Toyota’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement: An Analysis – Panmore Institute

A Toyota FCV concept car. As part of the Toyota Group conglomerate, Toyota Motor Corporation emphasizes leadership in innovation and quality in its mission statement and vision statement. (Photo: Public Domain)

Toyota Motor Corporation’s mission statement and vision statement guide the company’s global success trajectory. Founded in 1937, the firm is now one of the biggest and most popular automakers in the world. This popularity reflects Toyota’s corporate mission statement and corporate vision statement, which emphasize a comprehensive approach that considers innovation and customers’ needs. The corresponding strategic goals drive the company toward stronger competitive advantages against other automobile manufacturers, such as Tesla, General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, and Renault. These competitors exert a strong competitive force, as evaluated in the Porter’s Five Forces analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation. Given its corporate mission and vision statements, the company strives to lead the global automotive industry, especially through design and innovation that address current trends and customer preferences. Toyota’s strategic choices are based on the goals and objectives derived from the implementation of the corporate vision and mission statements.

The trends influencing the international automobile market present strategic challenges to Toyota. However, the company’s corporate mission, along with the corporate vision, guides the business toward continuously improving its products while benefitting society in terms of safe mobility. The mission statement requires Toyota to provide safe, effective and efficient vehicles and related transportation solutions, while the vision statement determines how the corporation develops itself for the future through the application of The Toyota Way, which is a unique set of strategies that the company uses.

Toyota’s Mission Statement

Toyota’s corporate mission is “to make ever-better cars, to build a future where everyone has the freedom to move.” This mission statement is a combination of the company’s official statements regarding the mission of its business: “to build a future where everyone has the freedom to move” and “to make ever-better cars.” Toyota’s corporate mission statement has the following key elements that reflect the enterprise and the purpose and goals of its business:

1. Make ever-better cars
2. Build an inclusive future
3. Freedom to move for everyone

Toyota Motor Corporation uses various mission statements for its businesses in different markets. However, with regard to the business of automobile manufacturing and sales, the company’s corporate mission statement pertains to its strategic actions in mobility technology. For example, Toyota aims to continuously improve its automobiles. This objective aligns with the technological innovation and integration trend affecting the automotive industry and transportation sector. Such an objective influences Toyota’s intensive growth strategy and generic strategy for competitive advantage, especially with regard to continuous improvement for effective product development. The corporate mission also drives the company to emphasize inclusiveness in its multinational business operations in vehicle production and the maintenance of the business organization and its resources. In relation, Toyota’s corporate mission statement includes the objective of providing products that enable mobility for everyone. This objective entails the development of automotive products for the global market, involving automobile as well as related technologies. The internal and external strategic factors assessed in the SWOT analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation determine how the business positions itself to achieve these objectives based on the mission statement. The company’s corporate vision statement supports the objectives contained in the corporate mission.

Toyota’s Vision Statement

Toyota’s corporate vision statement indicates the company’s long-term strategic plan in the automobile industry. This vision statement reads, “Toyota will lead the future mobility society, enriching lives around the world with the safest and most responsible ways of moving people. Through our commitment to quality, ceaseless innovation, and respect for the planet, we strive to exceed expectations and be rewarded with a smile. We will meet challenging goals by engaging the talent and passion of people who believe there is always a better way.” This vision entails industry leadership, as well as the various principles and ideals that the company applies to ensure the competitiveness of its automotive products. Toyota’s corporate vision has the following key elements that reflect the future strategic direction of the business:

1. Global leadership in safe and responsible mobility
2. Exceptional quality, innovation, and respect for the planet
3. Engagement with talented and passionate people

In its corporate vision statement, Toyota highlights its position as a global leader in the future of mobility, specifying a global market reach. The automobile company adds that safety and responsibility are among the main ideals that influence its leadership. The corporate vision also includes quality and continuous innovation, which are among the principles of The Toyota Way that guides the business. In addition, the company emphasizes environmental conservation in its operations and automotive products. These factors directly relate to the technological and ecological trends shown in the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of Toyota Motor Corporation. The company’s operations aim to exceed expectations, which means providing cars that more than just satisfy customers’ current preferences and expectations. The “respect for the planet” element of the vision statement also reinforces Toyota’s corporate social responsibility strategy to address stakeholders, especially with regard to the natural environment as a stakeholder of the business. Furthermore, the corporate vision strategically guides human resource management in terms of the workers that the automotive company hires and keeps. For example, Toyota values passionate and talented employees who are optimistic in finding better options and ways of doing things. The vision statement’s human resource aspect relates to Toyota’s organizational culture, which involves continuous improvement and emphasis on quality. The corporate vision statement’s emphasis on safety, quality and innovation align with the automobile company’s corporate mission statement and its emphasis on continuous innovation.

Quality Assessment of Toyota’s Corporate Mission & Corporate Vision

In its mission statement, Toyota focuses on automotive products (cars) and customers (everyone). These details make the corporate mission specific enough in terms of what the automaker’s business organization does. However, the ideal corporate mission statement should also include information about Toyota’s self-concept, markets and technology, as well as concerns regarding the company’s image, business development, and workers. Thus, the firm has room to improve its corporate mission statement, such as by adding the aforementioned details to have a concise but broad-enough representation of its automotive business and its reason for existence.

Toyota’s vision statement is detailed in describing what the business organization wants to become in the long term. For example, the company states that it aims to be a leader in the future of mobility. Other information contained in Toyota’s corporate vision are its principles in doing business, the kind of organization the company wants to be, and its contribution to the global community. This corporate vision statement is future-oriented, clear, and challenging and inspiring for the automotive company’s workers and business partners. With these characteristics under consideration, Toyota’s corporate vision statement has high quality and is holistic because it encompasses strategic goals for business leadership, product quality, human resources, and corporate social responsibility, among other areas.

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