Change Management at Toyota

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Product focus and customer focus ......................................................................................................... 3
Lewins change model............................................................................................................................. 5
Unfreeze.............................................................................................................................................. 6
Change ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Refreeze .............................................................................................................................................. 7
Kotter model ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Implementing and sustaining Change................................................................................................. 9
Motivating employees ...................................................................................................................... 10
Abraham Maslows Needs Hierarchy .................................................................................................... 10
Change Management at Toyota ........................................................................................................... 11
Reinforcement theory ........................................................................................................................... 12
Gaining Competitive Edge via change............................................................................................... 13
Product development and the customer focus at Toyota ................................................................ 14
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 15
References ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Introduction
The change is important for each and every organisation as it helps the organisation in

satisfying the growing needs of the stakeholders. As evident, there are various organisations

that brings change in order to compete on the global scale for gaining a sustainable

competitive advantage. For the current assessment, the change that will be discussed is to

shift the focus from being product focused to the customer centric which means moving

forward from increasing the market share to creating profitable customer share. In order to

discuss this, a Japanese car brand named Toyota has been contemplated so that its operations

and the change within Malaysia can be discussed pertaining to being customer centred.

In the contemporary eon, the organisations are focusing on being the customer centric as

customers are the bread and butter of the company if they wont make the purchase, then

there will be no reason left for the company to survive, it will run into losses. Thus, via this

paper, the tactics will be discussed pertaining to increasing sales, internal product and

appropriate management of the marketing activities so that customers can be catered in a

comprehensive manner.

Product focus and customer focus

In the view of Wilson et al (2012), the organisations which are product focused tend to

consider the vision for the development of the product that are the collective efforts of the

team so as to meet the market demand. In addition to this, it is important to be discussed that

the opposite of product focus is the customer focus which deals with the needs of the

customers so that they can be satisfied. Thus, as mentioned by Best (2012), the organisations

that are customer focus tend to contemplate product related decisions by aligning them with

the needs of the customers. This is basically the alignment of customer needs and wants for

accomplishing the organisational goals. According to Cretu and Brodie (2007), many of the
organisations are now considering the fact that they tend to satisfy their customer no matter

whether they run into losses or not, their utmost goal is the satisfaction of the customer need

that eventually turn into the fruitful results in the long run.

As far as the customer focus of Toyota is concerned, it can be highlighted that in Toyota

Motors Sdn (Ibusuki and Kaminski, 2007). Bhd seeks to ensure the consistency in the quality

and the after sales service and successfully serves a large base of customer. It is evident that

Toyota has established a extensive service network across Malaysia. For being customer

centric, Toyota is focusing on being available 24/4 to its Malay customers so that the

customers can be reached and their queries can be solved by making it easier for the

customers. Toyota Motor Sdn. Bhd, it has been found that the customers are taken care of any

time and any place or outlet they visit. In addition to it, is explained that the staff members at

the Toyota are obliged to adhere to all the standard that revolves around satisfying the needs

of customers (Liker and Morgan (2006). As Toyota is the Japanese car brand, they tend to

consider that call centre representatives functioning in Malaysia are the ones that converse in

Malay so that the Malay customers can be dealt. Toyota is one of the best examples of the

customer centre organisation. Furthermore, it can be explained that Toyota focuses on

responding to the customers needs for the personalisation. Toyota , seeks to maintain a

balance between the product trends and customer trends so that the customer needs can be

satisfied by offering quality products. With respect to the Malaysian market served by

Toyota, it is highlighted that the genuine accessories are being developed particularly for the

Malaysian market so that the customers can be satisfied. This all allows the customers to be

personalize and leads to the enhancement of the Toyota functionality.

In contrast to this, it has been mentioned that for Toyota product development is one of the

important concept which helps the company in flourishing its business within the region in
which it operates. That is why it always comes forward with the fresh ideas. According to

Shah et al (2006), if the organisation does not design and develop its product on the

continuous basis, it will be left behind its competitors. Thus, Toyota is the largest players in

the automotive industry and not only in Malaysia, it is known in all parts of the world.

Lewins change model

In the current section, the change that Toyota has to contemplate for being customer centric

will be developed by pursuing change management model developed by Kurt Lewin (Burne

and Cooke, 2013). This model includes the three phases that are being contemplated when an

organisation wishes to implement the change. Mentioned below is the Kurt Lewins model

and its explanation pertaining to Toyota.

Figure 1: Kurt Lewin's Model

(Source: Burne and Cooke, 2013)

The aforementioned figure is the explanation of the Kurt Lewins change management model.

According to Adams and McNicholas (2007), the Kurts model is that driving forces should

overweight the resisting forces specially during the time of change. It can be discussed that

the employee resistance is one of the factor that needs to be dealt with due care so that the
change can be implemented successfully. In case of Toyota, the change is discussed below

regarding mobbing from being product centred to the customer centred.

Unfreeze
This is the first phase of the change, that is being contemplated by the organisation so that the

employee readiness to the change can be considered (Judge and Douglas, 2009). In case of

Toyota, the change is to deal with the customers in a comprehensive manner so that the

company can work effectively in the Malaysia and satisfy the needs of the Malay customers.

In this phase, the Toyota will be implementing the change and for a shorter time span that

will be a trail period for the 3 months, just to observe all the activities are in line and are as

per the needed change, whether or not the employees are reluctant etc. This will ensure how

dedicated employees are and what is their perception of being customer centred.

Change
According to Hayes (2014), in the phase of change, the intended change is being

implemented that contributes to the well being of the organisation. In addition, as far as the

change at Toyota is concerned, in the second phase the change will be finally implemented

and this will be final free from every trial period. The Toyota while dealing with the

employees in Malaysia will make sure that the change and its benefits are communicated.

When Toyota will be completely customer centric, not only organisational productivity will

be enhanced rather, the employees will also be offered an entirely new environment to work

with. The customers are very important from the automotive industry perspective, as this

industry sold the products that are costly and customers chose them as per their status and

social class that is why for this purpose, the excellent customers service is very important.

Similarly, from the perspective of Toyota, it can be depicted that for changing the mind set of

the brand, sales and marketing management teams , it is essential to be pinpointed that they
need to be offered with the proper assistance and should be told how important customers are

for Toyota in the host country that is Malaysia.

Refreeze
In this phase, as mentioned by Paton and McCalman (2008), the company makes sure that the

change has been implemented successfully without any cause of hindrance. This phase also

makes sure that the change is implemented without any issues and none of the problem have

been occurred. The performance of the implemented change is also being monitored so that

any aspect which went wrong can be altered. Thus, in case of Toyota, it can be said that the

performance will be monitored for making sure that change is implemented and is accepted

by the employees and none of the employees showed resistance. This will help in devising up

the marketing management responsibilities as the ways of doing will now be targeting the

needs of customers and will be customer focused rather then just creating the products to

meet the market demand.

As far as the brand and sales teams are concerned, it is essential for them to conduct

extensive market research so that the needs of the customers can be contemplated and the car

brands are developed accordingly. Thus, this will help in gaining marketing insights of the

customers and regarding the acts of competitors as well so that the strategies can be devised

accordingly.
Kotter model

In the picture above, the Kotter change management model has been mentioned so that the

intended change at Toyota can be implemented (Appelbaum et al, 2012). In the first three

stages of the model, the organisation creates a change environment so that whatever

resistance employees will depict will be catered before moving to the implementation and

engaging the entire organisation in change implementation (Carter, 2008).

Thus, in case of Toyota, it can be said that the change manager will highlight the importance

of change as the branding, sales and the marketing activities need to shift its focus from

being product focus to the customer focus, once this is highlighted the sense of urgency will

be communicated. According to Fan and Ku (2010) and Smith and Colgate (2007), if the

sense of urgency is communicated, the employees will know the urgency of the change so

that they will make up their mind in order to work in a completely new environment.

Pertaining to Toyota, it can be said that the employees will be highlighted that Toyota wants

to increase its sales and intends to create the brands that are personalized, thus resulting in

attracting and retaining the customers. Once the urgency of the change is created, the change

management team at Toyota will work on building the guiding team so that the supervisor

will deal with the new activities and increase the employee readiness to change. The team
leader will persuade the employees showing resistance so that they can be ready for the

needed change. In addition to it, Toyota management team will then, reciprocate around the

core vision that is to shift from product focus to being customer centred. This will be vision

around which all the new activities will revolve around.

Similarly, it can be pinpointed that the second phase of the Kotter model is to engage and

enable the whole organisation in change implementation. In this phase, the Toyota change

management team will communicate the buy-in, so that the change implementation can be

made possible. In this way, the Toyota will communicate what is important and what is

needed. On the contrary, it is also highlighted that empowering employees certain actions is

very essential so that they can contribute their maximum efforts in order to attain the vision

mentioned. In addition to it, it is exemplified that the next step to be followed by Toyota will

be to create the short term wins. In this manner the company can attain the objectives at the

short term level before moving to the long term objectives and vision. As mentioned by

Schunk et al (2012), the organisation will be having an idea about the employee readiness as

this will help them in attaining the objectives, this will illustrate their interest and

commitment to the organisation. Thus, Toyota will be contemplating and measuring the

employee performance on this level so that the efforts of the organisations will not go in vein.

Implementing and sustaining Change

The last phase of the Kotter model is of implementing and sustaining the change so that the

change can be highlighted and seen in the operations of the business. In order to do this, the

Toyota change management team will be considering and looking into reviewing the change

performance so that the vision and can be observed whether the efforts are in line or not. If

not, further change will be made. At Toyota, the team members will be highlighting the need

for new staff members so as to deal effectively with the customers as now the focus will be

more on customer satisfaction rather than creating the product and satisfy, the company will
follow the strategy of asking customers and building up the products accordingly. Hiring and

devising of new strategies is also one of the important part of the change process so that the

new change can be implemented successfully. Lastly, the team management at Toyota will

also look into the creation of connections between the corporate success and the new

behaviour so that the change can be sustained with the help of effective leadership.

Motivating employees
Schunk et al (2012) stated employee motivation is very important and when it comes to

changing the organisational policies, the employees are those entities that should be dealt

with due care and should be taken care of. In agreement to this, it is stated by Drnyei and

Ushioda (2013) employee should reflect agreement with the change so that this will help in

the change implementation successfully. In addition to it, it is stated that in case of Toyota,

there are various tactics which needs to be contemplated for motivating employees. Some of

the theories pertaining to this, have been mentioned and discussed below:

Abraham Maslows Needs Hierarchy

According to him, there are 5 sets of needs that an individual tend to fulfil so that they can

attain certain objectives in their life span (Weiner, 2013). The figure mentioned below is the

explanation of the needs hierarchy theory which has been explained from the perspective of

employees as well as customers too.

The pyramid above depicts the psychological needs as the first set of needs for which the

employees earns their bread and butter in order to satisfy their needs of shelter, food sleep

etc. Similar is in the case of Toyotas employees. The next level of the needs is safety that

also relates to job security and with the implementation of change, the employees have a fear

that they might lose their job. Similar to this, self-actualisation and the esteem needs are

equally important as they also makes an employee satisfied or dissatisfied. In case of Toyota,

it can be said that the human resource department should devise new strategies with the

change implementation that will lead to the fulfilment of the employees need and they will

work with full zeal.

On the contrary, as far as the application of this model to s customers is concerned, it can be

depicted that the Toyota satisfies the self-actualisation needs of the customers as the

customers wants to reflect their status by it, so they opt for the brands to do that. Similarly, if

this particular need is being satisfied, then the Toyota needs to emphasize more on the quality

of the services delivered to the customers so that they can associate Toyota when it comes to

need fulfilment.

Change Management at Toyota

In the view of Appelbaum et al (2012), the change is very important, no matter an

organisation it is big or small, it requires change to operate successfully in the highly

competitive business environment. With respect to automotive sector, it can be said that the

change is continuous as new models of the cars are continuously coming up even monthly or

yearly that is why opting the requirements of the environment is one of an essential aspects

that is to be considered by the organisations.

In the case of Toyota, it can be higbloghted that there are some change which are important in

the form of making the organisation more customer focused and less on the product focus.
Being customer focus doesnt mean ignoring the product element as this is the one that

satisfies the customers and the bring them to the outlet, rather it means, design the products as

per customer needs. In other words it depicts the concept of customisation. Weiner (2013) in

agreement to this mentioned that customisation is the need of 21st century customer as they

want their product to be as per their desire rather than the one created by the company.

Another change that can be contemplated in the case of Toyota is that, it requires training and

certain amendments in its sales, branding and marketing department, so that the element of

being customer focused will be evident and will be on the mind of each and every

department. The sales are the pre-requisite of effective marketing activities that is why

Toyota need to focus on amending its strategies pertaining to marketing tactics so that more

customers will make their visit and purchase Toyotas products. As a result of this, the sales

will be increased as the customers will be dealt with due care and will be offered with all the

needed services. Similar to this, in order to change the mindset regarding branding of the

products, the manager and the team working on it, should consider new branding strategies so

that it will directly trigger the customers mind. At Toyota, a balanced approach is required in

order to maintain its core focus on the customers so that the products in future will be created

depending on their needs.

Reinforcement theory
According to Schunk et al (2012), Reinforcement theory deals with the fact that a persons

behaviour can be changed with the help of reinforcement, extinction and punishment, which

is often referred to as the operant conditioning. In addition, the rewards are being used in

order to make the person to perform a desired behaviour while the punishments are used in

order to prevent particular behaviour. As mentioned by Drnyei and Ushioda (2013),

extinction is the concept that depicts stopping someone to perform the learned behaviour.

However, these all fall under the concept of operant conditioning.

From the perspective of Toyota, it can be highlighted that the reinforcement theory is to be

considered when it comes to employees and changing their behaviour accordingly. So the use

of positive reinforcement will be made as Toyota will be offering rewards to the employees

for supporting the intended change. On the other hand, it will also take efforts to eliminate the

extinction so that the learned behaviour of the employees can be eliminated and thus,

resulting in floating in new ideas and behaviour as per the implemented change.

Gaining Competitive Edge via change

With respect to Toyota, it can be highlighted that it considers using two of the strategies in

order to function effectively. This includes differentiation and low cost in order to satisfy the

end users. This helps the company in gaining the competitive edge over its competitors

within the automotive industry. Thus, as far as the market focus of Toyota is concerned, it

can be said that its market focus is very broad because it seeks to target almost every type of

customer that is present in the automobile purchase market. The competitive edge that Toyota

has is in the form of its cars as it has designed cars for almost every segment of the market.

And are even available at every price ranges. Similar to this, it has been stated by Schunk et

al (2012), there are various levels on which the Toyota competes to its competitors. First of

all, the differentiating feature is the superior quality and the design that is offered by Toyota.

This has been successful in creating the strong brand name for Toyota as it is the one which

brings to mind the quality as well as the long lasting cars when the potential customer sees it.

In contrast to this, another point of differentiation is the technology that is used by Toyota in

order to sustain in the market and operate accordingly. The use of innovative technology is

quite evident from the introduction of Prius 2003 that was the first hybrid car. This has made

Toyota to consider and a gain a larger share of the market. Thus, apart from the

aforementioned data, it can be said that it tries to use low cost strategies, enabling the Toyota

to gain a competitive edge over its competitors.

In case of Toyota, it can be said that when the change will be implemented, this will open

various avenues for the company in order to gain the competitive edge over its competitors in

the Malaysia. In addition to it, it can be exemplified that the focus on the customers will help

the Toyota management to consider the pros and cons of what will happen in future, and how

it will be impacting on its sales level. Similar to this, it can be highlighted that Toyota will be

having a chance of grabbing the full customer attention, with the help of customizing their

cars that will compliment the needs of the customers rather than first creating the product

then marketing it.

Product development and the customer focus at Toyota

In case of Toyota, it is explained that the grand strategies which are being contemplated by

Toyota includes the product development so that, it can be the market leader within the

industry. Thus, it can be explained that the development of the product is one of an important

approach that is being implemented because, the teams and product development specialist at

Toyota comes up with various fresh ideas in order to function effectively in the automotive

industry. As per the view of Tuli et al (2007), for running the effective business in the

automotive industry, it is essential to come up with the new ideas as well designs. If this is

not done, the company will left behind as it is very important to do this for competing with

the other key players. Similarly, Toyota, (2016) also added that Toyota is always in search for

the offensive ways in order to be successful and to come up with the better ideas and be in

front of the competitors. Thus, with the change that will be implemented at Toyota, it is

suggested that the company is very efficient in capitalizing the weaknesses of its competitors

and seeks to enjoy full competitive edge over them.

As mentioned by Toyota itself, the customer first is regarded as the corner stone principle at

the company. Raising the customer satisfaction is of fundamental importance at the company.

The activities pertaining to the customer relations are considered as the operational activities,
which help in preventing the image of the Toyota. Mentioned below is the figure that

explains key elements of the Toyota to accomplish the customer satisfaction.

Figure 2: Key Elements of Customer Satisfaction

(Source: Windahl and Lakemond, 2006)

Conclusion
In order to conclude the aforementioned analysis, it can be highlighted that at Toyota change

management is very important. In order to operate in the host country like Malaysia, it needs

to adopt the expertise accordingly. It is highly recommended that it should hire new Malay

employees that have relevant experience in the automotive industry and will be the ones

knowing a lot about the Malay customers mind. In addition to it, it is highlighted that new

branding strategies are to be created so that the sales and the marketing activities can be

conducted in a comprehensive manner for which the ultimate focus will be customers. Toyota

is the largest MNC however, it need to adopt the tactics accordingly so that it can survive

effectively. Customer focus is the utmost thing that needs to be contemplated by Toyota so

that it can operate appropriately. Thus, the application of various change management models

have been discussed which will guide the Toyotas change management team to consider the

step by step change implementation. Kotters and Kurt Lewins change approaches have been

discussed.
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