MGN565 Student Guide to Change Management Strategies in the Automotive Industry

Introduction                                                  

This document is a consultation and change management report, focusing on Toyota Australia, highlighting the gaps of Toyota Australia with respect to the expected revolution of the future automotive industry. This report provides a change management plan for Toyota Australia to help the organisation prepare itself for the upcoming dynamic transformation of the automotive industry in the future based on the changing environmental needs and customer demands. Initially, the report has conducted a brief current state of the organisation, discussed the future desired state for the organisation and provided a vision for change. Later, the report presents some relevant interventions and a tailored change management and implementation plan to help Toyota Australia transform and prepare itself based on future needs. 

Case study (implication) description                                                     

Based on the future foreseeable report, it has been analysed that the automotive industry is expected to be driven by exceptional technological advancements due to the changing needs of consumers and increasing attention and interests of the people towards environmental protection and sustainability. Toyota Australia is a well-known automotive company in Australia, providing a range of durable and reliable vehicles while keeping in mind the concept of sustainability and innovation (Toyota Australia, n.d.). According to recent statistics, it has been analysed that the volume of sales of Toyota Australia has declined in the past years, as 171 thousand vehicles were sold in Australia in 2019, however, the number of sales of Toyota vehicles in 2018 was 182 thousand (Hughes, 2023). According to the research, people are now demanding autonomous technology-driven self-driving vehicles which meet the technologically evolving needs of consumers and are environmentally safe (Miller, 2020). Artificially intelligent cars are now expected to rule in the future, which if considered by Toyota Australia can make the organisation highly competitive in the future. The future forecast analysis suggests, that Toyota Australia should invest in autonomous artificially intelligent cars which not only comfort humans but also comfort the environment as it will be high in demand in the future. People will reduce buying and owning cars and will prefer to switch to the use of artificially intelligent cars due to leisure and peaceful driving experiences (Lehtonen et al., 2022). Therefore, this is high time for Toyota Australia to either manage and bring change and prepare itself to cash the upcoming profitable opportunities in the future or to keep the current state maintained and later survive to compete in the furniture. 

Situation assessment

To make the transition towards autonomous cars easy and highly adaptive, the 7S diagnosis model would be the best choice to identify the gaps between the current state of the organisation and the expected future state as it has been widely used across organisations as an assessment tool (Demir & Kocaoglu, 2019). This will help in forming a strategy or choosing interventions accordingly. The framework will focus on seven key areas necessary to assess in order to bring change effectively and to address gaps. These key areas include structure, systems, style, staff, skills, strategy and shared values. Below is the situation assessment for Toyota Australia using the 7S model.