Toyota Motor Corporation was founded by the Toyoda family in 1937. It is presently the world's third largest carmaker holding 9.5% of the global auto shares after General Motors and Ford in 1997 and by far the leader of all Japanese carmakers ( Business Week, 7 April 1997). It is famous by being the most innovative automotive manufacturer in process technology and the most efficient in product development. Yet, Toyota lagged behind as compared to its other major Japanese competitors, in international production and regional headquarters (Kumon, 1998). This was due to its prudent strategy of avoiding risky overseas ventures, the importance of its home market and its ultra-conservative financial and management policies which might be a consequence of it being a traditional Japanese family business by origin. Fortunately, there was a change in the attitudes towards overseas investments when Toyota selected Hiroshi Okuda as the first non-family president of the company. ^[1] Other than investing in the automobile industry, Toyota is involved in other business segments which include factory automation, semiconductors, design and manufacture of prefabricated housing, financial services, leisure boats and the IT related businesses and telecommunication.

In order to understand the company, it is helpful to look at their corporate motto. Toyota's motto stipulates to create an affluent society and improve the quality of life through the automobile (Basu, 1999). Therefore, Toyota emphasises on the quality of its products which will be offered to the consumers at a reasonable price. It also aims to be...