Toyota’s rash of recent recalls – the floor mat entrapment recall, the sticking pedal recall, and now the 2010 Prius brake recall – are all symptomatic of a much larger problem we’d like to call “big companyitis.” Big companyitis is caused by:

  • Poor internal communication
  • A culture that stifles individualism
  • Employees and managers who aren’t held accountable

Obviously, big companyitis can be traced back to poor management. However, while the mass media focuses on items that happened in last 2 weeks, we’d like to point to some items that happened in the last 3 years to prove our point:

1. Tundra Bed Bounce – Toyota never once acknowledged that Tundra bed bounce was a problem, yet the number of complaints we see have fallen off dramatically since 2007. It’s our opinion that Toyota has updated and/or changed the design of the Tundra somehow to reduce this phenomenon, yet they’ve never acknowledged doing so. Why? Because acknowledging that newer Tundras don’t have the same bed bounce issues would be acknowledging the older models did, and that would mean that Toyota might have to help fix the older models. While some might claim this is nothing more than a company protecting it’s bottom line, we think it’s an example of a pattern.

2. Tundra Frame Rust – We became aware of this issue in late April 2009, when a Boston TV station reported that 2000 and 2001 Tundras had frame rust. We received more information in the following months (including some incredible Tundra frame rust pictures), but it wasn’t until NHTSA got involved that Toyota officially announced a Tundra frame rust recall. Yet in Toyota’s official letter to NHTSA, Toyota admits learning about this problem in late 2008 – 6 months prior to the Boston TV report, and a full year before NHTSA’s investigation began. How could Toyota sit on this problem for the better part of a year before coming up with a fix?

3. Toyota’s Floor Mat Recall – A tragic story of a Lexus speeding out of control prompted the L.A. Times (aka L.A. Slimes) to publicize the fact that Toyota vehicles had a higher incidence of unintended acceleration claims than other manufacturers. Of course, the L.A. Slimes wasn’t interested in finding out what really happened (they were more interested in manipulating data), but the impact of their stories put Toyota on the defensive, forcing Toyota to complete a somewhat mystifying “floor mat entrapment” recall that didn’t (and doesn’t) make a lot of sense…especially when Toyota follows up that recall with the “sticking pedal” recall. While it’s possible that Toyota found both floor mats and sticking pedals to be problems, the floor mat recall seems like a company going off half-cocked.

4. Toyota’s Near Week-long Silence During “Pedal Gate” – There’s simply no excuse for recalling vehicles and freezing production on the 26th of January, but not making any sort of meaningful public statement until February 1st. This is a classic example of bumbling, dis-jointed management.

Toyota is definitely suffering from big companyitis. The cure is a major over-hall of management, a new commitment to the values of Toyota’s kaizen, and a big apology to Toyota consumers everywhere. Hopefully, Toyota USA will be restructured, many senior and mid-level managers will be asked to leave, and Toyota will re-invest in making great products.

What do you think – is Toyota suffering from “big companyitis”, or are their problems a combination of media hype and bad luck?

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