Crisis Management of Toyota - Assignment Example

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Name Date Crisis Scenarios Assessment Scenario A; In 2009/2010, due to faulty accelerators of their brand of vehicle, Toyota had to recall nine million vehicles 1. Activation Guidelines; In this scenario, the incident becomes a crisis at the immediate time for which the first report of faulty accelerators was reported to the company or in this case the Toyota dealer in the different market sections upon where the firm operates. Due to the fact that the incident touches directly to issues related to public safety, it should be given a first-hand priority in terms of life safety for the different car owners situated across different parts of the world. It will be important to enlighten them on possible checks and controls prior to using their vehicles in order to prevent possible accidents. In order to prioritise the incident at hand, it will be important to assure the car owners that the situation is currently under control and that they should desist from using the car meanwhile as solution is being sorted. At this stage, the specific impacts that should be considered to establish the category of the incident lies in; the number of reported accidents as a result of faulty accelerators; a public outrage on the same; and slow sales figures for different models of Toyota as a result of public panic. 2. Action Plans: For this case, the members of the team that are most likely to be involved and their tasks are; Public relation; is a member of the crisis management team that should be tasked with the responsibility of informing the public of the situation at hand, and how Toyota is currently engaged in for purposes of ensuring that the whole situation is put to an end. The public relation team will also be the one handling possible media interviews as need arises. For this case, this team cannot be restricted by a deadline because their contribution towards the case is on-going. Legal Team: should be able to handle possible court cases and the best way of conducting compensation process for those affected by the crisis at hand. This will involve providing pertinent levels of advice to Toyota in relation to what different laws in different areas of the world require in such events. They are expected to conduct a thorough research on this task hence would need at least between 4-6 weeks to complete it. Financial team; for this case will be required to come up with approximate figures related to the financial loss. They are also required to formulate a budget for covering different expenses that might arise including; the resources required, compensation cash. They are expected to come up with a budget in a period of between 3-5 weeks after the incident has been reported. Operations team; will be required to come up with information relate to how the faulty accelerators might have come into place in order to feed the public relations team with correct information to avoid possible speculations and confusion amongst the members of the public and other stakeholders as the public. Actions; 1. The immediate action will be recalling the 9 million faulty vehicles across the globe; this will be expected to take a period of 3 or more months and the responsible people will be Toyota dealers scattered across the globe 2. Halt continuing production of the same model and engage in a fact-finding mission; this will involve the operations team and is expected to take between 3-5 weeks of intensive research and development of the accelerators to establish their faults. 3 Pre-Approved Communications Strategy and Messages A reactive approach will be best suited for this scenario because the incident has already resulted to a crisis. The best communication will to be use a press release as well as a website forum where customers can report their faulty vehicles in real-time. The response statement; ‘ It has come to our attention that there has been numerous cases reported of faulty accelerators amongst our vehicles, the company is aware and would like to inform the public that the recalling process for all the vehicles has been initiated and a fast conclusion would be reached soon. This occurrence is unfortunate and we have embarked on a journey to rectify the situation as soon as possible. More information will be provided to the public as investigations are concluded. Thank you for your continued support’. 4. Contact Information for Each Member of the crisis Management Team Information pertaining to the public relations team will be readily available within the company’s website as well as different social media platforms. Contacts of the Legal team will also be provided in the company’s weekly newsletter as well as complaint form that will be offered to those affected. This form will be readily available for download in company’s website. 5. Resources Needed; For this exercise the resources needed will include; timelines for each of the task that is to be handled by different team members; stakeholder agreements and especially between the company and the affected customers requiring the latter to remain patient as the company tries to handle the situation at hand. Scenario B: In 2015, a sandwich shop owner In Marrickville, offered free sandwiches via a Facebook page for members of a closed group only. The deal was reported by a Widely read food blog as one open to all Sydneysiders 1. Activation Guidelines: For this case, the incident becomes a crisis at the time when it is established that more people than what the Facebook group holds have turned up for the free sandwiches to cause a stretch of resources within the establishment. The incident category for this case lies with a financial loss given that the initial budget will now be overstretched. The owner should be able to count the number of free sandwiches given as well as the level of stock in order to determine that the crisis has escalated beyond what was expected. 2. Action Plans; Public Relations; will be required for this case to inform the public about the initial objective of the initiative for purposes of explaining to them that possible shortage of the free sandwiches is imminent. The team will be required to do so within the first 3 or 4 days of the campaign and immediately the owner notice the anomaly in the flow of the customers to the shop. The sales personnel should handle this task Operations team; will also be required to be updating the owner of the number of customers served on a daily basis. They are also expected to indicate an approximate level of stock left for the campaign. The cooks should be expected to provide this information. Finance team; is expected to provide daily updates on the number of customers served visa vie the actual number of the members within the Facebook group. They are also expected to establish the amount of resources so far consumed and their costs. They are expected to update the owner on a daily-basis in order to prevent possible overflow of customers and unnecessary expenses. The cashier is the one to handle this task. 3 Pre-Approved Communications Strategy and Messages For this case, the crisis should adopt a proactive response approach since it has not yet happened. The best communication platform to use is to contact the blogger and inform him to alter the information to indicate the specifics of the campaign. The shop owner should also contact the admin of the close Facebook group and inform him to keep the information the members only. ‘It has come to our attention that the free sandwiches campaign we were supposed to hold this week at our shop has attracted more people than we could possibly handle. Kindly, the campaign was only meant for the members of this Facebook Group that currently stands at 200 people. At the time of offering the sandwiches, we will have to confirm membership in order to stay afloat with the initiative. I hope you understand’ (Facebook Group-message). 4. Contact Information for Each Member of the crisis Management Team All the contacts of the campaign and especially the cashier will be availed to the Facebook Members for purposes of confirming their membership status with the group. 5. Resources Needed The resources needed for this initiative include; timelines, which will be offered to each stakeholder, involved formulating and coming up with pertinent information within set deadlines. Question 2 A. Distribution For scenario A, the distribution of the plan will be through the company’s website where pertinent information regarding the recalling process and what Toyota is currently doing will all be highlighted and expounded even further. It is important to understand that Toyota operates through its numerous dealers across the globe hence a central point of document distribution is paramount. It is from the company’s website where information related to the crisis will be updated regularly so that all relevant stakeholders have access to new and reliable information. In addition to this, Toyota might use the customer weekly newsletters as a platform for informing customers about major changes that have occurred since the crisis happened. This way, the company will protect its reputation from malicious propaganda that emanate from different quotas. For scenario B, the best distribution process that should be adopted involves website forums and especially the food blog upon where the crisis emanated. This way, the show owner will be able to alert the readers of the blog in advance about the initial objective of the campaign at hand. The shop owner can also go ahead and requests the attendance of the Facebook group members through their personal email in order to prevent possible external intrusions. B. Implementation For scenario A, the creation of resource centre should be through the company’s website platform where the affected will be able to access all information they need pertaining to the crisis and also, report in case of other incidents related to the faulty accelerators. The company should also enhance its existing crisis management team with external support from consultants in order to strengthening their skills in handling the matter to the public. External consultants have prior experience in handling the situation hence will form a fundamental part of the team. The team will be positioned fairly to inform the public on who to contact in case of further clarifications. This will help prevent unnecessary interferences from external factors. For Scenario B, the best way of implementing the plan is through well-informed post on the Facebook Group page as well as a comment on the popular food blog explaining to the readers the initial objective of the campaign and the pre-set budgets of the entire exercise. The crisis does not need the formulation of a crisis resource centre since it can be handled within the confinements of the shop. Question 3 A. Evaluating Questions i) How were our responses regarding the crisis? Did we do enough as expected from different stakeholders? ii) Did the response team adopt effective communication platforms? iii) Did the company act in speed to contain the situation at hand? iv) Did we ensure that we have enough back up resources for the exercise? v) Was everyone involved/stakeholders conduct their tasks effectively? vi) Did the company meet the pre-set deadlines effectively? vii) Did the response show enough confidence in handling issues raised by the public? B. Scale Rating For questions; i) Poor- Good Enough-Excellently Handled ii) Poor- Good-Excellent iii) Yes/No iv) Poor-Somehow-Good-Exceptional v) Poor-Good-Exceptional vi) Yes-Not Sure-No vii) Strongly Agree- Agree-Disagree-Strongly Disagree Question 4 The process of amending the crisis plan will happen immediately after the company has evaluated its efforts in handling the situation at hand. In the event that it is found out some stakeholders failed to contribute their skills and expertise in handling situation, then next time, it will be important to review these teams before delegating tasks. This will ensure that only the qualified and exceptionally prepared teams and stakeholders are given tasks to handle hence prevent possible collapse of responses made to the public; a factor that might cause even more panic and jeopardize the company’s other efforts in handling the situation. This will also involve replacing team members with new and effective ones in the event that it is found the existing ones are inefficient in the dealings. It will be proper to provide room for deadline adjustments by a small margin in order to allow the team’s ample time to go through other possible effective options as opposed to just adopting a specific solution that might turn out to be ineffective in the end. Read More