Strangely, it was
hard to get Jim Press to talk about cars.
That sentence opens Richard Ducote’s opinion piece on
Toyota’s head honcho for the Arizona Daily Star. Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, was speaking at the
University of Arizona, where he had been named 2006 Executive of the Year.
Press didn’t pitch Toyota
and its products to the crowd. Instead, he discussed how a company that understands and respects its employees and
customers will bring its own success. His own story illustrated this view: Press joined Toyota from Ford Motor Co. back
in 1970 when his boss (who also joined the then-fledging Japanese automaker) said it was a good place to work. Press was
admittedly keen to point out how development on Toyota’s hybrid technology systems began in the 1990s (when
gasoline prices were relatively low), a program at least partially motivated by figuring out ways to make society a
better place.
“I immediately saw that it (hybrids) was the right thing for our company to do for the
future,” said Press.
Perhaps a bit of a puff p.r. piece, Ducote’s Press story nevertheless provides an interesting bit of background on
the Toyota bigwig.
[Source: Arizona Daily Star]