May 14, 2020 (Nikkei) - One of Japan's best-known business leaders has given frank insights into the benefits of working during the coronavirus pandemic, saying measures taken to fight the outbreak have sharply cut corporate bureaucracy and given him more time to talk to global peers.
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor, told reporters during the carmaker's annual earnings call this week how his company and his own work are being reshaped. Toyoda announced sharply lower annual profits -- but also revealed more unexpected numbers about his own "self-restraint" mode as a result of the outbreak.
Remaining at Toyota's main base in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan has allowed Toyoda to slash 80% of his travel time, 85% of direct human contacts and 30% of time spent on internal meetings, he said.
Toyoda also revealed that only half as many documents were being produced for those meetings.
"If [my corporate colleagues] meet with me, they will prepare documents, and those who are highly ranked will make others do that," Toyoda said, explaining why so many inward-looking tasks could be slashed.
Those documents were usually "based on information being gathered a week or two ago. ... Now, we teleconference without documents and discuss troubles and problems that are happening at that point," Toyoda said.
Of the time saved in not churning out internal documents, he said, "I dearly wish it to be invested for the future."
The disclosures from the top of Japan's most valuable company shed a light on the country's often bureaucratic corporate culture. They also suggest a hope that Toyota can transform itself further as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
