> When the VW emissions thing started making its way through the news cycle, I read comments postulating that this might be the end of VW. Hah - people are goin

> When the VW emissions thing started making its way through the news cycle, I read comments postulating that this might be the end of VW. Hah - people are going to forget about VW just like they forget about everything else. It wasn't the end of Toyota, and it won't be the end of VW; but it was the end of Toyota's goal to be the Biggest Car Company in the World[1][2], and it may be the end of VW's goal to be the Biggest Car Company in the the World. Being #1 volume vehicle manufacturer is a curse! 1. https://hbr.org/2007/07/lessons-from-toyotas-long-drive https://hbr.org/2007/07/lessons-from-toyotas-long-drive - Interestingly, in this article Mr Watanabe claims that Toyota never had the goal to be the biggest car company. 2. http://www.economist.com/node/15576506 http://www.economist.com/node/15576506 - James Womack, one of the authors of “The Machine that Changed the World”, a book about Toyota's innovations in manufacturing, dates the origin of its present woes to 2002, when it set itself the goal of raising its global market share from 11% to 15%. Mr Womack says that the 15% target was “totally irrelevant to any customer” and was “just driven by ego”. According to Mr Womack, the requirement to expand its supply chain rapidly “meant working with a lot of unfamiliar suppliers who didn't have a deep understanding of Toyota culture.” Disclosure - I work for GM, these opinions are my own, etc.