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

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:

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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.

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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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stefthepef
1 year ago

SMH, some dudes always gotta butt in to tell you to smile more.

Thad
Thad
1 year ago

Thank you Jason for posting this. It warmed my cockles.

tomgabriele
tomgabriele
1 year ago

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?

Father_Bartholomew
Father_Bartholomew
1 year ago

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.

Editz
Editz
1 year ago

There’s still going to be an audio person looking for another gig.

sonofLP500
sonofLP500
1 year ago
Reply to  Editz

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.

Happy Walters
Happy Walters
1 year ago
Reply to  sonofLP500

They are good at light-hearted! Tim Cook would have rehearsed this another 18 times and sucked every last heartbeat out of it.

https://youtu.be/M3C07uxyaWQ?t=595

Vanillasludge
Vanillasludge
1 year ago
Reply to  Happy Walters

Waiving a flag…very….very…slowly….

Justin Short
Justin Short
1 year ago

A CEO that is humble and experienced, it must be March 32nd!

A. Barth
A. Barth
1 year ago

That is much, much nicer than what normally makes the news in these situations…

TomMetcalf
TomMetcalf
1 year ago
Reply to  A. Barth

It certainly is. I don’t think I have ever heard a hot mic incident reported that wasn’t embarrassing or bad.

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