TOYOTA MEDIA SERVICE

I wish to create a new business by feeling an idea from the workplace through my own five senses.
Shigeki Tomoyama President

Shigeki Tomoyama was born in 1958. He is one of the founders of Toyota Media Service along with Mr. Akio Toyoda, the senior advisor at Toyota.
Originally, his expertise was not in the IT business; he was involved with KAIZEN instructions based on the “Toyota Production System”, and undertook many KAIZEN activities that range from the production line to the dealership.
As such, Tomoyama and his colleagues’ long-held KAIZEN know-how cultivated onsite is woven into the systems and applications provided by Toyota Media Service.
Toyota Media Service’s policy “To be a KAIZEN man before being a business man” is backed up by his own experiences in which he would contact customers directly by himself and expand the business with creativity and his ability to execute.

Many of you may ask, “What kind of business does Toyota Media Service do?” When asked, we say, “We operate the Toyota’s Consumer Internet businesses, such as ‘GAZOO’ and ‘G-BOOK’.” Some of you may nod and say “Oh!” Now, why is it that Toyota Media Service has the name “Media” in its corporate name even though it’s not a broadcast station?

Throughout the 3 times we have changed our company name--Gazoo Media Service to Digital Media Service to Toyota Media Service--the word “Media” has been consistently used. That’s because we wish to be a company that provides “Media” rather than being merely an IT company or a Network company.
Unlike an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or TV station, we wish to be the media that connects manufacturers, distributors, and users organically in order to create new styles of businesses.

What’s required of media is to “convey.”
For example, to convey a manufacturer’s aspiration to a dealership, a dealership’s aspiration to a user, and a user’s aspiration to a manufacturer.
The reason why we’ve been promoting businesses that connect users, dealerships, and the manufacturer by fully utilizing Web, e-CRB, or G-Book is to carry out our responsibility to “convey.” as media.

And needless to say, the “Genchi-Genbutsu” policy is the most important in this.
Everybody at job sites, including engineers, sales staff, and call center operators have aspirations that they would like to convey.
However, these cannot be seen if we remain at our desks.
That’s why all of us, from top management to staff, visit actual job sites on foot, and experience and feel these aspirations with our five senses to propose practical systems or operations for onsite activities.
We, ourselves, would like to be the media that is able to create new businesses by connecting ‘people with people’ and ‘people with the community’.