Not so long ago, Toyota Motors Corporation Akio Toyoda has apologized for his company’s debacle surrounding flaws with various car models. It was a gallant stand, but is it worth praising for someone to do what he or she is required to ethically do?
Obviously not.
The Japanese car maker has taken responsibility for their company’s mistakes, which is an indication of a good and ethical leadership. They didn’t shift blame to others nor did they use passive voice such as “mistakes were made”, or simply deny that there was problem.
Apologies seems to be the hallmarks of many failures and we have seen enough of these – from business executives down to political leaders. But then, apologies are just merely a few words strung together. The utterance is obviously necessary. But they are not sufficient. They hardly constitute restitution for the millions of their customers who bought thinking accelerator pedal and brakes would work properly.
The current fiasco has generated a whole lot of rumors, where one of the most impending was the company knew about the defect since mid last year but still decided to release it. But we don’t have the facts yet. It is not too soon either to rightfully expect Toyota will do everything to protect the rights of it’s consumers, as to improve design and demonstrate to shareholders that people are the company’s first concern.
In the long run, the best way is still to find ways how to repair company’s image and boost value of its stock that has dropped 20% over the last two weeks. After all, it never too late to right a wrong, or at the safest, better late than never.