Long TM

When Emily sat down with us and decided how to invest her bat mitzvah money (some to charity, some to t-bills, and some to stocks), she had two stocks she wanted to own, Apple Computer and Toyota Motor. Apple was obvious. She had watched Jessica make 5x on her money in two years and wanted to join that party. Toyota (TM) was less obvious. A car company?

Yes, but not just any car company. The car company that is eating Detroit's lunch. The car company that has the best hybrid engine platform in the world. The car company that makes the Prius for people like me and the Scion for people like Emily.

We liked her choice and went for it. She bought Toyota at the end of the summer at just over $100/share.

Since then the stock is up >15% to its closing price of $117/share. Emily's off to a good start.

So back at the start of the month, when I read Bob Lefsetz' post on Scion and why their marketing is so brilliant, I took it home for Emily to read. She liked it.

And then I sent it on to Wallstrip. Lindsay liked it so much she turned it into a show. Check it out:

Comments

[Dimitar Vesselinov]

Matthew May/The Elegant Solution Interview
"Toyota's growing dominance in the automotive sector is not by luck or chance. Much has been written about the company's operations and the Toyota Production System. What has been missing is a book that describes what Toyota's management philosophy and innovation is at the heart of that."
http://800ceoread.com/podcasts/archives/006540.html

Information Technology at Toyota
http://www.shmula.com/205/information-technology-at-toyota

[HB]

The Wallstrip piece is brilliant - and fantasitc marketing on Howard Lindzon's part. Looking forward to reading Bob's response to this. Lefsetz will send plenty of traffic to Wallstrip.

[JEiden]

Two things:

1. I can't believe a car that looks like a mini armored car is so popular. Every time I see one, I think of a Brink's truck. I'm not saying I don't like it, it's that the style so closely resembles armored cars.

2. There is a book about Toyota's Management Philosophy and Innovation. The book is called "The Reckoning" - by David Halberstam.

This book was required reading at the College of Business at Northern Illinois University back in 1987. The book profiles the rise of Japanese Automakers and the decline of US Automakers. It delves deep. It start with the beginnings of Ford Motor company and goes all the way to the fall of Delorean.

The book also profiles how Japanese Automakers rose through the ashes of WWII with help from General MacArthur who help reestablish an economic climate for Japan to rebuild itself, and goes into detail about Edward Deming (sp).

The book uses interviews from the players in the industry from Lee Iacocca to Robert McNamara.

The book details how Honda went from Motorcycles to cars, and how the VW Beetle was phased out in the US, but continued to flourish in Latin America.

This is the definitive book on the auto industry and give you the insight into how these companies rose and fell and what makes them tick.

Did you know Japanese corporations have 100 year long term plans? While US Companies consider 5 year plans long term.

[KG]

Though I came to your blog to read about the internet biz, I'm really enjoying your parenting stories the most lately.

This one, and the one about planning the Italy trip, are really inspiring. We can't wait until our son is old enough to participate in planning family travels. Very fun!

[Timothy Appnel]

Brilliant clip. Any video clip that uses a track from the Peter Gunn soundtrack scores major points.

[Paul Lightfoot]

I bought a Prius last January largely because I had fallen in love with Toyota as a company. I love the Kaizen philosophy (a) constant incremental improvement and (b) of generating ideas for improvement from within (welling up from the ranks).

I love the car by the way. Lots of people buy cars becaue of what it says about them, which I suppose would probably include me to some degree. It tells my clients and employees that I'm all about efficiency and I'm not pretentious.

[jackson]

Well....

Hate cars.

Hate Bob.

Love Wallstrip.

Maybe I'm too old, un-hip, whatever, but the Scion is the ugliest car I have ever seen. I see them everywhere and ask myself why anyone would want one.

Toyota's marketing methods are interesting, too bad all that time and money is being spent on products that are killing our planet.

That being said:

Love the Mustang!

[Stan]

ditto on the Mustang - esp that new Giugiaro concept version - talk about HOT!

Of course, I'd never actually invest in Ford. Toyota, on the other hand, is a great company. Out of curiosity though, I went to look at the price of the stock and analyst opinion on Yahoo! Finance. The price is $119 with a target of $140. When I look at the analyst opinion, I see that, for the most part, there is really on one analyst following the company - Banc of America??

Not that I give analyst opinions that much credence, but why would such a large company as Toyota Motors, with a 192B market cap, be followed by only one research analyst?

Any answers?