Toyota Motor Corporation And The Two: Global Gap Analysis And Labor Productivity Benchmarks Published

Market Wire, 20050229

ICON FINANCIAL ADVISORY SERVICES, LLC (IFAS), a Registered Investment Adviser (CRD# 119-292), today released two of the most comprehensive studies to date on vertical gap analysis and labor productivity benchmarks for Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM).

According to Aaron Freeman, President of IFAS, "We created these reports in response to two inescapable trends: a return to fundamentals and globalization." The goal of these reports is to assist consultants, financial managers, strategic planners, and corporate officers in gauging indicators of Toyota Motor Corp.'s financial and human resource structure.

Drawing on the expertise of Professor Philip M. Parker of INSEAD (Fontainbleau, France and Singapore), IFAS has benchmarked Toyota Motor Corp. against competing firms in the Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies Manufacturing industry worldwide-going beyond traditional methods of company benchmarking. The results are two specialized reports: (1) global financial benchmarks using common-size statement ratios (vertical analysis), and (2) labor-productivity and utilization measures collected across borders. Parker notes, "With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of barriers to entry, it becomes all the more important to benchmark a company's financial indicators on a worldwide basis."

Freeman states, "We are intrigued by the wide variations in basic financial and productivity measures between Toyota Motor Corp. and other Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies Manufacturing companies. The pre-tax margin, for example, varied from 28.34 to (2.04) within the group"

What? : The Coverage of the Reports

Two reports, financial ratios and labor productivity ratios, are available for Toyota Motor Corp.. Each report reveals productivity and industry ranks for companies in the Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies Manufacturing industry. Reports for 40 of Toyota Motor Corp.'s competitors in Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies Manufacturing are also available including:

Audi AG, Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft, Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd., Daimlerchrysler AG, Decoma International Inc., Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche AG, Fiat Spa, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd., Indus Motors Co. Ltd., Johnston Group PLC, Mazda Motor Corp., Nissan Shatai Co. Ltd., Peugeot S.A., Regie Nationale Des Usines Renault Societe Anonyme, Rosenbauer International AG, Scania AB, Spartan Motors Inc., Trigano, Volkswagen AG, Western Star Truck Holdings Ltd., and Yulon Motor Co. Ltd.

The reports answer such questions as: How has Toyota Motor Corp.'s asset structure varied compared to global benchmarks for the Motor Vehicles and Passenger Car Bodies Manufacturing industry? Does it generally hold more cash and other short-term assets, or does it tend to concentrate its assets in physical plant and equipment? On the liability side, does Toyota Motor Corp. typically have a higher percent of payables compared to the benchmarks, or does it hold a higher concentration of long-term debt? Does Toyota Motor Corp. have a relatively higher cost of goods sold, operating costs, or income taxes compared to global benchmarks? Have Toyota Motor Corp.'s returns on equity been higher or its profit margins greater? What has been the ratio of short-term and long-term assets to employee? What are typical capital-labor ratios? What are the average sales and net profits per employee compared to global benchmarks?

How? : The IFAS Methodology

Most vertical analyses merely focus on benchmarking against domestic ratios, often published by government agencies or commercial sources. In contrast, IFAS calculates thousands of industry norms by looking at firms at the global level, pooling statistics on tens of thousands of companies across over 40 countries, and applying a seven-stage methodology: (1) identification of industry classifications, (2) firm-level data collection and aggregation, (3) standardization of raw statistics, (4) filtering outliers, (5) calculation of global norms, (6) projection of deviations and gaps, and (7) projection of ranks and percentiles. For each part of the financial statement, the larger structural differences and gaps between Toyota Motor Corp. and the global benchmarks are provided with summary tables of ranks and percentiles.

Previously available only through booksellers such as Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Hoovers, two studies are now available direct from the publisher at a 50% discount off the cover price. This special offer includes Vertical Analysis and International Financial Benchmarks and Labor Productivity, Utilization and Global Benchmarks at US$ 199.90 ($99.95 each). Fax, 858-546-4341 or write iconsubs@san.rr.com, for more information.

About IFAS

IFAS assists managers with global benchmarking, gap analysis, and productivity studies. Clients can create their own benchmarks by choosing their competitors from among over 20,000 companies.