Along with the rest of the world, Toyota began 2020 with plans. New vehicle reveals, milestones in manufacturing and innovation, community outreach objectives, a full calendar of employee events, and more, were ready to hit the ground running.
Ahead were the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. Toyota has been a TOP (The Olympic Partner programme) partner of the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee since March 2015 as a mobility partner. As excited Team Toyota athletes kept us up-to-date on training and competition, a decisive moment in the future of mobility was being brought to life on the ground in the U.S. and Japan.
Like you, and like so many of us, Toyota was ready.
Then, in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became the crisis that threatened to bring the wheels of their big plans to an abrupt stop.
In that surreal moment, as awareness of the scale of the crisis became clear, something else crystallized just as quickly. Toyota was indeed ready, just not in the way it initially thought. The pillars of the Toyota Way are always in place and, as conditions on the ground shifted, those pillars stood firm. Through the foundational principles of Respect for People and Continuous Improvement, Toyota’s “North Star” led the way.
A New Year
2020 began with a major leap in mobility innovation and January’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) offered the perfect forum for announcing Toyota’s plans to build a prototype city of the future: Woven City. A fully connected ecosystem powered by hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota announced that Woven City will function as a “living laboratory” to help test and develop technologies, such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment. In a similar visionary vein came the announcement of a new collaboration with Joby Aviation, an aerospace company that is developing and commercializing all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Toyota had set its sights on the sky, as well as on land, in its quest to deliver “Mobility for All.”
January was significant for another major initiative forged from a fundamental respect for the dignity of all people and the commitment to seek new ways to do and be better. The start of 2020 saw the creation of the Social Justice Action Committee; a powerful resource for allyship at Toyota. Though they could not know what was to come, this group undertook the important work of strengthening equity, diversity and inclusion.
February brought the first auto show of the year and the roll out of seven new Toyota SUV and pickup editions in Chicago. And in Daytona, the 2021 GR Supra was introduced. Though snow flurries swept across the country, these weeks would turn out to be the calm before the storm.
The Big Pivot
March is said to come in like a lion and out like a lamb. In 2020, the opposite was true. As the month opened, the U.S. saw the first signs of the escalating crisis that would soon transform the world as we knew it. And it wasn’t long before the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting the nation, and Toyota along with it. Toyota’s response was swift and steadfast: We are here for you.
By April, a new and changing reality meant evolving forms of support. With North American assembly plants paused, Toyota quickly began to deploy its strengths to shift from making vehicles to making a difference. For example, Toyota’s Manufacturing Projects Innovation Center in Georgetown, Kentucky, adapted its 3-D printing capability to make face shields, which were donated to front-line medical workers treating COVID patients.
At the same moment, Toyota dealers across the country were stepping up to help their local communities, with all hands on deck to help provide lunches to school-age children, free Wi-Fi and more in their communities.
The company made time, though, to serve the core mission of quality in a new way as Toyota Motor Credit Corporation created Mazda Financial Services, offering a suite of products to Mazda dealers and customers in the U.S.
But perhaps the biggest milestone during the pivotal month of April was the introduction of the new North American TMNA President and CEO, Tetsuo “Ted” Ogawa. In the middle of unprecedented challenges, Ogawa took the helm to create calm, following the course set by a steadfast respect for people.
It’s About People
Following Ogawa’s lead, throughout the spring and into early summer, the focus was on respect for the needs and contributions of others. In May, Toyota saw the milestone of a Top 10 Ranking for Diversity (out of its 2020 top 50 Companies for Diversity®)—the only automaker ranked in the Top 10. Toyota dealers continued to show up for their communities, and the Toyota USA Foundation built upon the company’s ongoing COVID-19 relief efforts. Toyota Financial Services (TFS) was named one of the most community minded companies in the nation. In 2020, TFS issued its fifth Diversity and Inclusion (D+I) bond in the amount of $750 million, placing a spotlight on high-quality Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) certified firms. The year also saw the issue of the company’s fifth Green Bond, an important component of TFS’ diversified funding program to serve and enhance Toyota’s extensive commitment to environmental causes.
In June, to honor the memory of George Floyd, Toyota reinforced their message—We see you. We hear you. And, we stand with you and for you—taking a moment to reflect by stopping the manufacturing line for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and offering a moment of silence across the organization.
And the African American Collaborative—a Toyota employee resource group—through a video produced to mark Juneteenth, reinforced the “respect for people” values inherent in social justice and equality for all.
Keeping it real is another way to show respect for those around us, and the Team Toyota Olympic and Paralympic athletes showed their vulnerable sides as they described the big pivots they had to take in the wake of the postponed Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. “Start Your Impossible” took on a new meaning in 2020 and Team Toyota rose to the challenge.
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