Q&A with Wil James, new president of Toyota's Georgetown plant

It's a homecoming of sorts for Georgetown's largest employer. Toyota recently named Wil James president of its Georgetown manufacturing plant, its largest in North America and the place where he began his career with the automaker in 1987.

James replaces Steve St. Angelo, who was promoted to chairman to allow him to concentrate more on his duties as chief quality officer for North America.

James left the Georgetown plant in 2006 for various positions, most recently as senior vice president of Toyota's plant in Princeton, Ind. He took time last week to speak with the Herald-Leader about his return to Georgetown, thoughts on the plant's future and how Toyota has dealt with recalls throughout the year.

Question: Tell me about your previous time at the Georgetown plant and what skills and philosophies you took away from your time there.

Answer: "I've learned a lot over the 23 years I've been with Toyota. I'd say there are maybe three key points.

"One is learning the value of long-term thinking and how to make very clear plans to achieve our objectives.

"Secondly, having the plan is fine, but you have to also have great communications and be able to involve the team members into the plans that you need to execute. They need to buy in to where you want to go and understand what it's all about.

"Finally, I learned pretty clearly that people don't really care what you know until they know that you care. I put a lot of special emphasis on what it means to be a member of the Toyota family and show them at every opportunity how much we care about them and need them for our mutual long-term success."

Q: As Toyota's largest yet oldest North American manufacturing facility, how do you see the Georgetown plant fitting into the company's future?

A: "By far, we're the largest plant with capability of volume and the largest plant in terms of team members. We're the only plant with an engine plant, vehicle plant and two lines all on the the same site.

"In addition to that, we have almost 25 years of experience. ... The (Georgetown-built) Camry is the best-selling car in North America and has been for a number of years, adding to the criticality of the Georgetown plant. ... We're also the mother plant for our plant down in Baja, Mexico. We're the supporting plant for our Subaru plant in Indiana." (Toyota owns a stake in Subaru's parent company and builds Camrys at that plant). "We were also recently named as mother plant for the one being built in Mississippi.

"Our Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky resources really have to be able to handle the needs of our activities here but also be integrally involved in the success of those three other sites as well. We're a pretty key player in the Toyota group not only in North America but globally as well."

Q: This job has become a stepping stone of sorts for your predecessors. Gary Convis retired only to become the CEO of auto supplier Dana. Steve St. Angelo was tapped for the high-profile position of Toyota's chief quality officer for North America. What are your expectations coming into this position knowing to where others advance?

A: "I've been very fortunate to work under some of the best of the best in Toyota. ... I've learned a lot from all of them, but TMMK is where I started 23 years ago and this is where my heart is.

"I was really, really excited to come back here and serve in the role of president. My focus right now is to work on making TMMK to be the best plant it can possibly be.

"The future will be decided by someone else. ... Right now, my energy is focused all on Georgetown."

Q: What do you think has been the greatest lesson you've learned as Toyota has dealt with the effects of this year's recalls, and how do you plan to convey that lesson to your workforce?

A: "We believe that one of the most critical things that came out of this is we as a company really needed to take some major steps to become more responsible about listening to the needs and concerns of our customers. ... We have shared this with our team members from the beginning. ... We started communicating to them early and regularly about what's going on with the company and our plan to work our way through this."

Toyota CEO "Akio Toyoda made it clear when he was in front of Congress we had a six-point improvement plan to turn this around. The company is focused on those, and that's what we share with our team members."

This story was originally published October 4, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Q&A with Wil James, new president of Toyota's Georgetown plant."