领着死气沉沉的雷克萨斯（Lexus）生产线的复兴。

    可以肯定的是：所有的迹象都表明丰田章男乐在其中。他不用再为丰田汽车突然加速而向美国国会道歉，如今他给人的感觉是：经营公司就像在沙滩上散步。最近，他身穿卷起裤腿的卡其裤，骑着两轮电动车前往明治大学（Meiji University）给学生演讲，成为一大新闻。Jalopnik上的一篇博客写道：“他出现了……看起来像是刚刚抢购了Bonobos的男装在试穿一样，希望借此让年轻人重燃对汽车的激情。”

    丰田章男只是希望能够玩得开心。就像他最近对《汽车新闻》杂志（Automotive News）所说的：“我一直在强调两件事：请制造更好的汽车。如果汽车不能带来乐趣，它就不是一辆汽车。”

    即使对日语原文的翻译也许不一定精确，提供“乐趣”也是这家大型汽车制造商总裁即将规定的一项不同寻常的标准。不过丰田章男做的这一切似乎都起到了作用。丰田在解决过去几年所遭遇的产品召回、法律诉讼、自然灾害等问题上，给出了一切证据，证明他们能够征服挑战：

    • 丰田在2013年的前三个季度保持了世界最大汽车制造商的地位，名列通用汽车（General Motors）和大众（Volkswagen）之前，尽管它的领先优势正在减弱。9月，丰田的全球月销量上升6.3%，达到83.2万辆。今年，公司将售出将近1,000万辆汽车和卡车——这对所有汽车制造商而言都是空前的。

    • 预计在截止到明年3月31日的2014财年中，丰田将获得260亿美元的利润——这是另一项空前的纪录——这个收益要部分归功于日元的低价（1美元=97日元）和丰田对美国相对高的出口量。

    • 尽管面对来自福特和大众日益激烈的竞争，丰田依旧保持了14.4%的美国市场占有率。在过去两年中，丰田对北美投资超过21亿美元，生产能力达到之前的9倍。

    • 丰田在混合式燃料汽车上依旧保持全球领先。公司预计到2015年将推出15款新式或改进版气电混合动力车。在同一年，丰田还将推出第一款燃料电池汽车。

    丰田章男正在精挑细选，将他的所有时间都投入能够带来最大影响的领域。他个人对雷克萨斯很有兴趣，任用了一位美国领导来主管全球扩张，并对每款车型的设计和表现提出自己的意见。丰田章男把这称之为“与我的右脑对话。”《汽车新闻》的一位资深编辑把他对丰田的贡献比作史蒂夫•乔布斯对苹果（Apple）的贡献。“他就像一个了解汽车驱动动力学和操控的司机，为雷克萨斯赢得了来之不易的名声，同时他还带来了自己对时尚的理解。”

    One school sees him as the leading cheerleader for Toyota Motor (TM), a laughing and smiling front man for a company that has been struggling more than usual the past few years. By the accounts of these critics, whose numbers have been shrinking, Toyota Motor is still under control of the usual gray bureaucrats who think cars should look like inoffensive lumps of clay as long as they never break. Akio is like the piano player in the brothel: entertaining, but hardly essential to the enterprise.

    But a growing number of observers now see president Toyoda as the leader of a culture change at the world's largest automaker, dedicated to making cars you want to own, rather than ought to own. In a sense, he is transfusing the highly competent if uninspiring organization with his own passion for automobiles. By doing so, he has spurred a design and engineering revolution and is leading a revival of the somnolent Lexus line.

    One thing for certain: Toyoda gives every indication of enjoying himself. No longer faced with tasks like appearing before Congress to apologize about unintended acceleration, he gives the impression that running a car company is just a walk on the beach. He made news recently when he arrived at a speech for Meiji University students in Japan wearing khaki pants rolled up above his shoe tops (see photo above) and riding a two-wheeled, stand-up electric bike. Wrote one Jalopnik blogger: "He shows up ... dressed like he just raided the Bonobos catalog to try and get young people excited about cars again."

    Akio just wants to have fun. As he told Automotive News recently: "I have always said two things: Please make ever-better cars. And if it doesn't offer fun, then it is not a car."

    Even allowing for an imprecise translation from the original Japanese, offering "fun" is an unusual standard to be set by the president of a major automaker. But whatever Akio is doing seems to be working. Toyota gives every evidence of putting its problems of the last few years -- recalls, lawsuits, natural disasters -- behind it as it bulldozes the competition:

    • Toyota has maintained its perch as the world's largest automaker for the first three quarters of 2013, outpacing General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Volkswagen, although its lead is shrinking. In September, Toyota's monthly group-wide global vehicle sales rose 6.3% to 832,000 vehicles. This year, it will sell nearly 10 million cars and trucks -- an all-time record for any automaker.

    • Toyota is expected to post an operating profit of $26 billion in fiscal 2014 that ends on March 31 -- another all-time record -- thanks, in part, to the cheap yen (97 to the dollar) and Toyota's relatively high number of exports to the U.S.

    • Despite stronger competition from Ford (F, Fortune 500) and Volkswagen, Toyota is hanging on to its 14.4% share of the U.S. market. It has invested more $2.1 billion in North America over the past two years and expanded production capacity nine times.

    • Toyota remains the world leader in hybrids and plans to introduce 15 new or improved gas-electric models by 2015. That same year, it will introduce its first fuel-cell vehicle.

    Akio is picking his spots, devoting his time to areas where he can make the biggest impact. He's taken a personal interest in Lexus, appointing an American to lead its global expansion and making his own suggestions about the design and performance of individual models. Akio describes it as talking "with the right side of my brain." A veteran editor atAutomotive News compared his contributions to the role Steve Jobs played at Apple. "What he brings to Lexus is a hard-earned reputation as a driver, a man who understands a car's driving dynamics and handling, and his sense of style."