In an announcement that surely had industry-types frantically calling their favorite headhunters, Businessweek reports that nine of Toyota's top U.S. executives will be retiring by the end of the year. There are now openings for vice president positions in logistics, sales, motorsports, business technology, Toyota University and the top job at Toyota Racing Development. Toyota maintains that these are all normally-scheduled retirements but… what of the Jim Press effect? Aren't experienced Toyota managers learning that they're worth their weight in gold to, ahem, less successful, car companies? Analysts say that this year's sagging sales mean the the time is right for ToMoCo of NA to bring-up a new generation of leaders. Before you polish-up your c.v., the Japanese automaker has a long history of promoting from within. Hai!
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I would assume the outgoing Toyota execs will be offered about $1B a year on average since the going rate for execs who have proven track records of extreme failure can be in excess of $20M.
Applicants must have a kendo attitude.
This is crazy. There ought to be 9 top jobs open at GM.
You’d think if GM’s board was smart they would kick out Wagoner, Henderson and Lutz and hire all these ex-Toyota execs right?
Scheduled Retirement??
Honda Sales UP Toyota Sales DOWN
Off with their heads!!!
A lot of the top management people at Toyota USA are old. What else did you expect? They were going to retire sooner or later. I will go further and say that it’s good they are shaking things up, especially at TRD USA. Those guys have needed a shake-up for a while now.
Nobody should kid themselves that this is bad news for Toyota. There is plenty of management talent within the company ready to fill the vacant roles.
Once the Toyota brass read TTAC’s review of the Corolla, these guys were toast. ;-)
Interesting… see you in 10 years for the next one (too young right now) :D
Look for more headlines like these as the Baby Boomers finally friggin’ retire, to enjoy their fruits from having royally screwed up the country on their watch.
I’m surprised they’re actually replacing the executives. Usually, once a highly paid exec vacates a position, that position is eliminated and consolidated within another department. Reduces overhead considerably. At least, that is the experience I have witnessed time and again in the IT world.