Toyota Weighs a Leadership Change

Source: NY Times

The president of Toyota Motor Company, Katsuaki Watanabe, is expected to step aside next year and could be succeeded by Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the auto company’s founder, people with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.

The moves at Toyota, which were first reported by The Asahi Shimbun, a Tokyo newspaper, would come as the company faces the first operating loss in its history, as well as slumping sales.

Toyota generally makes management changes in conjunction with its annual board meeting in June, and that is when its next move will probably occur, these people said. They requested anonymity because a decision is not final.

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Mr. Watanabe, 66, has been president of Toyota since 2005. In that time, Toyota achieved record sales and profit, vying with General Motors for the title as the world’s biggest carmaker.

But Toyota, like other car companies, has been hit hard by the drop in sales in major markets like China, Europe, Japan and the United States that has been worsened by tight credit market.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/business/worldbusiness/24toyota.html?_r=1&hp

they hold their execs accountable. And execs who fail feel a deep sense of shame.

Right?