Team Toyota takes "Start Your Impossible" to global stage at PyeongChang 2018
18-Feb-2018
Taking its ambitious "Start Your Impossible" movement to a new level, Toyota Motor Corporation, a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games, has supported more than 50 athletes from 20 countries who are competing at PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games. As they strive to skate, ski and sled their way to victory, the Team Toyota athletes will embody the company’s global corporate initiative, which envisions the creation of a more inclusive and sustainable society in which everyone can challenge their impossible.
The true challenge for Toyota and its President and CEO Akio Toyoda is to stimulate the 80-year-old company by reinforcing its core values and inspiring its 370,000 worldwide employees to help create a society where mobility is an opportunity for people to achieve their dreams. Sports are an excellent medium to accomplish this, with events like the Olympic Games uniting the world in friendship and solidarity to celebrate the highest realization of human potential.
"I have a profound respect for sports, which have a unique power to offer hope and purpose and inspire us all to never give up," said Akio Toyoda, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation.
"It is exciting to watch athletes from all over the world compete on a level playing field, where anything can happen. This concept, when carried over to society, means a place where everyone can participate and contribute, where people turn their weaknesses into strengths with optimism and a fighting spirit―and a strong and determined desire to improve and be better."
Additionally, Toyota has built relationships with athletes around the world in different disciplines. While selecting the Team Toyota, which includes Toyota employees who have been training and practicing at the highest level while working at the company in Japan, the company, its affiliates, and distributors around the world looked for individuals that best reflect Toyota's core values. These values include: be caring, be a natural challenger, represent the kaizen spirit (a Japanese tereminology for continuous improvement), have a love of learning and be curious, be honest with strong work ethic, be a team player, be accountable, be humble and thankful, and respect others.
Some of the athletes shared their personal stories at the Toyota Mobility Summit held in Athens, Greece in October last year, while others are featured in a video series that is part of the "Start Your Impossible" initiative. The company has plans to launch new videos and television commercials during the events of PyeongChang 2018.
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