My View: In the business world, crises are unpredictable, but not unavoidable

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March 17, 2010

My View The Salem News Wed Mar 17, 2010, 05:45 AM EDT

As a Salem State College senior in Professor Robert Brown's "Crisis Management" class, I've become quite the paranoid individual.

It's to be expected, of course, since we have come to learn that crises are unpredictable — though not unexpected.

And with the media frenzy around Toyota's difficulties, it's obvious that one cannot escape a crisis once it has been unleashed.

Alas, I find myself in the unfortunately ironic situation of being a new Toyota owner as of October 2009.

Sure, my "new" car may be a used, 2005 Corolla, and obviously I made the purchase before the recent debacle, but watching this recall thing spread like wildfire has caused me to scratch my head.

I remember deciding on the car based on the idea that Toyota is a worldwide, trusted brand, with cars guaranteed to last a lifetime, or at least 300,000 some odd miles. And now it seems everything Toyota has built itself up on has been thrown out the electric-powered window.

The company's initial recall in September 2009 after a fatal crash in August, did not cause me to waver in my car-purchasing decision. Perhaps that was because at the time I was blissfully unaware, and more excited to be trading in my 2003 Hyundai for something more stylish, more comfortable, more dependable.

But why did this dependable company wait more than a month to publicly apologize for that crash, and that recall?

If there's one thing I've learned from crisis management, it's never to lie — or deny. And the longer you wait to respond, the more difficult the situation becomes to defend.

Toyota dug itself a deeper hole when it released letters to car owners about another upcoming recall for a defect that did not exist.

After being publicly rebuked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for misleading their customers in these letters, Toyota once again had to apologize. Things that make you go, "Hmmm."

Now new information has surfaced about past recalls, complaints and fatal accidents; and then there's some jargon thrown in about confidentiality. Toyota certainly isn't winning any brownie points.

But throughout I've tried to ignore the negativity surrounding Toyota since I'm so happy with my car.

Ironically, buying a used car as opposed to a new one was the best decision I'd made, as it seems nearly every model from the past three years has been recalled for one thing or another.

Toyota was in no rush to halt sales after the recall either, but when they did they were sure to shift the blame to their parts supplier, CTS Corp., which was the source of the suspect brake pedals. All the while, more and more makes and models are being added to the master recall list.

People are surely freaking out at this point; not only are the newest and most popular Toyota models having serious problems, but companies like GM, Honda, even Hyundai, are issuing recalls of their own. This game of dominoes isn't so much fun.

Company president Akio Toyoda told the Washington Post, "We have to win back the trust of our customers by adhering to the very values on which that trust was first built."

I agree: Yes, Mr. Toyoda, you do. That trust is what prompted me to purchase my own Toyota.

I'm happy to report that my '05 Corolla runs just fine and I would not consider getting rid of it, even in light of this crisis.

Neither would it hinder my future decision to purchase a new Toyota.

As far as I'm concerned, the only direction Toyota can go now is up.

I firmly believe that in due time the company will reinvent itself, and slowly, but surely, start to build that trust back up with the safest and most reliable cars, trucks and SUVs on the market.

Let us hope that this experience has taught the Toyota empire a thing or two about crisis prevention. If you want to live up to a reputation for quality, you must consistently test and retest your products to make sure customers are completely satisfied.

It's critical to preventing those "unpredictable" — but not unexpected — events from occurring again.

As the saying goes: Learn from your mistakes, but don't get all your education that way.

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Amanda Fancy is a public relations major at Salem State College.