Toyota to GM: "Need Help? Say the Magic Word."

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

“It’s not something we would bring up on our own, and we don’t know enough about the restructuring plan,” Toyota’s President Katsuaki Watanabe told a small group of reporters, one of them writing for Reuters. Ever so polite, they would never suggest something like that on their own. But . . . “If some talk about supporting GM comes up, we would like to consider it earnestly.” Fritz Henderson, two magic words: Tasukete kudasai. Help me, please.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • King Bojack King Bojack on Jun 01, 2009

    They crank out record profits to record losses and are still the typically polite assholes they've been for decades. Truly remarkable arrogance. The real reason Toyota doesn't want GM to fail has more to do with GM setting a price/quality floor. They say and act like they fear political backlash but their handful of US factories have every one so snowballed Tomoco doesn't have to care anymore. Maybe in the 80's but not today. Remember, you have to look underneath the underneath with Japanese business/political leaders because they sugar coat the shit outta everything. Perhaps once they start making crazy profits again they can go back to being smug as hell.

  • Stein X Leikanger Stein X Leikanger on Jun 02, 2009

    The operative part of Mr. Watanabe's statement is: "we don’t know enough about the restructuring plan" What he is saying is, there appears to be no plan.

  • Campisi Campisi on Jun 02, 2009
    My money is on carefully crafted insult. Agreed. Were Fritz to actually approach them for some sort of help (that didn't give Toyota an additional and enduring competitive advantage), I get the feeling that the response would be along the lines of "that would be difficult" (read: get lost).
  • Geo. Levecque Geo. Levecque on Jun 02, 2009

    GM would be stupid to get out of the Nummi Plant, they would have a chance to make good models with no engineering etc etc

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