Toyota Motor Corporation was started in 1918 by Sakichi Toyoda and by 1995, was the third-largest motor vehicle producer in the world. Despite a difficult world economy since 2000, Toyota has continued to prosper. In 2008, Toyota reported its consolidated net income at 1.72 trillion yen ($17.15 billion). In the 2008 annual report, Katsuaki Watanabe, president of Toyota, noted that the company anticipated a decline in 2009 revenues and earnings due to the steep rise in raw material costs and the effects of foreign exchange rates. Nevertheless, Watanabe is confident in his company’s ability to remain successful by pursing a “geographically balanced profit structure.” This means that Toyota expects to increase revenues from emerging countries in Asia, Central and South America, Oceania, and Africa. In addition, the company will continue to focus on China, where earnings have more than doubled over the past four years. To support this balanced structure, Toyota has 53 production sites in 27 countries and regions, with sales operations in over 170 countries and regions. With such geographic diversity, Watanabe understands that his company needs to focus on developing the company’s employees at every level of the organization.
In light of the need to focus on developing its human resources, consider conducting a performance evaluation on the following Toyota employees and the need for Toyota to manage three important business factors: developments in the world economy, increasing its market share in targeted countries, and increasing sales of key vehicle lines. Which of these three factors should be considered in the evaluation of:
a. An assembly-line worker
b. A factory manager
c. A sales manager
d. The company president