Toyota's Management Shake-Up
Toyota has a lot on its plate in the next few months. First, and most pressing, is that the company is looking at a loss of $8.6 billion in operations from now until the end of the fiscal year in March 2010 as a result of the slow economy and slow sales. Also, this coming June will see the grandson of the company’s founder take over the company, along with 40% of the top management staff being replaced. The head of U.S. operations is also set to be replaced. So, is there a silver lining to this cloud?
You bet there is. Tomorrow marks the official launch of the next generation of the Toyota Prius. Many have noticed that the car’s main rival, the lower-priced Honda Insight, has sold in large amounts in the past month, even becoming the best selling car in Japan (not only the best selling hybrid, but overall car). The Toyota Prius, however, already has a reported 75,000 orders. While details have not been released about the location of those buyers who placed preorders, if even a decent percentage of those orders is from the United States, then that would certainly go a long way towards helping Toyota remain at the top of the car market for the coming fiscal year.
