Toyota’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 over other automakers, such as Tesla, General Motors, Ford, BMW, and Volkswagen. These competitors exert a strong competitive force, as evaluated in the Five Forces analysis of Toyota. Given its corporate mission and vision statements, the company strives to lead the global automotive industry 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 its corporate vision and mission statements.
Toyota’s mission and vision reflect an encompassing business purpose to provide for the mobility needs of everyone. This mission statement aligns well with the vision statement to strongly establish the strategic goals of the automotive business. The realization and satisfaction of the mission statement and the vision statement are achieved through the application of The Toyota Way, which is a unique set of strategies that the company uses.
Toyota’s Mission Statement
Toyota’s mission statement is “Producing Happiness for All.” The company states that it aims to achieve the goals of this corporate mission by “addressing the challenges of mobility as a mobility company.” Toyota’s mission statement has the following elements:
- Production as the means
- Happiness as the output
- Every person as a target customer
The production element of Toyota’s mission statement represents the company as a source of happiness. Considering its automotive operations, the company’s vehicles can be considered as the main factor for such happiness. Also, the corporate mission statement does not provide a specific definition of what happiness means but establishes that happiness is the value that Toyota aims to provide to its customers. Because the company’s operations focus on transportation and mobility, one can argue that this happiness is related to mobility products or automobiles. Moreover, Toyota’s mission statement refers to “all” to mean that every person is a customer.
The value of happiness included in this mission statement relates to Toyota’s stakeholder management, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ESG strategy and how it satisfies the concerns and interests of customers as stakeholders in the automotive business. The satisfaction of stakeholders contributes to the “happiness” of the company’s customers, including owners or buyers of cars and related mobility products. Toyota’s marketing mix (4P) can also promote positive relations with customers to add to the goal of happiness based on this corporate mission statement. Another aspect of this mission statement is the way the company’s human resources influence the production of happiness for target customers. For instance, Toyota’s organizational culture (work culture) can promote this goal of happiness in the company and its services linked to its cars.
Toyota’s Vision Statement
Toyota’s vision statement is “Creating Mobility for All.” To achieve the aims of this corporate vision, the company states that it “strives to raise the quality and availability of mobility.” Toyota’s vision statement has the following elements:
- Creation as the means
- Mobility as the output
- Every person as a target customer
Toyota’s vision statement specifies that the business organization involves creating mobility. The company creates products that can provide, facilitate, or enable people’s mobility. Considering the automotive industry, the mobility element of the corporate vision statement means that one of Toyota’s goals is to provide products for transportation or personal mobility. This emphasis on mobility represents the company’s current operations as an automaker. Also, every person is considered a customer of mobility products, based on Toyota’s vision statement.
The specification of mobility as the business output guides Toyota’s generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies. For example, this vision statement directs the company’s product development strategies to focus on products that can be used to satisfy people’s transportation needs. Also, the company’s goals in support of this corporate vision statement represent the business strengths and competitive advantages defined in the SWOT analysis of Toyota. For example, the innovative capabilities of the automotive business support the specifications of the required mobility output. Furthermore, the market trends discussed in the PESTEL analysis (PESTLE analysis) of Toyota influence the kinds and qualities of the mobility products that the company develops based on its vision statement.
An Assessment of Toyota’s Mission and Vision
Toyota’s mission statement is brief and reflects the business purpose of satisfying target customers. However, this brevity renders the statement broad and generalized, without specifics of what the company does. Ideally, mission statements provide information about what the business organization does. In this case, Toyota’s mission statement does not specify the nature of the company’s business operations, its products, self-concept and self-image, markets, and technology. Even when considering the automotive industry, this corporate mission statement just represents a business organization that can or will do anything to make all customers happy. Thus, a solution to improve Toyota’s mission statement is to add information and details to make it more specific to the company and its current and planned operations. Having additional details can make this mission more effective in guiding strategic planning and decisions for the automaker’s business development.
Toyota’s vision statement is also brief and similar to the mission statement. However, this vision statement differs because of the specification of mobility, which makes the company focus on products for mobility. In this way, this vision statement provides a clear path for Toyota’s business development toward becoming a producer or manufacturer of mobility solutions for everyone. The inspirational aspect of this corporate vision statement relates to the broadness of the target market, which poses challenges that the company’s employees can strive to overcome. However, this vision still does not satisfy conventions because it lacks details about the specific future condition that Toyota wants to achieve. For example, in its vision statement, the company can aim for leadership as a provider of all kinds of mobility products for everyone in the global market. Thus, one way of improving Toyota’s vision statement is to add some details or specifics about the long-term targets and goals that represent the company’s desired future situation or position.
References
- Jaworski, B., & Cheung, V. (2023). Getting Started on the Journey: Mission, Vision, and Purpose. In Creating the Organization of the Future (pp. 55-64). Emerald Publishing Limited.
- Muzzio, M. (2023). Imagined futures of the automotive industry stemming from uncertainty. Joule, 7(6), 1099-1100.
- Toyota Motor Corporation – Form 20-F.
- Toyota Philosophy.
- Toyota Times – Two Weeks After Presenting His Vision, Akio Talks Group Revitalization.