ROTIMI ASHER
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ontrary to popular developments in Nigerian industrial sector, including automobile industry, Toyota Nigeria Limited(TNL) has managed not to lay off any of its staffs, and, as revealed during the company’s a quarterly press briefing held last week, staff retrenchment is, at the moment, not in TNL’s recession management strategy.
As severally reported by Motoring World, the nation’s economic recession, which has virtually crippled the Nigerian auto industry, has made many auto marketing and assembly companies to sack workers numbering up to 2000. Reasons given include decline in sales and inability to secure FOREX for importation of assembly kits and accessories.
But Toyota Nigeria has been able to whether the storm and keep its staffs at work.
Answering questions during their fourth quarter media chat held at the company’s headquarter in Lekki, Lagos, on Wednesday, TNL’s managing Director, Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo revealed that his company succeeded in keeping its staffs intact, by adopting professional management style, “reading the seed of time and planning ahead.
”Here in TNL, we adopt proper risk management approach,” he explained. “Rather than using fire brigade approach, we, in the last three, four years, far before the recession appeared, planned ahead.
“So, when we came into this year, we did the same thing. Although, the risk factor has been more than we planned, we never thought it is going to be this way; but as soon as we realized how the effect would be on us, we made certain changes.
“For example, we did a lot of cost reduction as far as our administrative cost is concerned.”
“We reduced cost to about 40%, because business is not the way it used to be. We are also more cost effective in some of the marketing activities we get involved in. And we are thinking: how do we maximize profit without spending as much as we used to do in the past?”
”In the past, ” he explained further, ” whenever we had a product launch, it used to be done with fanfare, in which case, we spent a lot of money.
“But now there is no need to do that. We do it now in a smaller way and there are also internal things that we do to ensure that the product is well known without spending the kind of money we used to spend in the past. Even our benefits and some things we used to have in the past, we cut them down.”
Mr. Ade- Ojo, who incidentally was, last week , awarded as Nigeria Auto Journalists’ (NAJA) Best Chief Executive officer of the year 2016, pointed out: “For us, laying off staff is going to be the last resort. We look for where we can save little kobo and that has given us some flexibility so that we do not have to sack any of our staffs.
“Everybody understands the importance of this and this has made them to work together. People come together to share ideas. All hands are on deck. We all work closely to the benefit of the company. Every staff knows that if the company succeeds, it will benefit every one of us.”
According to him, each department in TNL has an improvement team that looks into what can be done to make the organization relevant and sustainable.
“We even have an award for any department which comes up with something reasonable that will impact the organization,” Ade Ojo revealed further, adding, “and there is an incentive or award given to them. So, there is a lot of work going on internally.”
Toyota (Nigeria) Limited is the exclusive franchise owner of the Toyota brand in Nigeria. For decades, the company has consistently sustained the top spot for the Toyota brand in the Nigerian automobile industry. The success story is attributable to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the board of directors under the chairmanship of Chief Michael Ade-Ojo (OON). whose vision, industry and tireless commitment over the years paved the way for the acceptance of the Toyota brand in Nigeria.
Complementing the hard work of the board is the company’s management team under the leadership of Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo, a youthful administrator who possesses B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering from University of Reading and M.Sc. Automotive Engineering from Cranfield University both in United Kingdom.
He has injected youthful verve and rare sense of professionalism into the entire team of Toyota ( Nigeria) Limited, a development that has impacted positively on the fortune of the multiple awards won by Toyota brand and indeed, the Toyota boss himself, last week , awarded as Nigerian Auto Industry’s Best CEO in 2016.
[highlight]Posted by: Rotimi Asher On: 28th November, 2016 In:Local News[/highlight] https://motoringworldng.com/toyota-nigeria-n…ecession-ade-ojo/
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