A ‘Hot Mic’ Incident Just After Toyota Introduced Its New CEO Reveals An Endearingly Human Exchange

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Corporations, despite their legal standing in America, are not people. Yet, if you capture one and carefully carve it open, you’ll discover that the company is, in fact, made up of people — many, many people, and that includes CEOs and bigwigs who get their names thrown around in the news and talked about in contexts of thousands of jobs or billions of dollars or massive numbers of cars. They’re still human beings, and as human beings they’re as fallible and vulnerable and petty and wonderful and insecure and giddy and that whole rushing sewer of human emotions as any of us are. The other day, we were treated to a rare and unique glimpse of this as Toyota held a press conference to introduce its new CEO, Koji Sato, former head of both Lexus and Toyota’s GAZOO Racing Company. Sato gave a speech, but it’s what happened right afterwards that made this interesting. Like so many interesting things that happen at press conferences, it starts with a forgotten hot microphone.

Happily, the clip was recorded and translated so we can all enjoy this bit of unplanned, unscripted humanity:

It’s not exactly an Earth-shattering exchange, but I personally find it strangely endearing; Sato gave his speech, and afterwards current and soon to be former CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, jumped in to tell him he should have smiled during his speech. Sato admitted he was nervous, Toyoda said just adding that smile would have been perfect, and they both laughed, like, you know, humans do.

There’s something good about knowing that the CEO of one of the biggest carmakers on the planet gets nervous before talking, and can get razzed for looking too somber by his peers. Really, if Toyota wanted to engender some goodwill for their new leadership, they really couldn’t have done it any better. I don’t speak Japanese, but I can recognize genuine relief and camaraderie when I hear it.

Professionalism is important, sure, but so is vulnerability and honesty and just remembering that, fundamentally, most of us are just trying to do the best we can, as often as we can. Deep down, we’re all goofballs.

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Mercedes Streeter

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11 thoughts on “A ‘Hot Mic’ Incident Just After Toyota Introduced Its New CEO Reveals An Endearingly Human Exchange”

  3. Maybe I’m just too cynical, but how long until we see another “accidental” hot mic that just so happens to accomplish a marketing goal as well?

  4. I don’t know what else Sato-san has done at Toyota, but this promotion is a big one. In addition to taking over a position held by the company’s namesake. No issue with being nervous. Good to hear the laughter.

    1. This wasn’t the usual press conference hot mike flub: the announcement was for Toyota Times, Toyota’s in-house news website. They also use it in ad slots on the TV, and it is generally light-hearted in tone.
      https://toyotatimes.jp/

      The off-camera exchange was for real but obviously left in on purpose, for exactly the reasons Jason points up, reducing the impression of a monolithic corporation moving entirely on its own momentum, and a funny and subtle way to make customers feel more connected to the brand.

      Now just wait for another brand to try something similar and produce something cringe-inducing instead.

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