Strategic Management: Internal Analysis and Swot

MGT499 - Strategic Management

Module 3 - Case

Strategic Management: Internal Analysis and SWOT

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i) How well does Toyota capitalize on its strengths to meet threats and to take advantage of opportunities? To what extent will their weaknesses impede these efforts?

Toyota is a maker of extremely popular vehicles. The company has many strengths and its internal leadership and management style is the reason the company has dominated in the automobile industry. Toyota has a cultural advantage. Toyota reflects this in their employee's devotion to the company and the constant desire to improve its automobile line. One of their fundamental beliefs is that every employee deserves respect and all employees have a voice in the company. . The Japanese appear to value work differently then how Americans value work and it reflects in the quality of the product.

The Toyota Company places high value on taking pride in its products and the environment. Toyota constantly strives on improving their internal structure, by organizing the workforce into teams that perform similar task to make the manufacturing system more efficient. The company continues to work for improvements in the quality of the product. Toyota was built on the belief of continuous learning therefore this inspires continuous improvement. The company has employee and management teams that figure out the problems or issues and they trace it to the root of where the problem occurred.

The employees are more educated on the product and can be more attentive to look for similar defects.

Toyota greatest strength also appears to create an unavoidable weakness. The Toyota automotive industry has been able to produce more cars than their competitor's, which has created an opportunity to build quality cars at an affordable price. The threat of over populating the market with automobiles and having to recall them because of defects is a threat that has been a constant for the manufacturer. Toyota also faces a threat from mass public transportation systems that have begun to increase globally; Mass transportation systems appear to be a common threat among all automobile makers. The threat of rising taxes and increase of fuel and resources threaten the company ability to maintain the low prices that are associated with Toyota building quality automobiles at low cost. The Toyota Company has utilized special incentive programs and offered discounts that allow the automobile giant to maintain its ability to produce and sell more automobiles than its competitors at a lower cost while maintaining the goal of providing customers a quality automobile.

The company has maintained a cutting edge on technology in the Hybrid fields that have become extremely profitable in a fragile global economy.

Toyota has continued to capitalize against threats from other manufactures that are producing