The Future Of Innovation At Toyota Motor Corporation: An Essay.

This assignment leads on logically from the findings of CW1 and students are expected to use the same organisation as CW1

From your findings in CW1 you are to develop an innovation road map that outlines the preparation of the innovation process. This will factor in the wider, operational environment of both up and downstream suppliers and service providers, whilst developing a fuller picture of the organisation’s full innovation capacity.

The Future of the Industry from 2020 and Beyond

The aim of this report is to develop an innovation road map to prepare the innovation process of a highly celebrated automobile company Toyota Motor Corporation. The operational environment of this particular company has shown a sharp growth in the near future and beyond as the chief aim of this company is to develop itself through innovation. The report is placed in the context of recommendations from coursework 1 on areas that Toyota need to innovate or improve on for the future. In this study the performance management practices for developing the team has been suggested for improving the level of productivity of the company. On the other hand, effective organizational culture is required to get developed for managing the political and economic situation of the company. The key recommendations are as follows

• Performance management practices
• Development in organizational culture
• Introduction of team management strategies
• Introduction of modern technology

This report has also discussed the methods of process innovation which encompasses the complete innovation process of the company. This report has analysed the future prospects of Toyota till 2020 and beyond, its scopes of innovation and ways to build future innovation capabilities of the organisation.

The global sales of the passenger cars have exceeded 78.6 million in 2017. The United States as well as China are the largest automobile markets in the world as they have highest production in this industry as well as sales. This is due to the fact that the needs of the customers are continuously in caressing so also the technological support. Beside the brand like Ford, other companies such as Toyota, Volkswagen, and Daimler have been gaining huge profit and become the major automobile makers in 2018. There are two main trends that will be shaping the innovation trend of the recent automobile industry beyond 2020. The future cars will be autonomous, connected, shared and electrified in short, these cars will be will be more flexible and more individual for the users. The cars will be more effective n future as these will be more focused on the users. The technical savvy young generation will play key role in this transformation of automotive industry.

For the company like Toyota, it is mandatory to utilise technology at its best. It needs to understand the demand of the new generation customers hence can launch new driverless cars. This is the reason why the company needs to invest the best technology, human and financial resource into this invention. This company has been serving the demands of the global customers with changing times and places. In this technologically advanced society where the customers are compactly dependent on the services associated with internet and prefer to communicate digitally (Al Ariss and Sidani 2016). This trend will be increasing therefore, the company needs to team up and launch open platform infotainment systems to connect the popular mobile operating systems. This will enable the app developers to adapt their offerings to the cross-platform users in the tablet, mobiles as well as web (Slater, Mohr and Sengupta 2014). Thus, the company will be able to utilise the big data’s fast increasing role in the automotive industry. As the company already has the electric cares operative in most of the developed countries of the world, it can enter the lucrative market of the developing nations with the promise of eliminating the dangerous automotive impact on the environment (Mooi, Wathne and Kayande 2016). Through more utilisation of technology, the company can also introduce driverless autonomous vehicles with benefits like better traffic management and reduced accidents on road.

Innovation Requirements for Toyota 2020 and Beyond

Toyota Motor Corporation is a renowned Japanese automotive manufacturer. It has been making few very important moves which will have great impact on the future business of the company. The company has been keeping eye on the future prospects and maintaining a solid performance at present (Bloomfield 2017). Unlike other renowned automobile companies, it has been focussing on the future demands of the customers as well as the crisis of natural resources used as fuels. This is the reason why the company has focused on the electric based vehicles and introduced the cars using hydrogen fuels to match the demand of the consumers and supporting the sustainable growth. The company at present has been expecting 33.1% growth in the earnings over 2020 which will enable the company to earn higher per share. The revenue is predicted to increase from 27126.47 billion pounds to 29570.00 Billion in 2021 during this period margins are predicted to be quite acceptable at 6.3% (see appendix 2). Toyota has overall stable sales in all over the globe. New models mainly focusing on the technological innovation as well as fuel efficiency will likely boost the company's market share and profitability in the global market over next few years mainly beyond 2020. In achieving this, Toyota Motors will build the first megawatt scale carbonate fuel cell power generation plant in the North America which will have a hydrogen fuelling station for supporting its operation in the countries of this continent (Bowen, Baker and Powell 2015). Moreover, this co many is also concerned with the waste management methods and has tried to utilise the Tri-Gen facility (Bayraktar and Oly 2014).  With this particular move Toyota has positioned itself to be the ushered company introduced the hydrogen powered vehicle in the global market for a long time. The company has been heading towards the right direction, by taking some very important moves to solidify itself as the best car manufacturer in the world.

In order to flourish the business worldwide and attain sustainability the management needs to have full focus on the innovation. In this regard, the Pentathlon theory can be the most potent one. This particular theory has five critical part and all of these are unavoidable. In case the management of Toyota prance one of them, it will be a disaster for the company. These strategy parts are-

• Strategy
• Ideas
• Selection
• Implementation
• People

Strategy of the company is the primary phase based on which the management will be building the whole superstructure of innovation in Toyota. This strategy steering innovation will guide as well as influence the ideas to be selected and implemented. In this step the management will be identifying all the business priorities and ensure all the arrangements at an early stage (Ihlen and Roper 2014). In case of Toyota these strategies can be acquisition, applying new skills and new supply chain to strength the future of the company. In making strategies to flourish, there are numerous problems that will be emerging. After identifying all the scopes of improvement, the management generate ideas so that these problem areas can be mitigated and company becomes strong enough to face all the future challenges in the company both internally as well as externally (Slater, Mohr and Sengupta 2014). In order to gain support from the stakeholders which includes the employees, shareholders, supply chain and government of the country where the company is operation. This collected ideas will then be implemented in the company. By prioritising and selecting the best ideas from all these stakeholders, the management will make decisions. This process will help the management to convince all the stakeholders and they are taking party in the decision-making process.

After making decisions from collected information and ideas from all the level of the organisation, the management of Toyota is responsible to implement those changes in the company. This will be done through a strong project management process. Through this method the management will be able to amalgamate various skills with the ideas. The control system of the company needs to be strengthened so that there is no division from the chief aim regarding innovation in the company. Through this Toyota will be easily market even in a highly uncertain environment. However, there are ample risks regarding the organisational culture of the firm because whenever there will be a change the employees will be the first respondent. Hence strong management of this tension is needed so that the innovation does not fail in the market due to internal issues.

The economic condition of an organization is being considered as the important influencing factor behind the innovative practices (Wang, Plump and Ringel, 2015). After the globalization, the internal and external environment of the company named Toyota has changed. With the help of its innovation and modern technology, the company has become one of the famous automobile industry in the global market. In order to analyse the statistical data different journals and articles have been used. By following the survey method on the customers, the popularity of Toyota in the global market has been analysed. The engineering team of Toyota has given their effort to bring the attractive design in the market. It has been identified that for developing its unique position in the market the company has focused on adding values in its products. This can be said that there are various factors that can influence the innovation process. The team is being considered as the essential component in every organization. Innovation needs multiple skills and the combination of efficiency. A team with efficient employees can help to drive the innovation through collaboration. In order to run an innovation process smoothly the involvement of team members is very important. Performance management practices of Toyota is also another important key driver for bringing the innovation. In order to drive the innovation, the company needs to focus on the introducing the effective monitoring team. After analysing the internal culture of the company, it has been identified that recently the company is dealing with revenue loss, due to the improper relationship with the suppliers. As its result, the pressure on the employees has increased. Due to this reason, the innovative skills of the employees can get effected. Therefore, in order to deal with such situations, the proper organizational culture is needed to be developed. The economic climate and political situation of the country impacts on the innovation practices of the company. From the macro and micro environmental analysis, it has been analysed that in the case of a developing nation, the external environment can bring various opportunities for the company. By using its strategic capabilities it will be able to give tough competition to its competitors. Therefore, this can be said that the innovation key rivers are in the favourable condition for the company named Toyota.  

Role of a leader is very important for introducing the innovation and creativity in an organization (Wang, Plump and Ringel, 2015). An innovative leader has the vision for the organization's future.  By establishing the trust for the employees, the leader sets long term goal that helps to bring the development in the organization. It has been analysed that the trust of the employees on the leader reflects through their work. In this study, the skill of motivation has been highlighted as the important influential factor for bringing the creativity. If a leader will be able to develop a strong image to the employees, this will play an effective role to increase the team confidence. In the case of Toyota, it has been identified that the corporate and organizational culture of the company has brought positivity in the organization, which has influenced the creation of the employees. Importance of organizational encouragement is very effective in increasing the efficiency of the employees. In the case of the company named Toyota, the Disruptive innovation model can be used.  In this model, the creation of new market value and connectivity has been discussed.

In the current scenario, the needs and demands of the customers are constantly changing, Due to this reason, it has become very difficult for the organizations to develop an effective innovation plan. Toyota is dealing with the same kind of business challenges. In such situations, the leaders of Toyota has decided to develop the Disruptive innovation model for bringing the innovation in the proper manner. The leaders have developed this model as it is very effective in the case of changing the competitive pattern of the industry. On the other hand, Incremental innovation will be also adopted by the leaders as it has decided to introduce the driverless cars to the market. In this model, the old products are being introduced to the market by adding more features and designs.    

This has been analysed that knowledge and cross-functional cooperation is very important for understanding the innovation capability of the employees. Knowledge regarding the skills of the employees is very important to analyse their ability to bring the innovation (De Massis et al. 2015). Knowledge is being considered as the important power that helps to deal with the competitive environment. Through the knowledge transferring process, the internal relationships among the employees get developed. This plays an important role in motivating the employees towards achieving their goals and objectives. By introducing different knowledge sharing software the information regarding the business industry, the skills of the employees gets improved. Therefore, by introducing the effective training and development practices, the company named Toyota will be able to increase the efficiency of the employees.

As the company has decided to develop the driverless cars in the market, therefore, in order to develop the product in the automobile industry the company needs to focus on its marketing practices. Research and development are being considered as the important process in the new product development. After researching the market, the organization get the chance to gather the information regarding the needs and demands of the customers. Through this process, the position of the competitors can also be identified.  By involving the efficient car engineers the unique product will be launched. By adding the modern facilities as well as the attractive design, the company has decided to develop its unique product in the competitive market. In order to aware people regarding the product features, the company will develop an effective marketing plan. Through different social media as well as printing advertisement, people will be informed about the new product. The design, features and price of the product are needed to be analysed by the designing team of Toyota so that they can identify the actual demand of the customers and attach the needed changes I their products to reach more people. Through different campaigns, it can introduce the product in the product in the market. Another way, this can be said that the safety and security of the customers are very important in the case of developing the new product in the market (Heeks, Foster and Nugroho, 2014). Therefore, this can be said that there are three variables relating with growth of the company which they can never avoid. These three variables are cost, time and quality of their product. Depending on the manufacturing cost, the company sets the selling price of the product. In this process, the target market is being selected. After selecting the target market, depending on their demands, the advertising policies are being introduced. The external business environment of Toyota is also equally important for developing its products. Depending on the political and economic situation, the business organization develop its business policies.

Auditing is being considered as the on-site verification operation that helps to examine the quality and system of a particular organization in which the audit is being done. In order to achieve the audit purpose, several audits can be introduced in an organization. For introducing an effective audit practice, on the basis of product, system and process, the audit program is being done. Depending on the requirement and needs of the organization, the business audits are being done. It helps to analyse the reporting, accounting as well as functional procedure in an organization. In the case of product development or innovation, these three variables are important. In the case of both the internal and external audit, the performance of the employees, the quality of the product, customer relationship, financial record and employee wages regarding issues are being analysed. Another way, this can be said that in the case of product innovation, the company can apply these three audit techniques. For analysing the standard of the product as well as if it is able to develop its business in the market or no is being analysed. On the other hand technology and budgeting for the new product development practices are being observed by the audit members. Manufacturing cost, taxation policies and customer rules are being observed by the company (Wang, Plump and Ringel, 2015). Therefore, this can be said that before the product innovation practices, the company named Toyota will recruit an auditing team that will focus on analysing if all the auditing elements such as timing, costing and quality of the product are being maintained in an effective manner or not.

Conclusion: 

Therefore, it can be concluded that the company has become a highly preferred brand of car in the automobile industry. Toyota despite of being a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer has captured a huge market all over the globe and has a great future to flourish. With great penetration though high-quality product and service, this particular company has captured a huge prospect in terms of innovation both in product as well as process. The data has revealed that the company can gain in both the domestic as well as foreign markets through innovation. The personal strength and weaknesses in all the brands in the automobile industries are more or less common but Toyota has more opportunities than the other companies operating in the global markets. The innovation of the products of this company is marked by different innovative ideas which include driverless cars which will use biowaste fuels to prevent fast decreasing level of natural fuels. It has innovative models which can effectively use technology at its best. In order to gain the best result, the management needs to have direct involvement with the innovation for which they need to have proper planning and knowledge sharing method within the organisation. Though examining the quality and system of the organisation the planners will be able to achieve the desired results. By focussing on the disruptive and incremental models of innovation, the company can introduce innovation at the organisational level and the employees also can participate in this innovation. Performance management practices of Toyota can incorporate the efforts of the employees in one hand and maintain an open organisational culture in the workplace so that a sustainable growth can be achieved.

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