• New York Times, Thursday, June 3, 2010 10:42 AM

Over at Toyota, which has been muddling through its own public relations fiasco, insiders claim that a new era has dawned, Micheline Maynard reports. For example, when the executive who heads the company's newly formed North American quality group went to Japan recently, he met directly with president Akio Toyoda, who said: "Tell me bad news first." In the past, Steve St. Angelo would have had to deal with a formidable chain of command, he says, and one gets the feeling that bad news was not necessarily welcome.

Other current and former executives, as well as others Maynard interviewed, confirm that Toyoda has begun to bridge the gap between the company's Japanese corporate culture and its most important market. For his part, Toyoda says that he is determined to prove Toyota again can be an innovative, fast-moving company. "These are the things we at Toyota had lost along the way," he says. "We will get some of that spirit back again."

The political big fish aren't biting yet, however. "From where I sit, nothing's changed," says Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.). "We will keep holding their feet to the fire."

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