Interview with Toyota China Dong Changzheng

If we look back at 2011, Toyota's sales ranking dropped to third place under the influence of various unfavorable factors, but it was only 210,000 less than the general public. If we calculate the total volume of sales in the world other than the Chinese market in that year, Toyota is still 567 million higher than the general public, 1.167 million higher than the public, it is still one of the global car giant.

Compared with competitors, the Chinese market is undoubtedly the place where Toyota's shortcomings lie. Toyota Akio even bluntly said: "(We) have slowed down the pace of making cars that meet China's needs." But in fact, "slowly beats" Toyota is not as slow as the outside world has seen. As early as before it was renamed, it has already begun to explore changes.

One of the symbols of change is the constant appearance of Chinese faces in the management layer of Toyota China. The joining of Dong Changzheng is the most representative one in the localization of Toyota's talents in China. He is the localization of Toyota China. The planners and executors of the strategy are responsible for continuing Toyota’s “localization” of work in China.

However, when the Automobile Sankei Network interviewed Dong Changzheng, he said to us: “My personal stuff has nothing to say. Toyota did not look for Dong Changzheng. You can find Wang Changzheng and Li Changzheng.”

So what's more important?

Studying the resume of Dong, we found that after graduating from Anhui Institute of Technology (now Hefei University of Technology) in 1984, he worked for the Ministry of Machinery Industry, Beiqi Foton, and Beijing Benz-Daimler. He took office after the disintegration of Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Alliance. Chrysler Director of Industry and Government Relations, China. Therefore, Dong Changzheng was described in this way: He is the only professional manager of the Chinese automobile industry who has had professional experience in the three major automotive companies in Europe, the United States, and Japan. The hardest thing is his cooperation with different cultures at home and abroad. All can maintain a good relationship.

An insider who had worked with Dong Changzheng commented that Dong Changzheng does not appear to be “western style” compared to many top managers in foreign companies, but has an “international model” that is unknown to outsiders. He can clearly He knows what the two parties want and coordinates them so that the two parties can achieve the goal of a win-win situation, rather than stand still and stop by differences.

This is exactly what managers in this position really need, and Toyota is also in urgent need of localization.

Toyota’s personnel arrangement is not just Dong Changzheng. Toyota Sasaki’s chairman Sasaki Satoh and Toyota China’s general manager Kitazawa Kitazumi have a long history of working in China, and Toyota’s high-end brand, Lexus, has also launched another. Local senior executive Lang Lixin. In addition, in terms of organizational structure, Toyota will relocate most of the functions of the Ministry of China established at its headquarters in Japan to Beijing in order to make the localization strategy more rapid and market-oriented. The Ministry of China is an independent headquarters-level independent department established for the Chinese market. This is rare in multinational car companies. In technology research and development, the US$689 million wholly-owned R&D center TMEC in Changshu is Toyota’s only implementation outside the mainland. The hybrid R&D center will also be the largest R&D center in Toyota's global R&D system. According to the knowledge of the Automobile Sankei, the deputy general manager Matsumoto Shinichi, who was subsequently transferred from Japan, is the head of the next-generation Toyota Prius R&D in Japan. This shows that Toyota's determination is great.

“This is a big change.” After the Ministry of China moves, the investigations and plans for the Chinese market will also be implemented in China. He exemplifies, “Look at our current motion plan for the consumer market. The planning of the experience part was originally conducted in Japan and is now being done in China. The biggest advantage is that it can adapt to the rapidly changing market competition situation, including recruiting local staff to join the team and collaborating with local public relations and marketing strategy companies. It will be clearer and faster to make adjustments in a timely manner.” The overall public relations, marketing and marketing strategies of the Cloud Action Plan will be completed in China.

In fact, what can be achieved immediately is not called strategy. The current situation is that the intention of change has been conveyed, the strategy has been formulated and is being implemented, and how to communicate to the outside world that the way he chooses is to "bring the wind and behave in a proper manner."