Toyota Motor Corp. president Aldo Toyoda will be on the hot seat Wednesday as he answers Congress’s questions about the recall of cars plagued by potentially deadly acceleration issues. Toyoda seems to be trying to make up for the ill-conceived and defensive approach he and the auto maker have taken in this public-relations debacle. But it may be too late, in many respects.
The Wall Street Journal Tuesday has a Page One story, headlined “Support Wavers At Toyota for Chief,” about how the company’s rank-and-file employees and management think Toyoda dropped the ball in his handling of the recalls.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703494404575081102279562036.html#mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one
There are complaints about his lack of leadership during the company’s worst crisis in history. Even more shocking, some Toyota managers complained that they were not keep p to date about what the company’s actions relating to the recalls, and times first hearing about what was going on after reading it in the media.
Inside the same issue of The Journal, Toyoda had written an Op-Ed piece that really doesn’t do a very convincing job of explaining away Toyota’s too-slow handling of the brakes’ malfunction that has affected its Camry, Lexus and Prius lines.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081644051321722.html
Perhaps careful not to admit culpability, in light of the lawsuits Toyota faces from families of those killed when their cars suddenly accelerated, Toyoda’s piece was not very passionate, heart-felt or eloquent. You can read it and decide for yourself.
But that may be the least of Toyota’s woes. News broke Tuesday that a federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission had subpoenaed company documents, kicking off a criminal probe of the car maker’s attempts to deal with fatal problems with accelerator pedals, brakes and floor mats.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
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