丰田幼主吹响汽车霸主回归冲锋号

    2011年的最终统计结果显示，汽车制造商日本丰田汽车公司（Toyota Motor）已经从世界排名首位下滑至第三位，产量居通用汽车（General Motors）和大众汽车（Volkswagen）之后。这一结果并不出人意料。过去三年间，丰田公司遭遇了一系列天灾人祸，甚至使丰田举世闻名的偏执主义倾向似乎也带上了乐观主义的积极色彩。公司遭遇的最近一次打击源自日元升值，坚挺的日元让丰田所有本土产品成本上升，进而从根本上对公司利润率造成了冲击。《汽车新闻》（Automotive News）杂志11月刊预测丰田即将面临更多的“不幸”，比如“销售额下滑，泰国洪灾影响持续存在，潜在客户群购买意向出现摇摆”等等。

    丰田遭遇这一切的时候，统领全局的是一位天生注定要登上公司总裁宝座的年轻人，但他在危机管理方面并无多少经验。他就是丰田公司创始人之孙——丰田章男。过去十年里，丰田公司一直由职业经理人打理。其间，丰田章男不动声色地沿着企业内部晋升阶梯拾级而上。2009年，他临危受命，出任公司总裁，一上任就必须立刻着手处理全球范围业务衰退、大规模召回以及严重的海啸危机等难题。汽车产量严重跳水，公司最重要的竞争优势——高品质声誉也行将丧失。丰田章男在美国国会公开道歉，随后全美都在YouTube上看到了他落泪致歉的视频。丰田公司在美国市场的份额也下跌不少。2009年底，丰田的市场份额还高居18.3%，2011年就已经一路跌至12.9%。竞争者借由丰田召回事件这一机会大力唱衰，声称一度被汽车业界认为势不可挡的丰田而今已沦为平庸的配角。

    但我也听到了不同的声音。有观点认为丰田公司极好地应对了海啸危机，召回事件也对其敲响了警钟，从而改变了其原先志得意满的心态。这位新总裁本人极为重视公司产品，在他的大力推动下，公司与客户的关系得到了良好地重建。

    密歇根大学（the University of Michigan）的杰弗瑞莱克是一位研究丰田公司的顶尖学者，他告诉我：“丰田章男让公司重新获得了活力。他承诺要做一位离实际工作前线最近的总裁。”

    丰田章男更频繁地前往美国，以激励经销商，并亲自解决雷克萨斯（Lexus）品牌业绩低迷的问题。独立调查结果显示，丰田在质量和价值方面的声誉正逐步恢复。2012年，丰田将推出19款新车型和重新设计的车型。数量之大，超乎寻常。新推出的车型显示，普锐斯（Prius）混合动力车产品线得到了大力扩展，丰田快车似乎已经做好了准备，誓要重拾往昔的发展势头。

    When the final tally was made for 2011, Toyota Motor (TM), formerly the world's largest automaker, slipped to third place in production behind General Motors (GM) and Volkswagen. It's not surprising: Toyota has endured a string of calamities over the past three years -- natural and man-made -- that would make even the company's famous paranoia seem like sunny optimism. The latest is endaka, the strong yen that causes everything that Toyota manufactures in Japan to be more expensive and undermines its profitability. A November issue of Automotive News predicted "more misery" for Toyota as "sales slip, floods delay, shoppers stray."

    At the head of the company all this time has been a young president who was effectively born into the job and has little experience in crisis management: Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder. For a decade, while the automaker was being run by professional managers, Akio rose up the corporate ladder without making much of a mark. (For the sake of clarity, we'll use his first name, pronounced a-KEY-o, in this story.) Thrust into the presidency in 2009, he immediately had to cope with a global recession, massive recalls, and a deadly tsunami. Auto production plummeted, and at the same time Toyota lost its most important competitive advantage: its reputation for exceptional quality. Americans saw Akio apologizing before Congress and later tearing up in a YouTube video. U.S. market share tumbled. After reaching 18.3% at the end in 2009, it fell all the way to 12.9% for 2011. Emboldened by the recall crisis, competitors spread word that Toyota, once considered the unstoppable force of the automotive world, had been reduced to the status of also-ran.

    But I had been hearing different things -- that Toyota had coped remarkably well with the tsunami, and that the recall crisis had served as a wake-up call for a company grown complacent. With a big boost from its new president, who took an intensely personal interest in its products, it was connecting with customers again.

    The University of Michigan's Jeffrey Liker, a leading Toyota scholar, told me, "Akio has reenergized the company. He's promised to be the closest president ever to the gemba [where the real work is happening]."

    The Toyoda scion was traveling to the U.S. more frequently to fire up dealers and had taken charge personally of the sagging Lexus brand. Independent studies were beginning to show that Toyota cars were regaining their reputation for quality and value. With 19 new or redesigned models coming in calendar 2012 -- an exceptionally large number -- including a big expansion of the Prius hybrid line, the Toyota steamroller seemed ready to regain its old momentum.