Looking at Toyota's Problems Through a CSR Lens

Corporate Social Responsibility is not a cure-all to avoid all risk.  Let’s get that out of the way. 

Yet, as I read the article in today’s New York Times Toyota’s Slow Awakening to a Deadly Problem, I saw more and more how Toyota’s failure is a failure of stakeholder engagement among many other failures.

Stakeholder Engagement is a key tenet of CSR. Stakeholder Engagement involves looking broadly at the groups that have an interest in your business and involving their input in the decision-making process.

Toyota did not have to go out and discover the interested parties.  Because Toyota is a loyal and trusted brand, the groups came to Toyota with their grievances directly. Yet throughout the process, Toyota did not seem to take them seriously.

1. The first stakeholder group that raised an issue for Toyota was customers complaining of stuck gas pedals. 
2. The second stakeholder group that approached Toyota was credible safety and advocacy non-profits. 
3. When the media, the third stakeholder group, gets involved it is often the final sign that an issue has reached the stage where it must be addressed before it spirals out of control.  
4. The fourth stakeholder group that got involved was the final straw.  The US government began proceedings that forced Toyota to look at this problem with the seriousness it required.

Through this whole situation, Toyota’s strategy seemed to be: ignore, deny, shift blame.

Toyota may have been trying to do their best to address the issues all along.  They may have taken the concerns seriously and worked to eliminate every other possible outcome except the floor mats.  But it doesn’t matter to most of the public what they did do, it only matters what they appeared to do.  First they appeared to ignore the complaints and even ignore customer deaths.  Then, it appeared that they took an “it’s not our problem” stance and blamed it on an user error (incompatible floor mats improperly installed).  Then, when well covered and high profile accidents where floor mats could not have been the cause were covered by national media, they appeared to close their ears and blindly stick to a position that was resulted in the death of their customers. 

It is easy for me to Monday morning quarterback this issue and to espouse what Toyota should have done.  I am more interested in the possible organizational and myopic strategy-based reasons why they did not. 

What do you think?

Coming Next: Some theories on why is Stakeholder Engagement so difficult for a company like Toyota?