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Toyota is a large organization with its operations in different parts of the world. It would be correct to say that communication is the key for organization to connect with different stakeholders. For a long time, Toyota Motor Corporation has been using an open system of communication to communicate with different internal and external stakeholders. Toyota would use the open system approach to communicate the launch of new car. As Meredith (2012) pointed out, open systems are typically associated with organic organizations. When an organization utilizes an organic design, it can comfortably operate under an open system. Conversely, if an organization has a non-organic design, such as a mechanistic design, it will not adapt easily to an open system. Although many organizations today define them as organic, mechanistic organizations do still exist and are very successful. According to Spencer (1994) “In the mechanistic model, quality is defined as conformance to internally derived standards. If it ‘works,’ it is acceptable” (p. 450). It is important that Toyota should both formal and informal communication channels to communicate the launch of the new car. This paper discusses the communication plan of Toyota that is developed on formal and informal channels and this paper discusses all the internal and external stakeholders of Toyota Motor Corporation.
There are various internal and external stakeholders that would be involve as a part of the strategic communication plan. The communication channels and the communication objective could be different for internal and external stakeholders (Birnbaum & Lach, 2014). The internal and external stakeholders for the strategic communication plan for Toyota Motor Corporation can be discussed as:
It is important that the leaders and managers of Toyota should be able to communicate with the internal stakeholders with formal and informal communication channels (Albers, 2013). While developing any communication plan, the internal stakeholders should be the first priority of leaders because internal stakeholders like employees also acts as bridge between company and customers. The internal stakeholders for Toyota Motors Corporation can be discussed as:
Employees: It would be correct to say that employees are the most important internal stakeholders for strategic communication plan. The leader of Toyota Motor Corporation must keep all the employees into confidence; otherwise the company may find it difficult to manage the change management in the organization. The change management can arise from the implementation of the communication plan. The leaders of Toyota should identify the change agents and leaders that can take responsibility to answer the queries of employees.
Board of Directors: The board of directors is also another key internal stakeholders of Toyota Motors Corporation. The strategic communication plan would be a platform where board of directors can create a system of check and balances. With this system of check and balances, the board of directors has to ensure that the communication plan is able to serve its purpose. For the large organization like Toyota, Board of Directors can also put a boundary or can define the guidelines for the communication plan.
Managers and Leaders: The communication plan should be trickled down in a top-down approach. The managers and leaders should understand their information to communicate the plan of new car launch to all the stakeholders in the organization. Toyota Corporation is a large organization and it has number of mid-level managers. It is important that there should not be any communication gap between senior leaders and mid level management, and mid level management and employees.
It is important that the communication with the external stakeholders should be formal in nature. The external stakeholders for Toyota Motors Corporation can be discussed as:
Customers: The customers are the key external stakeholders for Toyota Motors Corporation. In fact, the single objective of the communication plan is to build rapport with consumers so that customers can make the purchase.
Government: The government is also a key external stakeholders. The organizations operating in the automobile industry have to operate under the legal guidelines. The guidelines and constraints are different in different countries. For the launch of the car in any country, Toyota must follow all the legal guidelines and constraints.
Society: The society at large is also an important stakeholder of the organization. It is important that Toyota should be able to fulfill the needs and expectations of society members.
The objective of the communication plan would be to communicate the launch to all the stakeholders. Without the cooperation of the organization’s workforce, the launch of new car seem doomed to failure. This is why it is so important to communicate with employees, explaining the need for the new product, the process of introducing the car, and the expected outcome of the new launch. The communication plan can be considered as the introduction of a change in the organization. Giauque (2015) linked positive attitudes to change with such things as effective organizational performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, and successful job performance. He suggested that negative attitudes to change lead to workplace stress, poor attitudes on the part of employees, and unsatisfactory performance. An organization that has decided to make an organizational change must be cognizant of the effect that this change will have on its employees and take steps to address any negative perceptions that the workforce may hold regarding this change. Eliminating or alleviating these concerns before change implementation will help ensure that the employees work cooperatively to successfully implement the change.
Knutsen and Brock (2014) reason that an organization cannot be independent of its environment but interacts through influencing and being influenced. This influence is accomplished through communication channels. If the environment prevents the communication of leaderships’ boundaries to the rest of the organization, then the experience will be less than enjoyable. Businesses operating on an open system must work diligently to ensure that everyone they influence is aware of their boundaries. The specific objective of this strategic communication plan can be discussed as:
To increase consumer awareness about the new car of Toyota Motor Corporation
To develop a platform of customer relationship marketing with prospects of the company
To inform and make people and society aware of the new car of Toyota Motor Corporation
As a part of the strategic communication plan there would be both formal and informal communication channel in place. The communication with internal stakeholders would be both formal and informal in nature. However, the communication with external stakeholders would be mainly done through formal communication channels only. The various communication channels that would be used in this strategic communication plan can be discussed as:
The launch of the new car is a formal event for Toyota. Therefore, it is important that Toyota must utilize the formal communication channels to communicate with the internal and external stakeholders. The formal communication channels that Toyota would use can be discussed as:
Press Release: The press release would be a key formal communication channel. For the launch of new car, Toyota would have a formal press release where it would announce the launch of new car. The press release would describe all the features of the car.
Media Release: The media release would also be a key formal communication channel for Toyota. The media release would be done among the various news channels. As a part of media release, the senior leader and the executives of Toyota would make a formal media announcement.
Information on company website: Toyota would mention the launch of the new car on its website. This method of communication is an important method as the role of technology and Internet has increased in this digital era. The company website of Toyota could be customized for different region. For example, the content on the company website could be different for Japan region as compared to the content in the Australian region. The communication plan for the launch of new car would have some content that is common on the websites of all the regions and there would be some content that would be local to the need of each of the region.
The management of Toyota should also understand the advantages and disadvantages of formal communication channels. These advantages and disadvantages can be discusses as:
With the formal communication channels, Toyota can have one-to-many communication with the external stakeholders.
With formal communication channels, the business world, external stakeholders, competitors can get to know about the new car of the company in very less time.
With the formal communication channels, Toyota may not be able to establish good rapport with end-consumers.
The formal communication channels may be roadblock for consumers and society.
The informal communication channels that would be used as a part of this strategic communication plan can be discussed as:
Social Media channel: The social media platforms would be a key communication channel for Toyota. With the social media channels, the company can reach out to their target audience effectively. The plan would be based on various social media platforms. The two most important social media platforms would be Facebook and Twitter (Kim, 2014).
Company blogs: The company blogs is considered to be an informal channel that the company can use to establish relationship with customers. Toyota can also get constructive feedback from the consumers through company blogs.
With the informal communication channels, Toyota can have friendly relationship with consumers (Reidenbach & Robin, 2013).
With informal communication channels, Toyota can get true feedback form consumers
With the informal communication channels, Toyota may not be able to establish formal relationship with with end-consumers.
The credibility of the information may not be trusted on the informal communication channels (Steyn, 2012).
Daft (2015) describes the collectivity stage as being one with strong leadership to develop goals and direction. Moreover, Daft, (2015) suggest the communication and control are informal however, as the formalization begins to take shape brings the need for delegation as indication a shift from one level to another. As the organization further develops and grows, departments are formed as the collectivity stage and is characterized by growth where formality is developed with formal structures to establish clear lines of hierarchy are implemented for the delegation of tasks (Daft, 2015).
It is important that the leaders and managers of Toyota should use certain metrics to measure the success of the communication plan. There are various metrics that management of Toyota can use to measure the success of the strategic communication plan (Roxenhall, 2013). The three key metrics that would be used in this strategic communication plan can be discussed as:
The reach metric is used to measure the reach of the communication plan. It measures the number of targeted audience that is reached with the communication plan (Holtzhausen, 2014). This metric can be shown as:
Reached Metric (%) = Number of prospects reach through communication plan / Number of prospects for the launch of new car
The objective of this metric is to assess the impact of communication plan on targeted audience (Thorgren, 2016). The reach is only one thing. It is also important that the communication plan should be able to engage the audience. This metric can be shown as:
Engagement Metric (%) = Number of target audience engages with the communication plan / Total number of targeted audience
The impact metrics measures the impact that the communication plan had on customers. It would measure the number of prospects that have been converted to customers. It is probably one of the most important metrics among all the metrics (Schmidt, 2015). This metric can be shown as:
Impact Metric: Number of prospects converted to customers/ Number of prospects or number of targeted audience
The above paper discusses the strategic communication plan for the launch of new car of Toyota Motor Corporation. With the above discussion it can be said that Toyota should use both formal and informal communication channels to communicate with stakeholders. The channels to communicate with internal stakeholders should be both formal and informal in nature and the channels to communicate with external stakeholders should be only formal in nature. The formal and informal communication channels like print media; social media networks should be used by Toyota to communicate effectively with the stakeholders like employees, customers, etc. It is critical that the launch of new car should not result in any critical change management of the company. The above paper also discusses the key metrics that should be used to measure the success of the strategic communication plan. The leaders of Toyota should implement all the key metrics so that they can track the progress of the communication plan in an effective manner. It is important that Toyota metrics should have effective implementation of metrics. The result of all the three key metrics should be tracked so that Toyota can actually realize the impact of its communication plan.
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