BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Chapter 2Building a New Model for General TradingCompaniesSection1TheEvolutionoftheManagementStructure1 From President Chiwa to PresidentFurukawaIn June 1999, Toyota Tsusho Corporation changedpresidents as Eizo Takeyama became the new chairmanand it was announced that Hiroshi Chiwa would beappointed president. On assuming office as presidentof the company, Chiwa acknowledged the very toughbusiness environment the company was in as he pledgedto be a“lean and agile company”in the future andencouraged employees to work from an“informational,environmental, and global”perspective. The newpresident then closed with,“In the 21st century, ourcompany will not only survive, but if executives andemployees all work together to bring great growth, I amconfident that we will thrive.”Thus appointed, Chiwa led the company to a steadyrecovery, but two years later, in 2001, President Chiwaretired for health reasons, and Masaaki Furukawa wasappointed president. Furukawa declared his commitmentto achieve the 2010 Vision announced in 2000, andpledged to focus on consolidation of management ineach division, empowerment, and human resourcedevelopment. He ended his speech by telling employeesto have“a passion for business”in work?to bring withthem a spirit of tenacity, a willingness to try, a passion,andadedicationtothetask.2 From President Furukawa to PresidentShimizuUnder President Masaaki Furukawa’s leadership,the company improved its performance. Just ahead ofthe June 2005 management integration with Tomen,a transition in management structure saw PresidentFurukawa was appointed as chairman and SeniorManaging Director Junzo Shimizu was appointed aspresident. Shimizu declared that he would add“teamworkand speed”to the keywords“on-site, hands on, in touch,a passion for business, and tenacity”used up to thatpoint, creating a new management philosophy for theToyota Tsusho Group by which employees were calledon to forge a new era.The company encountered a significant slowdown inperformance from the Lehman Brothers’bankruptcy in2008, but by strengthening the management structureand reviewing the business, the Shimizu regime pavedthe way for recovery. As the target of a 50/50 balance inautomotive and nonautomotive businesses set out in theVision 2015 came into view, in 2011, the company beganPresident Chiwa President Furukawa President Shimizu124