Yoshio Ishizaka, Advisor, former Vice-President, Toyota Corporation
| DATE: | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 |
|---|---|
| TIME: | 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM |
| PLACE: | Room C135, Haas School of Business |
| FORMAT: | Joint Colloquium |
| SPONSORS: | Center for Japanese Studies, Yomiuri Shimbun, Haas School of Business |
Yoshio Ishizaka joined Toyota in 1964 upon earning a degree in law from Tokyo's Hitotsubashi University. His career has centered on overseas business, and he has served two, extended stints at Toyota’s operations outside Japan: six years in Australia in the late 1970s and four years in the United States in the late 1980s. Mr. Ishizaka served as senior vice president and chief coordinating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. from 1986 to 1990, while helping to develop the special project that became the Lexus Division.
Mr. Ishizaka then became general manager of the Europe division at Toyota in 1990. In that position, he supervised accelerating efforts to build an integrated, local organization in Europe to support expanded manufacturing, marketing and product development there. Named to Toyota's Board of Directors in 1992, Mr. Ishizaka returned to the U.S. sales arm to serve as president from 1996 to 1999. He returned to Japan in 1999, whereupon he was promoted to senior managing director in charge of overseas operations. In 2001, he became an executive vice president in charge of Toyota’s overall overseas operations. In 2005, he became senior advisor to the board. In April of that same year, Mr. Ishizaka became the co-chair of the Trade and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation Working Group of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC).
In this talk, Mr. Ishizaka will introduce Toyota’s progress overview, current status, and the Toyota’s way and discuss the secrets of Toyota’s success and its future challenges.
