Table of Contents
Message from the President
Long-term Strategy
At a Glance
History
Initiatives for
Sustainable Growth
Financial Information
Non-Automotive Business/Corporate
Information and Stock Information
Long-term Strategy Electrification Information Intelligence
Focused on the Mobility of the Future
Eco-car Strategy: Electrification
and information, and has created what it calls
Connected Strategy. The three pillars of this strategy
are as follows. 1. Connect all cars to build a data col-
lection platform, 2. Utilize big data to revolutionize
Toyota’s business, and 3. Collaborate with partners
in various other industries and IT companies to pro-
duce new mobility services.
Toyota believes that safe, fun automated driving
hands-on experience), because the changes the
company faces require new ways of thinking
and acting
Toyota is exploring all available options in powertrain
development. We believe that we can build a highly
energy efficient mobility society by allowing govern-
ments and markets to select the cars best suited to
regional energy and infrastructure conditions and
allowing customers to choose the cars with the spe-
cific characteristics best suited to their needs.
technologies will expand freedom of movement for
all, bringing cars and people even closer together,
such that cars will continue to be loved by people.
• Reduce the time and effort consumed by cross-
functional coordination and establish work pro-
cesses that allow us to focus on making
More details Electrification, information and intelligence, p. 9–17
ever-better cars
We aim to combine Toyota’s strengths—such as
know-how developed in the automobile manufactur-
ing business and contact with customers through
sales of more than 10 million vehicles annually—and
the strengths of companies in other industries,
including IT. By doing so, even as car usage shifts
from ownership toward service-based models, we
are working to create a safe, convenient, and excit-
ing future mobility society by providing customers
with appealing services.
One of Toyota’s traditional strengths has been the
process by which its experts on each function and
process engage in thorough discussion to find opti-
mal solutions. However, before we began our current
efforts to advance business innovation, overemphasis
on function-based logic and reasoning had become a
weakness, leaving Toyota unable to make quick deci-
sions in response to a rapidly changing environment.
Toyota regards the changes it has been making as
opportunities. We seek to take on new challenges,
unrestrained by existing approaches and remember-
ing always that there are better methods waiting to
be discovered.
For the time being, the further development of
technologies for conventional engines, which are still
the mainstream, is a practical, highly realistic way to
Advancing Our Business Structure
help reduce CO
2
emissions. At the same time, we are
Toyota is working to enhance its true competitive-
ness, particularly in the automobile manufacturing
business, and shifting to new business models. In
line with these strategies, we are advancing initiatives
focused on ensuring ongoing growth 10 years from
now, 20 years from now, and beyond. Seeking to
break free of the restraints of Toyota’s existing con-
ventions and rules, we have started from scratch,
focusing on the future as we set about to advance
business innovation. Ongoing growth will be impossi-
ble unless we overcome the major issues created by
Toyota’s expansion. Today, Toyota makes and sells
more than 10 million automobiles annually. To survive
at this scale, we are establishing new ways of oper-
ating to achieve the following two targets.
working to develop and increase the use of fuel cell
vehicles (FCVs), the ultimate eco-cars, and advancing
other initiatives in coordination with diverse stakehold-
ers to realize our goal of establishing a low-carbon
society that uses hydrogen. We are also accelerating
the development of electric vehicles (EVs), another
zero-emission vehicle option. To this end, we have
established the EV Business Planning Department
and a business and capital alliance with Mazda Motor
Corporation, launching a new company to implement
joint technological development.
Automated Driving and Utilizing AI: Intelligence
Toyota’s overall development philosophy for auto-
mated driving technology is the Mobility Teammate
Concept, an approach built on the belief that people
and vehicles can work together in the service of safe,
convenient, and efficient mobility.
Making Ever-better Cars and
Developing People
Toyota boasts a wealth of accumulated know-how
regarding vehicle electrification technology and com-
mercialization that dates back to the launch of the
Prius 20 years ago. We will continue to advance ini-
tiatives to accelerate our technological development
We believe that it is essential that we develop auto-
mated driving technology to be human-centric and,
above all, safe. In addition to sophisticated safe driving
assistance, we are developing automated systems
that can perform full-time dynamic driving. At the
same time, by utilizing our advanced safety technolo-
gy know-how, we are working to promote the rapid
uptake of new safety technologies in the market.
Toyota has established Toyota Research Institute,
Inc., with Dr. Gill Pratt, one of the world’s foremost AI
researchers, as its CEO, and set up a related venture
capital fund. Through these efforts, we are accelerat-
ing initiatives in such areas as automated driving, AI,
and robotics.
Toyota has revised its internal organization a number
of times to enhance true competitiveness and pro-
mote sustainable growth.
• Develop a sufficient number of people who can
lead with quick judgment, quick decisions and
quick action based on Genchi Genbutsu (onsite,
and further reduce CO
2
emissions.
In 2011, we adopted a system of autonomous
region-based management, stationing the chief officers
responsible for each region in their respective regions to
ensure operations are more closely linked with local
communities. In 2013, we adopted the Business Unit
System, under which we organized workflows by busi-
ness model. Through these efforts, we made progress
toward achieving management closely rooted in local
areas and speedy product development.
Connected Strategy: Information
Toyota’s Business Innovation Concept
Big data collected from cars will enable a wide range
of new mobility services, such as accident and
breakdown prediction, the generation of dynamic
maps using probe data (vehicle tracking information
generated using GPS), and agent functions to help
users drive safely and comfortably.
Our ideal
Ambitious
target
setting
Initiatives that
break from
convention
Previous methods
Aiming to build new business models, Toyota is
shifting toward a focus on electrification, intelligence,
At the same time, however, it became clear that
even with these changes, Toyota’s ways of operating
were still basically extensions of the old forms, and
Today
10 years in the future,
0 years, and beyond
2
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TOYOTA Annual Report 2017
