Toyota tightens its belt
It’s a lean year for the auto industry, and not just in the States, so Toyota is taking steps to save a few yen:
Toyota Motor Corp. will consider cutting the pay of its directors in fiscal 2009, it was learned Wednesday.
The aim of the nation’s top automaker is to clarify the executives’ management responsibility after the company announced last week that it expected a 73.6 percent dive in group operating profit for fiscal 2008, due to sluggish new car sales resulting from the global economic downturn.
Toyota also expects reducing the remuneration of its directors to set an example as the company prepares to embark on thorough cost-cutting. Observers said the decision by Toyota, one of the domestic economy’s leading companies, to reduce directors’ salaries will greatly affect the business decisions of other manufacturers.
“Set an example”? It might for Toyota rank and file, but it won’t impress Detroit’s plutocrats with their Gulfstream jets.
Even before this auto sales meltdown, the Japanese automaker’s top ten execs earned less money COMBINED than Ford’s Alan Mulally, Chrysler’s Bob Nardelli and GM’s Rick Wagoner (individually).
Look for some platinum inserts to be stitched into golden parachutes in the next few weeks.
