Shoichiro Toyoda (1): Founding principles

The roots of Toyota Motor Corporation and the Toyota group of companies can be traced back to an invention by my grandfather, Sakichi Toyoda: an automatic power loom. Japan was a relatively poor country at the time, and Sakichi devoted his life to the development of weaving devices that brought the potential for greater prosperity. With the help of his son, Kiichiro, and his employees -- and after much trial and error -- he created an automatic loom called the Type G in the 1920s.