A HOLIDAY TWIST
An opulent lunch treat by Toyota Motor Philippines for select members of the Philippine motoring and business media yesterday served up a “surprise dish.”
The thanksgiving lunch, hosted by TMP chair Alfred Ty, was held at the penthouse level (66th floor) of the Grand Hyatt Manila. Ty thanked the media–editors, columnists, and reporters–for their “past and continuous support to TMP and the automotive industry.”
Before the short program began, a poignant moment of silence was observed to honor veteran automotive broadcaster Ray Butch Gamboa who recently passed on.
The choice of venue was fitting, as once more, Toyota lorded it over the competition, taking the lion’s share of a resurgent Philippine car market that sees industry sales breaching the pre-Covid (2019) mark of 410,000 by the end of 2023.
Of the projected 420,000 total industry sales by end 2023, TMP accounts for over 47 percent of that. That certainly deserves a P6,000 per plate, 5-course meal (at least for my vegan-restricted meal, it just cost half of that).
Ty broke the good news. “Personally, I am very encouraged that the Philippine automotive market will finally break through pre-Covid levels. The estimates place the market at 420,000 units versus 410,000 in 2019. This is a very significant growth of 20 percent versus sales in 2022. Just as the WHO (World Health Organization) officially declared the Covid global health emergency to be over this year, so, too, can we say that the auto industry is now fully recovered from the pandemic.”
Of course, business is more than just selling. And I was relieved that TMP’s Toyota’s Nico Bravante and Josephine Villanueva were also on hand to update me on several operational and environmental aspects, the details of which I will share in future columns.
By the end of lunch, we all thought that all the info we needed to digest were also dished out. Turns out, TMP reserved its “bittersweet desserts” for last.
TMP president Atsuhiro Okamoto stood up and announced he would be ending his term by February next year.
The man mainly responsible for deftly steering TMP through the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is leaving the organization even stronger than ever.
Those four years (from 2019) “were the most exciting, most impressive, most memorable, most unforgettable experience,” he said.
Okamoto-san will be succeeded by TMP senior vice president Masando Hashimoto.
I had the chance to catch up with Okamoto-san before he left. I asked him how much of his leadership through those Covid years was through his own initiative. He responded: “At the time, we remember, there was a strong, cheerful message from Japan—from the Toyota Motor Corp. side–Akio Toyoda sent a strong message for all distributors in the world: ‘family takes care of family.’ That was very impressive. There was also another message: ‘The automotive industry requires leadership to help the economy recover from the pandemic.’ Akio truly believed in our potential to recover, to initiate the recovery.”
Okamoto-san took these messages very seriously, as he kept the “ship of sales” steady. He was amply recognized for his efforts, as TMC extended his supposedly three-year tenure in Manila for another year.
This doesn’t mean that TMP didn’t take a hit during the worst phases of the pandemic. By end 2020, TMP sold only 99,545 cars, a nosedive compared to the 161,385 units sold the year before.
In 2021, TMP gained some momentum when it sold 129,099 units. By the end of 2022, the road to recovery was straight and true, as TMP sold 174,106 units. Along the way, TMP achieved its 2-million unit sales milestone since it began operations in 1988.
It was also during Okamoto-san’s watch that the most number of hybrid models were introduced to the public, paving the way for the rise of electrified vehicles in the country’s mobility consciousness. Today, Toyota offers the hybrid Zenix, Alphard, Yaris Cross, Altis, Corolla Cross, RAV4 and Camry. And this doesn’t include the Lexus battery electric vehicles that are projected to be rolled out very soon as well (for starters, Lexus RZ 450e is already here).
Okamoto-san admits, however, that he has unfinished business in the Philippines. And it’s not in showrooms and corporate offices, but on the greens.
An avid golfer, Okamoto-san has played on 21 of the 25 “best golf courses in the Philippines” that Inquirer Mobility/Motoring editor Jong Arcano listed on the special 25th anniversary commemorative issue of Inquirer Golf which he also heads. Okamoto intends to play on all of them. Well, those are four good reasons to come back to the Philippines sooner rather than later.
The name “Okamoto” may have different meanings, depending on how it’s written. But generally, it can refer to “hill” or “mountain” or any elevated land. Well, the game of golf is in his name, then.
It also means Okamoto-san was able to elevate the Toyota brand, and inspire and motivate his tireless team (pun not intended) to make the climb from rock- bottom to the summit of sales.
