For Andrew Kirby, Toyota SA CEO, it’s all about living the brand

One of the saddest – and ultimately, short-lived – slogans in South African advertising history was the one which proclaimed that “braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies” would forever be associated with Chevrolet. Chev who? Exactly.

In reality, the vehicle brand which has become woven into the very fabric of South African society is still here. And it’s going to be here for a long, long time. Definitely even longer than one of its legendary Hilux bakkies lasts.

Toyota is the best of what South Africa, and South Africans, can be. It doesn’t put on airs and graces. It is solid. When you need it to come through for you, it will.

And Andrew Kirby, the CEO of Toyota SA, is just that sort of guy, too. He worries, slightly, that we might want him to put on a tie for the photograph. We don’t. It would seem out of place.

Kirby, a trained mechanical engineer, says Toyota, both in this country and globally, is very much a company where “managers have to go down and see what is going on” … and ties and getting hands dirty don’t mix.

Toyota’s approach to its business is rooted in its philosophy of kaizen (Japanese for continuous improvement) and to its belief in its people. It’s a way of doing business and implementing industrial production which aims at efficiency and lean outcomes. It is also one which looks to find solutions rather than apportion blame, says Kirby.

That appeals to the engineer in him, which is driven by facts and logic.

His father was a production manager for Ford in Port Elizabeth, where Andrew was born and where he learnt to drive and to tinker with cars. His first was a hand-me-down 1600 Ford Escort, which he used to experiment with modifications to the suspension, the timing…

After doing his engineering degree at UCT, Kirby naturally found his way into the auto business, beginning with BMW, a brand for which he still has a soft spot … you can see that in the smile which comes over his face when he talks about a beloved second-hand BMW 323 Coupe he once drove.

After joining Toyota, he did virtually everything, from factory floor to showroom floor. He experienced the entire business, from parts logistics to service, as well as marketing and brand management.

He says, in a somewhat abashed way, that, for an engineer, he took like a duck to water when he was involved in marketing. If you ask me, business might be better all round if more people who understand, and love, the products they are involved with, get involved in marketing them.

His career included a stint in the USA for three years as well as two and a half years living and working in Japan – and this was clearly life-changing.

Kirby’s respect for the Japanese grew. He loves the fact that the philosophy of the parent company has been adopted so well by the SA company.

Toyota was originally owned by the Wessels family and it was “old man” Albert Wessels who did the original hard yards to sell the Japanese brand to sceptical South Africans in the 1960s, when they were driving “Yank tanks” and British badly-assembled rubbish.

The place Toyota now enjoys as the best-selling vehicle brand in South Africa – a position which has, interestingly, only got better as the competition has grown and become more varied – is built on its legendary reliability. And, probably, that it is regarded as indigenous, not foreign.

“It’s important that we show our commitment – our leader is South African and so is our management team – in products and investment as well as people,” says Kirby.

Already, Toyota’s massive plant at Prospecton outside Durban churns out Hiluxes, Fortuners, Corolla Quests and Hino trucks for the local market and for export. And, recently, Toyota SA announced a multibillion-rand investment to tool up at the factory to launch a new passenger vehicle in 2021. Kirby lets slip that there will be a hybrid version, running on fossil fuel and battery power.

“The future is going to be some form of electrical power – whether that be pure battery or hybrid,” says Kirby, although he notes that SA will not attain the sort of market penetration for pure electric cars of more developed markets for many years to come.

However, one of his regular cars is a Lexus (Toyota’s premium brand) SUV hybrid, so he walks the walk as well as talks the talk when it comes to green tech. “You’d be surprised to hear that 14% of new Lexus models sold in this country are hybrids,” he adds. So attitudes are changing.

When it comes to cars and the future, to Kirby’s mind anyway, is the fact that there are too many models and car brands available locally.

“That’s great for choice for the consumer. But the downside is that these small number of imports lose value really quickly. Also, for the motor industry to make its full contribution to the economy – creating jobs in factories and the supply chain – we need about 70% of cars sold here to be locally produced. At the moment it’s only 60%.”

Kirby plays a leading role in motor industry bodies and is one of the leading proponents of increasing local production. That reflects the Toyota long-term commitment to the country. It’s refreshing to hear and see that sort of optimism amid the general gloom, doom and despondency prevailing at the moment.

It also makes you wonder what this country might actually be like if we’d been able to apply a little bit of Toyota’s kaizen continuous improvement philosophy in other areas of our society.

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