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Uchiyamada The discussions took place mainly in the Environmental Affairs
Division. At the core of our vision was the desire to bring good products out into the
world, create even better cars, and bring smiles to the faces of our customers. Based
on this, we boosted our management foundations and create new products. It’s an
old turn of phrase, but one of the Five Main Principles of Toyoda called for contributing to the common good. It means being of use to the world through the medium
of the automobile industry. This way of thinking is deeply imbued in our workforce.
We don’t think we are making cars for profits, but rather we want to be of use to the
common good by making cars. Around the time we joined the company, the important thing was developing and deliver cars that were highly reliable and offered
good cost performance so that everyone could drive a car, and through that make life
more convenient. After that, we worked on building the Prius and making fuel-cell
powered vehicles in our effort to be of use to everyone through cars that offer excellent environmental performance.
At that point, when we thought about what idea should be our next focal point,
the one that we of course felt really struck home was the impact of climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report on the need
to reduce to zero or even shift into the negative range greenhouse gas emissions by
the end of the twenty-first century. However, this simply is not something that can
be handled right away. That’s why we set as our target year 2050, which is 50 years
before the century’s end.
Komiyama I’m sure you had some people in-house who thought this was impossible, no?
“Let’s Do What We Have to Do.”
Uchiyamada The debates we had were of whether or not to include the two
numerical targets: “90% reduction in volume of CO 2 emissions for new vehicles”
and “plant zero CO 2 emissions.”
Komiyama I understand you gave people a push by saying, “This is not a matter
of ‘let’s do what we can do,’ but rather ‘let’s do what we have to do.’”
Uchiyamada That’s something I say all the time, but this time I was really excited
about it. I thought, “wouldn’t it be wonderful if we really could make cars without
producing any CO 2 ?”
Even when we developed our hybrid and fuel-cell powered vehicles, there was
talk at the start about how it just couldn’t be done. However, it’s also a fact that once
we set a deadline and went about it wholeheartedly we accomplished our goals. This
of course is not something we are going to manage right away, but I think that by
setting our goals and giving it go we should be able to do it. I don’t think the reactions in-house have been all that negative.
Interview
Uchiyamada The discussions took place mainly in the Environmental Affairs
Division. At the core of our vision was the desire to bring good products out into the
world, create even better cars, and bring smiles to the faces of our customers. Based
on this, we boosted our management foundations and create new products. It’s an
old turn of phrase, but one of the Five Main Principles of Toyoda called for contributing to the common good. It means being of use to the world through the medium
of the automobile industry. This way of thinking is deeply imbued in our workforce.
We don’t think we are making cars for profits, but rather we want to be of use to the
common good by making cars. Around the time we joined the company, the important thing was developing and deliver cars that were highly reliable and offered
good cost performance so that everyone could drive a car, and through that make life
more convenient. After that, we worked on building the Prius and making fuel-cell
powered vehicles in our effort to be of use to everyone through cars that offer excellent environmental performance.
At that point, when we thought about what idea should be our next focal point,
the one that we of course felt really struck home was the impact of climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report on the need
to reduce to zero or even shift into the negative range greenhouse gas emissions by
the end of the twenty-first century. However, this simply is not something that can
be handled right away. That’s why we set as our target year 2050, which is 50 years
before the century’s end.
Komiyama I’m sure you had some people in-house who thought this was impossible, no?
“Let’s Do What We Have to Do.”
Uchiyamada The debates we had were of whether or not to include the two
numerical targets: “90% reduction in volume of CO 2 emissions for new vehicles”
and “plant zero CO 2 emissions.”
Komiyama I understand you gave people a push by saying, “This is not a matter
of ‘let’s do what we can do,’ but rather ‘let’s do what we have to do.’”
Uchiyamada That’s something I say all the time, but this time I was really excited
about it. I thought, “wouldn’t it be wonderful if we really could make cars without
producing any CO 2 ?”
Even when we developed our hybrid and fuel-cell powered vehicles, there was
talk at the start about how it just couldn’t be done. However, it’s also a fact that once
we set a deadline and went about it wholeheartedly we accomplished our goals. This
of course is not something we are going to manage right away, but I think that by
setting our goals and giving it go we should be able to do it. I don’t think the reactions in-house have been all that negative.
Interview