Former exec: Toyota was 'hijacked'

[liberal N proud]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Jim Press, the former head of Toyota's U.S. operations and the only non-Japanese ever to sit on the automaker's board of directors, released a statement today blaming the company's troubles on "financially oriented pirates" who "hijacked" the company some years ago.

Press worked at Toyota from 1970 until 2007 when he he went to work at Chrysler, which was then struggling to turn around after splitting off from Daimler.

In the statement, obtained from the Detroit Free Press, Press expresses confidence in Toyota's current president and CEO Akio Toyoda, who testified Wednesday before a Congressional panel investigating Toyota's recent safety problems.

"Akio Toyoda is not only up for the job, but he is the only person who can save Toyota," Press said "He is very capable, and he embodies the virtues and character that built this great company."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/24/autos/press_toyota_statement/index.htm?section=money_autos

Again, GREED has cost so many so much.

[NNN0LHI]

1. Same thing happened to Ford when I worked there

They put the bean counters in charge of everyday operations and it went all downhill from there.

Don

[Craftsman]

2. When bean counters take over everybody suffers

[malaise]

3. That is not only true in business

It is the same in government. When the bottom line is profit, it's only time before everything reaches rock bottom.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Let me give you an example of how it affected my department directly

This year they might allow $15 million for my departments(Machine Repair) operating budget. This year we might get lucky and have everything run good with just a few breakdowns. So we might only use half that budget.

Well next year the bean counters are automatically only going to budget half of what they a budgeted the year before. No common sense. But the problem is this year we may have a lot of breakdowns. So this year we may need $20 million to get everything running.

Well now they are ready to fire someone for going over budget. Got all the department managers called in wanting answers to why they needed so much money this year. Turns into a fiasco for the management who are out on the shop floor who are about ready to get fired. Because the bean counters always need a scalp.

So guess what? That isn't ever going to happen again. The good ole boys in management running my department may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but they aren't stupid.

They figured this game out real fast. Wasn't long before they had the entire department working 12 hours a day, seven days a week completely refurbishing some 100 year old stamping press that they knew was slated to be sold for scrap the following year. They learned to burn that budget up every year whether it was needed or not. Because if they didn't they would get reamed out the following year.

Don

[malaise]

9. Absolutely correct

We'll be back to 19th century working conditions before long.
The truth is that Marx and Lenin scared the shite out of the capitalists. Now that they think they achieved 'the end of history', they have slowly reintroduced the oppressive conditions of the 19th Century. The thing is Lenin was a revisionist - Marx was right - the working class will rise up and overthrow the capitalists once and for all.

I only hope I live to see the day.

[moondust]

7. Same thing in health care.

I remember being very concerned when HMOs began to take over health care in the late 70s and early 80s.

~snip~

This first 1973 law granted $375 million for start-up demonstration HMOs. They were promoted as "cost-containment." A series of subsequent legislation furthered the process of deregulation. In 1975, federal funding was continued for the demonstration initiatives. In 1976, new legislation liberalized the 1973 HMO Act. In October 1978, Congress made aid to HMOs continuing, not experimental, and made other significant concessions, including the permission for HMOs to refuse to pay for unusual or infrequently provided services.

The results of the emphasis on shifting care to HMOs, and away from providing facilities for health care, were dramatic. From 1980 to 2000, over 1,000 hospitals were shutdown in the United States.

~more~

http://american_almanac.tripod.com/hmotakeo.htm

edit: questionable source but the above quote is verifiable/factual

I recall some years ago reading that the head of an HMO in Florida had his own private golf course in his back yard.

I've always felt it was a mistake to turn health care over to the bean counters and profiteers.

[malaise]

10. Same shite in every sphere

Meanwhile people die for lack of basic needs for which they are paying taxes.

[JHB]

8. That's the case everywhere...

...bean counters are necessary advisors, but once they take the reigns of power everything goes downhill: be it in business, government, or any other walk of life.

Something about the mindset doesn't see the difference between "providing goods and services at a profit" (for businesses, at least) and "making money".

[Blue_Tires]

15. exactly

some industry insiders have been saying for years that the hubris, ineptitude and short-sighted complacency that infected the big 3 in the 70s and 80s had come to Toyota as their stature got bigger and bigger...No one wanted to believe it at the time, but they were exactly right...

[AwakeAtLast]

17. I saw it happen at GM, too.

The incompetence was mind-boggling. :crazy:

[depakid]

4. In the Bush era of no regulation, would anyone be surprised at that?

[liberal N proud]

5. That was the objective of the bu$h regime

Enable the corporations to reap as much profit as possible regardless of any regulations that needed to be stripped to allow it.

[marmar]

11. Profit pirates have ruined many a company.

nt

[madokie]

12. The greed you speak of is toyota themselves

profits before safety seems to be the norm for them.

[BR_Parkway]

13. If the "only person who can save Toyota" doesn't have enough common

sense not to drive off from the hearing in front of reporters in a black Audi I'd worry for Toyota. Between him and the Detroit boys taking private jets to DC to beg for money - you don't really have to wonder at some of the decisions that have been made that have bought some of these companies to their knees - only wonder how these folks rose to the level of being in the positions in the first place

[Orsino]

14. If the only person who can save Toyota is Akio Toyoda...

...they ought to make him president and CEO.

Oh, wait. They already did, and he didn't.

Does this story really parse to "it is absolutely critical that nothing change"?

[hootinholler]

16. "financially oriented pirates"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX61PUZ3xkI

Enjoy,
-Hoot