His family came to New Zealand for a new life – as incoming CEO of Toyota New Zealand, Neeraj Lala has a similar mission.

FROM JULY 1 Toyota New Zealand has a new chief executive –  Neeraj Lala, promoted from the position of chief operating officer, is just the fifth local at the helm in 50 years.

The only son of parents who emigrated from India to a new life in Wellington, Lala came to the country’s largest new passenger vehicle distributor in 1998, virtually directly from the capital’s Victoria University, where he’d gained a Bachelor of Commerce, taking up a role in the IT department.

Working for the brand, then based in Johnsonville and so an easy commute from the family home, was a dream come true for this lifelong car nut inspired, he acknowledges, by the ‘Welcome to Our World’ ad campaign, he imagined he might be there for a few years and then head overseas. 

It didn’t work out that way. Over the years, he has worked in most areas of the Toyota business including Marketing, New Vehicles, Product Planning, IT and Used Vehicles. In 2014, he completed an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA), finishing top in his class with Distinction from Massey University.
 
Since returning in 2018 from a three-year Executive Leadership programme with Toyota Motor Sales in the United States, Neeraj has been instrumental in driving transformational change at Toyota. The 45-year-old and his wife, Sandy, have also raised two daughters – now teenagers - and a younger son.

We sat down with the new boss to talk about his life and career path, his thoughts about where the car business is heading … and a little about his cars and his family.

MotoringNZ: What does it personally mean to have achieved the role of chief executive officer of the country’s largest new motor vehicle distributor?

Neeraj Lala: “As something I have worked long and hard for, for a long time, it means a huge amount to me. And to my family. We’ve all made quite big sacrifices. 

“It’s quite a humbling privilege to be given an opportunity to continue a really strong legacy built up by (retiring CEO) Alistair Davis, and Bob Field before him.”

MotoringNZ: You arrived at Toyota New Zealand in 1998 pretty much fresh from university and went straight into what was then a relatively fledgling IT department – back when this thing called the internet was still something of a foreign territory for even big brands. Did you see TNZ as the life-long home it’s become or was this supposed to be a transition toward a different kind of career? 

Lala: “I’ve always been a car nut and when I was a university student I wanted to work for Toyota, having been seduced by the ‘Welcome to Our World’ campaign. Toyota was always the only company I wanted to work for.

“I never applied for a job with any other company. I worked for the Radio Network for seven or eight months, but it was just a transition job while I was waiting for Toyota to reply to my application.

 “When I got the job I wasn’t aware the company was transitioning from Wellington.

“It was a bit of a shock when my wife and I moved to Palmerston North … we didn’t see Palmerston North as a long-term residence. We initially had the view we might stay here for maybe two years and join our friends, in the United Kingdom or in Australia. 

“But two years turned into four, into six, into 10 ….”

MotoringNZ: You’re from a humble family background; hardworking parents, brought up in a close-knit, proud community. Life lessons tend to influence; what values instilled from your early life that remain important to you? Also, does your rise give you thought to ponder about diversity in the workplace?

Lala: “Mum and dad, who still live in Wellington, came to New Zealand from India when they were teenagers. They migrated for a lot of reasons, including of course to give their kids a better life.

“My three older sisters – who now live in Auckland - and I were all born in Wellington.

“We were also of course quite heavily involved in the Indian community; it was really important to my parents and all of us. It’s a really tight-knit community and they have exceptionally high standards and work to keep the culture alive, though with every new generation there are always little changes.

“My dad wanted his kids to have their own businesses. He told me before I started at Toyota ‘a Japanese car company will never take an Indian seriously.’ And that was because his generation was exposed to a lot of racism. 

“That of course is a very traditional mindset but it is certainly not anything I have experienced or been exposed to. 

“When I was a kid I never saw my Maori mates, my Samoan mates, my European mates or my Chilean mates as being any different to me. In the playground we were one.

“It’s the same at work. If we had a cultural festival at Toyota New Zealand, I think we would have most cultures featuring.

“Even though diversity in the workplace is topical, I believe our process – not through intention or design – has just naturally attracted the best people, and the best people just happen to have a multitude of cultures and interests in their backgrounds. I think that is what makes this place pretty special.”

MotoringNZ: Toyota in New Zealand is as it is in Japan; a powerhouse. How does this ship sail – is strict adherence to head office corporate responsibilities and ideals expected; what allowance do you have to imprint your own aspirations? 

Lala: “One of the things that excited me about coming back from the US is the autonomy and the flexibility that TMC (Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan) provide TNZ with.

“In the US we had a Japanese co-ordinator in almost every division. But TMC see New Zealand as a dojo – an innovation hub – to trial new business processes and opportunities.

“That’s why we have had really strong interest and support for the ‘Drive Happy’ project. It’s a market where we can test and trail exciting new innovations and business models and then be an innovation hub, via TMC, to other distributors around the world.”

MotoringNZ: This is a carefully planned handover – it was clear more than a year ago that you were to be the next on the throne, as it were. All the same, history seems to conspire to ensure these changeovers occur during periods of challenge: Your predecessor assumed the job at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis, you are taking the reins during Covid-19 – does that add to the weight of responsibility.

Lala: “No …. 

 “ … it doesn’t.

“I have had a mentor (based in the US, Dave Oldfield), for 12 years, who I meet with and engage with, and I’ve had Alistair mentor me himself for more than 15 years.

“I knew before I went to the States that this (CEO role) was a likely opportunity, given that Alistair had a done a similar secondment. He mentioned to me early in my career that, because we’re such a small company, the cost of sending somebody overseas is such that you need to make sure than whoever you send is likely to be a successor. That, and when he asked me to undertake my MBA, were signals.

“So, anyway, it’s been a really long tail. When Covid hit I guess those 10 plus years of planning and preparation … well, I won’t say it was by any stretch of the imagination easy (to operate TNZ during lockdown) but the outputs of the training, the mentoring and the programming  … I’m left feeling we have navigated it extremely well. 

“The culture of our company has gone through the roof. The engagement has been unbelievable. And our start-up has been nothing short of exceptional.”

“So, I certainly don’t feel it as a burden. I feel it as an exciting opportunity.”

MotoringNZ: So come 8am, July 1, you’re in the big chair – what’s Job One and what are the immediate challenges facing Toyota NZ that you feel compelled to address?

 Lala: “I feel as there is an opportunity for us to really strengthen the core of our business, to serve our customers better. I know that may sound like a wishy-washy statement, but actually I think a one or two percent increase in every area of our business will give us a huge advantage, not just over out competition, but also to deliver our customers a far better experience.

“So the first job on day one is strengthening our core in areas of operational efficiency.”

MotoringNZ: It’s often said that when a brand is dominant, the only way to go is down – Toyota market share remains at a record high, but volume has diminished in recent years and Lexus has always been a quiet premium circle achiever. How confident are you that Toyota can remain the country’s most-loved car brand and what will keep it there?

Lala: “Actually, our market share has been as high as 24 percent so the fact that we’re currently at 20 percent tells me it’s low.

“I’m not so concerned about volume, because volume in the past has meant we’ve done things that we probably shouldn’t have. Did we over-invest in some channels over others? Possibly. But of course, it was done for a reason of feeding our value chain. I think there’s opportunities for us to grow our market share quite substantially, particularly with the new products we have coming over the next 18 months.

“What will keep us at number one is probably the experience at our stores around the country.

MotoringNZ: Your passion is for performance is obvious – your most recent daily drive cars have been a Lexus GS F and a Toyota Supra, you returned from a three-year stint with Toyota US with a Corvette ZO6 and you are a huge Gazoo Racing fan. Meantime, your predecessor, Alistair, is perhaps setting a different kind of standard … he drives a Lexus hybrid. Do you follow in his tyre tracks, keep up with the power play or find a happy medium.

Lala: (Laughing) “The first thing I’d say is Alistair’s a huge car guy and a real motorsport nut. You just look in his office; it’s ful of motorsport stuff. And our motorsport programme would not have got off the ground if it wasn’t for Alistair.

“So, while he is a tree-hugger, he’s a tree-hugger car enthusiast! He’s wanted to create his brand around sustainable and low emissions.

“My twist on that is that I see low emissions sustainable product coming though that also deliver the power and performance that excites me. If you look at the plug-in RAV4, the performance makes it a car I would drive.

“Yes, I’m a car guy. I just love cars.” 

MotoringNZ: You’ve often spoken about how Toyota is in transition from being a traditional automaker to a mobility company focused on future technologies – it’s a simple statement describing a journey of huge, probably complex, change. What are the implications for our country?

Lala: “Toyota is in the strongest position to deliver mobility in New Zealand. I say that with real confidence because I truly believe we have the best selection of sustainable products and, more importantly, I think we have the best coverage through the country in terms of accessibility.

“This is all about transitioning customers from (vehicle) ownership, to (vehicle) usage to (vehicle) access. The implications to our country are going to be immense. For cities like Auckland that struggle with congestion, it’s hopefully going to provide some logistics efficiency.

“I think from a personal consumer perspective, the implications here are going to be around how privacy laws evolve. Because, for effective car share, you need to have a transport system that gives you ‘first kilometre’, ‘last kilometre’ transport, as well as your core journey.

“For that to happen, it needs to be inter-modal. For something to be inter-modal, you need to have some data-sharing across different platforms. That has implications for our country but I think we are evolving and moving toward this.

“Contact tracing and social distancing … this Covid crisis, if anything, has widened out lenses to the fact of the likelihood of being tracked. And people are seeing the benefits from a health perspective.

“From a transport perspective, if a system could tell you how you could get off a bus at this time, and onto a train at that time and then into a taxi at another time … well, then the convenience and ease of mobility is what is going to make people more open to the fact that data is going to be shared.

“What implications will that have for our market? Well, it’s probably going to radically change the structure. We are a market of 30 percent private sales and 70 percent fleet or business. Under an effective car share, there are big question marks of leasing and rental, on structures of our current industry that could dramatically change. Which I think is quite exciting.” 

MotoringNZ: Toyota is dominant in hybrids and the sales imprint here is impressive, yet EVs are rising and we’ve all that Green-generated electricity to feed them. Toyota looks more like a follower than a leader with partial and total plug-in vehicles. How long before it and Lexus here have a full EV 

Lala: We’ll have an EV here within the next 18 to 24 months. Just in time for demand.

MotoringNZ: Also, there are a couple of hydrogen fuel cell Mirais in the company garage, apparently sitting idle. NZ also seems keen to get into the hydrogen game; there’s already talk of Palmerston North, your home city, being a ‘hydrogen hub’ – a fuelling centre for medium to heavy transport using this fuel. Can we see your brand hit that road?

Lala: “The hydrogen discussion in NZ is really exciting at the moment. We’ve already had conversations around promoting the energy as a sustainable and viable alternative. But I don’t believe this is something that can be done by just one brand. I see non-traditional alliances forming, that might not have ever been considered. We’re in conversations with the right people for that to happen.

“Does that mean we would support a hydrogen hub in Palemrston North? Maybe. I thinmk it would be a case of seeing what evolves and how it evolves.

“As for Mirai? Well there discussions at the moment about whether we will introduce the new Mirai, which was revealed last year, into New Zealand and how we would do that. It is certainly available to us and we are certainly excited about introducing it. But you cannot do that without infrastructure.

“So we have a few ideas with some strategic partners – other car companies and other organisations – about what would the introduction of hydrogen mobility look like.”

MotoringNZ: The work-life balance at corporate level can be challenging. You’re a family guy, living in a typical Kiwi house in a typical Kiwi suburb – you involve in your childrens’ recreational endeavours (No.1 spanner/supporter on your son’s racing kart) and you’ve found a new hobby in photography. Do you fear any of this having to be shelved going forward?

Lala: “I do love getting out and taking landscape photos but haven’t picked my camera up for a long time because my son’s karting has kept me busy.

“My priority is to Toyota and my family and, of course, it’s been quite tough. My daughters and my wife really enjoyed living in the States … my girls didn’t want to go but they’ve struggled with the transition back, as teenagers sometimes do.

“I’m really grateful I have Sandy holding things together and it’s just a case of holding everything in balance. I’ve empowered my management team and my executive team to lead and drive some of the stuff.

“The reality is that I’ll be away a lot so I’m really lucky to have the support of a good family.”