Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: Hello, I'm Matthias Cooler, the current CEO of Volkswagen Group. I've worked in Audi and was the CEO of Porsche before taking up this position.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: You may have not heard my name before, but I'm Toronto Saikawa, the CEO of Nissan. Our group also owns Infiniti and Datsun, and has strong alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Hello, I am Melon Tusk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and a responsible citizen of this planet; committed to environmental change and sustainable development through use of technology.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Friends, there's a lot of history here. VW is a company before the World War era, and Toyota goes back to the 19th century. Melon is the only first-generation entrepreneur here.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Does it matter, Toronto? We're all making our mark in the world in different ways. VW and Nissan are calling back vehicles, Toyota is focusing on quality while Tesla is coming up with awesome things no one else could give the world before.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: I'm not answering that comment, but yes - there is history, Toronto. Sakichi Toyoda left his father's carpentry business to focus on building a handloom powered by oil. He couldn't stand the pain his mother was taking to create cloth.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: Just a minute, Akio - you mispronounced your founder and ancestor's name. You said Toyoda with a 'd' instead of 'Toyota'.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Thanks Matthias, for assuming that the Japanese are idiots to make such silly mistakes. His family name is Toyoda, and so was the company when it started. Sakichi was brilliant and finally patented Japan's first power loom - a design which others adopted later.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Ha! Asian companies really surprise me. Samsung started with selling groceries and now we hear that Toyota started off with textiles. Akio, when did Toyota even get into automobiles?

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Don't be surprised Melon, we've grown despite being the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons. And America can take a little credit for Toyota motors. After being forced to resign from his own company, Sakichi toured Europe and America. He was flabbergasted by western technological applications but cars interested him the most.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: I've heard that in 1920s, Toyoda sold their patent for 1 million yen and started an automobile division. What was he waiting for until then?

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Umm Matt, the government started offering incentives to create Japanese cars. Toyoda made his son promise that the money earned from patent would be used for this purpose. Having seen American manufacturing, he was confident that the family could do it.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Right, Toronto. Things were moving pretty fast. 1932 was the prototype, 1935 saw production and 1937 had the automobile division being set up as an independent company.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Good lord! So that was the motivation to make cars - nationalism?

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Primarily, yes. We wanted to make cars cheaper than Ford or General Motors.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: Definately. No one should dream small. But I still haven't understood - why use T instead of D then? Why not have Toyoda as the brand name?

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: I would like to explian you, Matthias. In Japanese, Toyoda means fertile paddy field. Is that a good name for a car company? Toyota on the other hand, when written in Japanese has eight brush strokes. 8 is a lucky number in our culture.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: That’s interesting, thanks Hiroto. But I'm sure that customers neither care about rice nor lucky numbers. They only want quality.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Melon, Toyota is synonymous with quality today. In the TV show Top Gear, a Toyota Hilux was run into a tree, drowned, put on fire, hit with a wreck ball, and demolished from the top of a building. The car was running even after all this.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Oh boy, it pains to say this, but Toyota's obsession with quality is unparalleled. 85% of the cars they've sold in the last 20 years are still on the road. That's incredible!

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Don't get me wrong, I wasn't sarcastic Toronto. I only meant that you've delivered quality. I have a friend who hasn't added engine oil to his Corolla since the time he bought it and it's still working fine. Of course, he wishes to upgrade to Tesla now since its environmentally friendly.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: Stop with this discussion on quality! I'm more interested in learning from the company's growth journey. What happened after the company launched cars?

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: It went all smooth, Matthias. Multiple production plants were set across the country. And the company almost courted bankruptcy due to many failures in World War II period.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: There always is a twist in the tale, isn't there Akio? Toyota would have been a memory had it not been for the Americans again.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: I'm assuming that the US sales helped the company stay afloat. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: You know nothing, Melon Tusk! The offshore sales weren't doing good, either. In one year, Toyota only sold 300 cars in the US. Production was cut back and the staff was laid off. There was a two-month strike. It was the Korean war which turned tables. USA ordered 5000 vehicles for the war.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: And this contract managed to bring Toyota back into the picture. While working, we understood that due to good processes, American workers are 9x productive than the Japanese. So after streamlining, we went all guns blazing in the American market.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: Well Akio, did the Americans like your products?

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Nope. The efficient cars on Japanese roads were inefficient on American roads. They heated up, stopped and demanded more fuel. All this made owning Toyota expensive - both for the equity holders as well as customers.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Actually Matthias, Toyota was only doing well in Asian markets. It was the oil crisis of the 1970s which gave Toyota another chance in foreign markets. People wanted smaller, fuel-efficient cars which American manufacters couldn't provide. Toyota ended up becoming the market leader and hasn't looked back since.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: But VW beat Toyota as the largest car manufacturers this year. We produced 10.3 million cars.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: I know the numbers, Matthias. Toyota was just behind you with 10.1 and General Motors was at 9.8 million. On the other hand, Toyota Corolla has sold over 44 million pieces and is the best car in the world since 1997.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: But we beat it to the first spot after 3 years. Toyota is gradually declining, Melon.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Don't make the mistake of assuming that, Matthias. They have operations in 170 countries - more than McDonald's or Coca Cola. It means they are putting cars even where people couldn't put food. And they have manufacturing plants in more than 27 countries.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Let’s look at numbers, too. Their net worth is $171.8 billion. Their annual revenue was $248 billion last year and made $20.3 billion in profits. VW had a $123 billion revenue but only $2.2 billion in profits! That's just 2% efficiency.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Exactly my thoughts. That's what happens when you cheat the regulators by faking emission tests, Volkswagen! Learn something. Be responsible.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Akio, stop being so cocky. You may be making more, but don't forget that the VW Group is an auto manufacturer. Toyota owns Lexus, has stakes in Subaru, Isuzu, even Tesla! One of your subsidiaries has 334 companies under it. And your financial services arm is earning handsomely for you.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Wow, with so many sources of revenue, there's no doubt that you are the number one company in Japan by market capitalization. I hear that the distant second is only 50% of your value.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: What can we say, Melon? People love us. Toyota is the 8th most valuable brand in the world. Our Corollas alone have drove the distance of 50 round trips between the earth and sun. If you make them stand in a queue, you can circumvent the equator 5 times!

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: That's impressive, no doubt. The question is: how to get there? And how to stay there?

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: The founding Toyoda's had an ideology: they wanted to stop taking the easy path by picking up technology from the west. Hence they set up research laboratories.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: You're right, Hiroto. Precisely, research is the way to be alive and sustainable. Toyota may perhaps have the biggest research budget in the world. They invest $9 billion every year in research - that's around $1 million per hour.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: Yes Melon. We've also started philanthropic activities to give back to the society. We also have a Venture Capital fund for investment in Artifical Intelligence startups. We're planning to invest $1 billion over the next 5 years.

Matthias Cooler (CEO, Volkswagen) :
Volkswagen: That's all good stuff Akio, but why don't you talk a little about bad stuff now? Your entire 20-year project on hydrogen fuel cells is down in the drains.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Oh yes, when they launched their hydrogen cell car, I'd openly called their idea stupid. I still do. It was good that within 3 years of launch, they realized their mistake and cut back on production.

Toronto Saikawa (CEO, Nissan) :
Nissan: Precisely! Why would someone want to keep combustible fuel in their car when electric batteries are cheaper and safer, not to forget extremely easy to plug in and recharge.

Akio Yotoda (CEO, Toyota) :
CEO: No comments. The bottom line is, if a motivated young man can build the largest car manufacturer in the world, so can you. Don't stop working towards your dreams. Let's call it a day guys.