I recently read the article “Toyota told it has to close PR culture gap” in Financial Times by Bernard Simon.
In the article, it states that the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers has told Toyota “it needs to do more to improve its crisis management and close a public-relations culture gap between head office in Japan and other parts of the world.”
I agree, I agree, I agree. Back in February I wrote the basically the same thing in 3 posts: Toyota's Challenging Steps, How Toyota should 'Move Forward' and In Toyota's fall, will Japan learn its lesson?
I am glad for the validation. In this article, the group advises ''Also pressing is the need for bridging the culture gap between Japan and other nations in public relations activities.''
This could not be more true and its about time that Japanese are saying it, not just Americans. Japanese companies such as Toyota need to start seeing themselves as truly global companies and accept all the responsibilities and accountabilities that comes with that. They can no longer hide behind “we the Japanese” and act as if they are still an isolated country or company that doesn’t have to play by all the rules that others do.
PR is a major force in America and in many countries. Whether that is good or bad is not the issue here. It is what is done by all so therefore Toyota has to play the game too especially now that they are in a nightmare of bad PR.
Hopefully this group scientists and engineers will convince them.
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