Two Who Took Leadership Role in L.A. : Yukiyasu Togo: The president of Toyota U.S.A. learns how the locals think by diving into the culture.
It should be no surprise that Yukiyasu Togo, president of Toyota Motor Corp. U.S.A., is one of the most visible Japanese executives in the corporate citizenship movement in Los Angeles. After all, this 65-year-old dynamo makes it a point to plunge into the local community wherever he goes.
“I’m always thinking that any business is based on human relations. So without understanding what they think, what they want, how can we do good business?” asked Togo, who speaks plainly and laughs easily.
When he was assigned to Thailand in 1971, he wanted to challenge the complaint that foreigners never try to understand the local culture. So he shaved his head and entered a Buddhist monastery for two weeks.
On his next stint in Canada five years later, he wanted to find out why Toyota sales were so low. So he peddled cars door to door after office hours as senior vice president. With his still-halting English at the time, people thought he was a poor immigrant. But he visited 150 homes, sold seven cars and came up with a new program for customer satisfaction.
Now in the United States for the past seven years, Togo has made Toyota a leader in corporate citizenship and one of the most visible Japanese firms trying to grapple with the nation’s racial and ethnic diversity.
Facing complaints about Japanese racism against minorities head-on, Toyota has funded 16 perpetual scholarships of $7,500 each for the United Negro College Fund, tied to internships at its facilities. It has a similar program for Hispanic students. And it has hired a black public relations firm, Tobin & Associates. “This is the United States, and there are so many people, and we should be fair and equal,” Togo said.
The company, whose contributions have quintupled in five years, also funds a broad array of education, music and other programs. Togo personally sits on several boards, including the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Music Center and the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center. He also headed efforts that raised $1 million in Japanese corporate contributions for the Los Angeles Festival.
For a Japanese businessman, Togo’s actions may be as unorthodox as the round business card that bears his smiling mien. But they seem to work. In Thailand and Canada, he quadrupled sales and pushed Toyota to the No. 1 spot among Japanese auto makers. In the United States, he doubled sales.
Although he expects to be in Los Angeles only a year or two more, Togo says the firm will remain committed to corporate philanthropy.
“I will try to choose the best successor who has similar thinking,” Togo said. “And also, Americanization is coming. I’m always emphasizing strongly that the U.S. (subsidiary) should have an American president. It is maybe a very controversial subject, but in the long range it will come. I’m quite sure of that.”
