the meetings on the Monday they asked me to explain the main accusations against the South African government, as expressed in the film. I was caught between a rock and a hard place. From a moral perspective, our country’s political dispensation and the concomitant oppression of black South Africans were indefensible. I could not bring myself to condone the government’s actions. My plea to TMC was to continue with the supply of components for production at our plant in Durban, in order to enable us to keep some 6 000 workers employed. I made it clear that the Zulu workers at our plant supported 12 people in their households on average. Finally, I gave them the assurance that Toyota South Africa’s management team, with Dr. Wessels at the forefront, was busy playing an important role in applying pressure to accelerate the process of political reform. At the end of the negotiations, I was very grateful that TMC decided not to significantly cut their parts supply to us.
Although Toyota set the one market share record after the other in the eighties, in 1985 we discovered with shock that we only held the fifth position in terms of customer satisfaction. It made us realise that our market leadership was not sustainable, and that drastic intervention was necessary. The highly successful “Toyota Touch” programme was launched under my guidance in February 1986. This initiative aimed to optimise customer satisfaction and retention. It subsequently became my new passion, as well as a core element of my personal business philosophy, as I will discuss more fully in a later chapter on leadership in customer satisfaction.
Colin Adcock retired in June 1986. Dr.Wessels’s son Bert took over as group chief executive, while I was appointed managing director of Toyota SA Marketing. I was 36 years old and felt fortunate and blessed that my career dream had been realised. Ralph Broadley was appointed managing director of Toyota Manufacturing. Ralph was an absolute expert in his field, and as a professional manager in a manufacturing environment he was in a class of his own. His focus on product quality and our progress with the Toyota Touch programme allowed Toyota to move into the first position on the national customer satisfaction index in 1989. It was a milestone since we knew that it would provide Toyota with a platform for sustainable success in the market. During this time, our market share also peaked at 30%.
On 22 July 1991 Dr. Albert Wessels died of cancer. It was a sad day that will remain with me always. Despite the fact that he was already 82 years old, he still executed his role as chairman of the group with wisdom, purpose and competence. Even on his deathbed, he spoke to me about his future vision for Toyota. He was indeed like an eagle – visionary with a broad perspective, and a social awareness that was far ahead of most of his contemporaries in the business sector. He was absolutely committed to job creation and social upliftment. Over the years Tillie and I have spent time with Dr. Wessels and his wife Susan at home as well as on their farm Vambelane in the Sabie Sand region. He could entertain us for hours around the campfire with his hunting stories. Dr. Wessels once referred to me tongue-in-cheek as his “adopted son”, which meant a lot to me. Little did I know then that I would be the one to help his son Bert lay him to rest during a private funeral on the family farm in the Dealesville district in the Free State. He was succeeded as chairman by his daughter Elisabeth Bradley, who filled his shoes competently and professionally. Bert continued to fulfil his role as group chief executive.
In 1992 I came face to face with my biggest leadership challenge up until that moment. In the run up to our new democracy, the trade union Cosatu flexed its muscles and widespread strikes were the result. As the market leader in the automotive industry, Toyota was an obvious target. Due to this political motive and our refusal to concede to an unaffordable wage increase, about 6 000 workers who were NUMSA members started to strike. It would eventually result in one of the country’s most protracted strikes ever – a full 49 working days.
My job as head of the marketing company was to ensure the ongoing distribution of spare parts to about 300 dealers and almost one million Toyota owners. For more than nine weeks, our team, thanks to overtime and weekend work, kept the parts distribution centre operational. Meanwhile our workers toyi-toyied in front of our gates every day and intimidated temporary workers. It was a time of high emotion and tremendous pressure, but also a time of teamwork and staying positive. Toyota’s cash flow virtually dried up since vehicle production at our assembly plant in Durban came to a standstill. Our supplier in Japan was also exposed to political pressure and negative publicity. Locally I had to attend to inquiries from the media, shareholders, dealers and vehicle owners. It placed tremendous demands on my communication skills, and the learning curve it facilitated stood me in good stead later in my career. The core principle of transparent communication of the factual circumstances, without getting carried away by the emotion of the moment, carried me through this period.
The true test of my leadership ability only really started when the workers returned after 49 days. Mutual respect and trust between workers and management was destroyed. Instead, the anger, bitterness and distrust were palpable. The solution to this situation, which entailed the establishment of a unifying vision and shared values, I discuss in more detail in the later chapter on leadership. With the benefit of hindsight I realise that this event was one of the key moments in my personal development as a leader.
Like Dr. Wessels, Dr. Frederick van Zyl Slabbert was another South African who was far ahead of his time. The work he did behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition to our new democracy in 1994 was invaluable. One of his major initiatives was the facilitation of weekend meetings between members of the ANC’s executive committee and senior businessmen. During these meetings at Chartwell, Anglo American’s estate just outside Johannesburg, alternative economic policies for the “new” South Africa were discussed. During the first of the two sessions that I attended in 1992, I had to do a presentation on the expected impact of the ANC’s socialist policies on the economy and business climate. My friend Rudolf Gouws, then already one of South Africa’s leading economists, assisted me with this. Needless to say, the sparks flew. The harshest critic of my proposed free-market economy was Cyril Ramaphosa, who, ironically, in the post-1994 era, gained great personal benefits from that very capitalist system. This interaction with senior ANC members like Thabo Mbeki (eventually President of South Africa), Ramaphosa, Tito Mboweni (later President of the Reserve Bank), Joe Slovo and others, not only opened my eyes, but also gave me hope for the future of our country. I was very impressed with the quality of the ANC leadership and their strong commitment to a democratic and prosperous South Africa.
It was also during this time that I began to reflect on my long-term future at Toyota. At that stage, I had been with the group for nearly 20 years and seriously began to think about the desirability of a new challenge. One immediate practical priority was finding a possible successor. I was excited when my paths crossed with that of Johan van Zyl during the early 1990s. At the time he was running a management training programme for Toyota in his capacity as a Professor of Marketing Management at the Business School of the University of Potchefstroom. Johan had done a lot of consultancy work and was also a shareholder in the Toyota dealership in Potchefstroom. He was 35 years old, highly intelligent and in my opinion well-equipped to fulfil a senior management role at Toyota. After I had to do some convincing, especially with regards to his wife Santie who was concerned about the possible impact on their family life, he joined us in 1993. It was definitely the best appointment I ever made, considering that he is currently the President and CEO of the group, responsible for Sub-Saharan Africa. He also serves on the executive council of Toyota Motor Corporation Japan, a remarkable achievement for a foreigner. In fact, he is one of a few non-Japanese on whom such an honour has been bestowed.
In 1993, Toyota Japan honoured us with their “best of the best” award – a distinction that only three of 161 distributors worldwide at that time had bestowed on them. They judged us on the basis of overall performance, but with the emphasis on market share and customer satisfaction. It was obviously a special milestone for our team.
An important event that I can not neglect to allude to, relates to a lunch Bert Wessels and I enjoyed with Nelson Mandela at Toyota’s head office in Sandton, a few months before the 1994 elections. Since Colin Adcock’s retirement in 1986, I reported to Bert. During the lunch, Mandela told us that
