Like a great tanker holding its course through stormy seas, Toyota Motor Corp. is gaining share in the world's most competitive markets and steaming ahead with new technology. Already the world's richest automaker, it is on track to become the largest.
With General Motors Corp. losing ground in its home market, Toyota's path to the top seems unobstructed.
Yet Toyota's top managers aren't satisfied. Instead of pausing to savor their achievements, they are ramping up capacity, stepping up the pace for 265,000 employees worldwide and inducing a level of pressure that companies usually face in times of crisis.
At a briefing last month in Tokyo, Toyota executives appeared uneasy discussing the company's epic transformation from challenger venturing cautiously into new markets to the new champion in everyone's sights.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Toyota is poised to overtake GM
The Detriot News reports: