Toyota's Globalization Strategies

As part of the localization efforts, Toyota focused on increasing overseas production significantly by establishing new plants and expanding the capacity of the existing plants (See Table II for major initiatives taken under the New Global Business Plan).

Apart from this short-term global business plan, Toyota also came up with a long-term global business vision in June 1996, named the 'Global Vision 2005.' The major components of "Global Vision 2005"were, asserting a competitive edge in technology and accelerating globalization, while sustaining market leadership in Japan, by reclaiming its above 40% market share.

Also, Toyota's Japan sales contributed to a very small share of its total profits. US sales contributed to the majority share (80%) of the profits, followed by Europe. By the late 1990s; young buyers accounted for 30% of the customer base as compared to over 45% in the late 1980s. In 1998, models from rival companies such as Honda and BMW were more popular than the ones offered by Toyota. According to reports, Japanese youngsters felt that Toyota cars 'lacked attitude.' Toyota realized that by losing its young customers to other companies, it ran the risk of losing its future market as well. Analysts claimed that despite its efforts to cater to the young, the company had failed to give them zippy compact minivans and sports utility vehicles...