Compare and contrast Toyota and Volkswagen in terms of their international business strategies

Essay by sunxmUniversity, Bachelor'sA, April 2012

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The lean production which pioneer by Toyota is widely recognized by the world's automotive industry, that is because Toyota shakes the American automaker's dominance. This suggested mode of production insists on human-centric, achieves manufacturing just-in-time and automation, reduces and limits the cost to a greatest extent.� When Volkswagen entered the Chinese market, and established the FAW-Volkswagen, it phases the lean production system, and the staffs optimize from the initially more than 8000 to 5700 people.�

However, as an old Japanese industrial enterprise, Toyota carried out a Japanese-style management notion, which is the obedience from senior management and reflected a kind of Japanese spirit.� In the wake of globalization of production, cultural clash has gradually emerged. Enterprises should face the changes from a single culture to multicultural environment. In addition, employees who have different nationalities, different beliefs work together, the dealing with administrative affairs will inevitably different. The core management absolutely expected that the overall enterprise could correspond with their own management notion; therefore it promotes enterprise culture which could influence the company from top down.

But, just relying on several managers who are strange from Japan, it seemed to exceedingly slight to change numerous local employees.� Ultimately, the perfect Japanese management model is broken down, that is not because the original design makes mistakes in structure, but the conflict with the lower-level managers in carrying out. Thus, the enterprise culture should be not the pure from top down, it needs to listen more from the people on the ground, and gradually form an integrated cultural environment.�

In reality, in Volkswagen Company, it is always appeared that gaps remain between local employees and senior managers. And to be a local employee or a small junior & middle-manager, it is sometimes very hard to understand why the top management of the...