Toyota Motor Corp. is assembling a crisis team in Washington, D.C., that includes lobbyists, lawyers and public relations experts to help it deal with the political fallout from a series of recalls, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Toyota officials are scheduled to testify Wednesday at the first of two U.S. House of Representatives committee hearings about how the company and federal regulators responded to questions about the safety of Toyota vehicles.
The newspaper, which doesn’t identify its sources, says Toyota has hired Washington-based public strategy firm Glover Park Group, which is run by a group of former advisers to President Bill Clinton. Glover Park confirms it has been retained. Toyota also is reportedly relying more heavily on one of its existing PR firms, New York City-based Robinson, Lerer & Montgomery, which assisted Tyco International and Adelphi Communications in handling crisis communications.
Toyota tells the Journal only that it has “beefed up” its legal, political and PR support team. The newspaper says staff and advisers are mapping out strategies in a “war room” at Toyota’s Washington offices. The Journal says plans include rallying the support of lawmakers from states where Toyota has plants: Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, Texas and West Virginia.
News reports say Toyota officials in Japan and the U.S. have skirmished about PR and political responses to the crisis. The Journal says Japanese executives previously overruled American managers who urged a more aggressive campaign of press conferences, advertising and lobbying.
The newspaper says Toyota executives in Japan suspect the uproar is a backlash against a successful Japanese company at a time when Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. are still recovering from trips through bankruptcy. The U.S. government’s 60.1% stake in GM has heightened suspicions in Japan about political favoritism.