丰田幼主吹响汽车霸主回归冲锋号

    我乘坐一架老旧的波音777客机，枯坐了14个小时才抵达日本。我不清楚此行能有何收获。丰田确实遭遇了一系列厄运，但我想弄清楚，这家机构臃肿、官僚化严重的公司谋求变革的决心到底有多大。

    我在东京逗留了一晚，之后乘坐新干线子弹头列车来到日本第三大城市名古屋，车程1小时40分钟。丰田公司在该市有几栋写字楼。我拜访了丰田章男的重要顾问之一、丰田执行副总裁布野幸利。布野幸利拥有哥伦比亚大学（Columbia）MBA学位，曾经负责过美国市场的销售业务。他告诉我，丰田公司已经发生巨变。他通过翻译告诉我：“（丰田章男）已经对公司的管理模式进行了大刀阔斧的改革。他的管理理念主要包含两点，一是快速，二是灵活。传统上来讲，日本公司的管理模式是‘自下而上’的，降低了决策的速度。观察其他公司，我们意识到公司需要在一定程度上采取‘自上而下’的模式，提高行动速度。”

    丰田章男将董事会人员缩减了一半，并削减了管理层级。布野幸利还透露了一个更为重要的动向：丰田章男开始每周二早晨与他的五位首席顾问进行非正式会晤，共同探讨公司的运作。他们的合作非常紧密，布野幸利称之为“赛车维修站”式的管理。他们不准备议事日程或者书面报告，而且要在现场做决策。“这六个人私下的交情也很深。所以基本上在会谈中不会出现非常情绪化的或者激烈的辩论，因为我们彼此知根知底。”他们的行动很迅速。丰田章男于2010年访问了位于美国加州的电动汽车制造商特斯拉汽车公司（Tesla Motors），随后在某次周二晨会上就决定对该公司投资5,000万美元。之后，丰田公司签署协议购买价值6,000千万美元的特斯拉电池，它们未来将用于丰田全电动新款车型RAV 4 crossover。

    布野幸利还说，丰田章男还对公司的管理模式进行了另一个重要变革。公司的传统是对其高管进行轮岗，所以销售专家可能会被分配到采购岗位上，产品工程师也有可能去制造岗位上工作。现在他们都将留在自己的专业领域内，这样就能够充分运用自身的经验。布野幸利用较为保守的语气评价道：“这是非常美国式的做法，我还不知道他在巴布森（丰田章男曾在巴布森商学院学习）的学习经历对他目前的管理方式有何影响。但他现在的管理方式并不是典型的日本企业管理模式。” 事实证明，这种说法过于简单了。

    第二天，我驱车40分钟去丰田市拜访丰田公司首席工程师内山田武，他也是每周二晨会的参与者之一。1993年，内山田武接受了公司元老给予的艰巨任务，开发了能够省油一半以上的混合动力车型。如今的他可称作是“丰田普锐斯之父”。自1997年以来，普锐斯混合动力车的销量已经超过300万辆，并且已经发展成为一个拥有多种车型的子品牌。

    As I fidgeted through a 14-hour flight to Japan in a well-worn Boeing 777, I wondered what I would find. I figured Toyota had gotten some bad breaks, but I wondered about how committed this ponderous and bureaucratic company was to change.

    After overnighting in Tokyo, I moved on to Nagoya, Japan's third-largest city -- one hour and 40 minutes away by Shinkansen bullet train -- where Toyota occupies several office buildings. I met with executive vice president Yukitoshi Funo, one of Akio's key advisers. Funo, who holds an MBA from Columbia and formerly oversaw U.S. sales, told me there had been an upheaval at Toyota. "[Akio] has dramatically changed the way the company is managed," he said through an interpreter. "There are two major pillars to how he manages: First, be fast; and second, be flexible. Usually Japanese companies are based on a 'bottom up' management style, which slows down the pace of decision-making. In looking at other companies, we realized the need for a certain level of 'top down' to move quickly."

    Akio shrank the board of directors by half and took out layers of management. Funo revealed a more significant development: Akio has begun meeting informally with his five top advisers every Tuesday morning to review the company's operations. They work so closely together that Funo called it "pit work" management. No agendas or written reports are allowed, and decisions are made on the spot. "Basically, the six people have a very strong personal bond. So it's not a very emotional or heated debate as we have a very good understanding among each other." They can move quickly. After Akio visited Tesla Motors (TSLA) in California in 2010, the Tuesday morning meeting signed off on a $50 million investment in the electric-car maker. Subsequently Toyota agreed to buy $60 million worth of Tesla batteries to power its all-electric RAV 4 crossover.

    Funo said Akio has made another fundamental change in the way Toyota is managed. Traditionally, Toyota has rotated its top executives, so a sales specialist could be assigned to purchasing, or a product engineer to manufacturing. Now they stay within their specialties so that they can leverage their experience. "It's very American," said Funo. "I'm not really sure how what he learned at Babson [the Boston college where Akio studied business] has affected how he is running the company. But he is not typical Japanese management." That turned out to be an understatement.

    The next day I made the 40-minute car ride to Toyota City to meet with Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's top engineer and another participant in the Tuesday morning meetings. In 1993, Uchiyamada accepted the challenge of Toyota's elders to develop a car with 50%-better fuel economy; today he's known as the father of the Prius. More than 3 million of the hybrids have been sold since 1997, and it has been expanded into a sub-brand with additional models.