You need to read this:
Akio expresses gratitude to employees as he recounts challenges of the past and reassures of Toyota's strength in moving closing remarks. #TOYOTATIMES
toyotatimes.jp
Akio Toyoda has done a lot in the past decade to purge the “old guards” out of the company and listen to people on the factory floor or in the labs. He even dismantled that ridiculous dealership network built by those dinosaurs. TMC is pretty much the only legacy corporation where young, aspirational college graduates want to work in Japan right now. It's an outlier in the Japanese society. That bulbous beast run by bean counters stereotype of Toyota is no longer true especially after 2017.
In order to innovate for the next 100 years, a company has to last that long, and Akio's biggest job is to ensure that. TTV8s do not make the company last 100 years, thinking about the long-term strategy of transitioning into a mobility company does. Saying the company is not innovating is non-sense considering all the R&D they've done and patents they own on electrification and self-driving technologies. A TTV8 is not an innovation. The world is moving towards autonomous driving, electrified propulsion, alternative transport modes. TTV8 has nothing to do with that future, it's only something that's "nice to have". "Enthusiasts" just aren't prepared for a future where cars drive themselves, do not "make thrilling noises", and may not even be owned by individuals.
Read that article. It's very clear Akio Toyoda expected a third major catastrophe to severely cripple the company. He's right. All he's done in his 11 years is to survive this potentially long-term economic recession. Again, a TTV8 does nothing against a recession.
