Toyota Motor Corp. is considering drastically cutting the number of board members to make management more flexible, industry sources said.
The automaker is looking into a plan to reduce the board to a dozen members from the current 27 — chairman, two vice chairmen, president, six vice presidents, 15 senior managing directors and two directors, the sources said.
Behind the move are lessons Toyota learned when it delayed in responding to customers over massive recalls and suffered large deficits following the so-called Lehman shock in late 2008, according to the sources.