Image taken from: http://www.autocarhire.com/travelblog/featured/toyotas-future-plans-in-the-us/

Toyota is once again the world’s best-selling vehicle brand. What is the secret behind Toyota’s success? A blog post by McComb School of Business give insight to this secret. According to the post, Toyota managed to balance the company’s strategic goals while extracting maximum effort out of every employee by managing the variety, velocity, variability, and visibility of its supply chain. On top of that, the car maker embraces a humble attitude which prevents it from getting complacent with its success and is constantly learning and improvising. This results in their ability to think in the long term, and deliver value to both customers and themselves.

This ability to think in the long term has been illustrated in the production of the Toyota Prius, the firm’s first hybrid car. When it was first produced, the gas prices in the United States were only $1.50 a gallon. However, Toyota was able to think long term, and the Prius became a breakthrough vehicle for Toyota, giving it a commanding lead in hybrid technology. As such, the ability to innovate and plan ahead enabled them to achieve a first mover’s advantage in a popular section of the automobile industry today.