| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : APRIL 26, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Mystery at Toyota's Top An executive shuffle doesn't clear anything up The news that Fujio Cho, 62, is replacing Hiroshi Okuda, 66, as president of giant Toyota Motor Corp. (TOYOY) doesn't clear up the mystery of what's going on in the carmaker's boardroom. The changes are bewildering. Cho, currently executive vice-president, moves up in June, when Okuda assumes the chairman's job. He replaces Shoichiro Toyoda, 74, who in turn becomes honorary chairman. Meanwhile, Eiji Toy-oda, 85, patriarch of the founding family, is named ''supreme adviser.'' The speculation in Toyota City is that Okuda was kicked upstairs because the Toyodas resented his blunt demands for change and his resistance to bailouts for members of Toyota's keiretsu. Cho, a well-regarded executive who started up Toyota's successful Kentucky plant, is seen as a low-key manager who will heed the family's instructions. Now the concern is that the company will revert to its old, slow-moving ways. Yet at the press conference to announce the changes, Okuda didn't act at all like an executive being shunted aside. He fielded most of the questions, and at one point, in an aside, joshed that Cho could answer, too. Okuda's new job enables him to set strategy, giving him great influence within the company. But he's also reversing some earlier positions. Toyota will, for example, invest more money in an affiliate, Sakura Bank; Okuda had publicly opposed that move. It will be months before the real significance of the executive changes becomes clear. Most likely the Toyodas know that investors would react badly if Okuda left, and that they need the maverick boss to stay on. As for the soft-spoken Cho, he has a challenging role in a very complicated drama. By Emily Thornton in Tokyo _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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