Raphael Stevens

After Akio Toyoda, CEO and President of Toyota, announced he was stepping down on Thursday, he shared his advice to his successor and his business philosophy.
Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno | Gamma-rapho | Getty Images

After Akio Toyoda, the CEO and President of Toyota, announced he was stepping down on Thursday, he shared his advice to his successor and broke down his business philosophy.
“Rather than try to be like me, I want you to value your individuality,” he said he’d once told the incoming chief Koji Sato ahead of an important meeting. Sato had been unsure what to say and what messages to express, Toyoda explained in a translated webcast on Thursday.

“I told Sato ‘don’t try to run the company on your own, but as a team’,” Toyoda said.
Having a team made up of people with “diverse personalities” to collaborate and focus on the same goal is key to innovating, he said. Toyoda added that making changes and adapting is crucial for companies going forward as no one knows what the future holds.
Toyota is one of the biggest automotive companies in the world. It produces cars for everyday consumers, including a variety of electric and hybrid models, as well as being involved in motorsports through its Toyota Gazoo Racing brand.
In its most recent quarterly report, published in November 2022, the company said its quarterly profit had dropped by 25% and made cuts to its production targets.
Toyoda took over the company in the summer of 2009, just after the global financial crisis. It has been a difficult time since then, he acknowledged in the webcast.

“In retrospect, these 13 years have been a period of struggling to survive one day after the next, and that is my honest feeling,” he said.
Reflecting on how he managed the company throughout this time, Toyoda said that there are always two options to consider in tricky situations.
“I believe that in times of crisis two paths appear before us. One is a path towards short term success or a quick victory. The other is a path that leads back to the essential qualities and philosophies that gave us strength,” he explained.
Toyoda said that he chose the second option, which he said had helped him improve the company and establish trust in it from stakeholders by shifting what Toyota focused on.
However, following this approach can be more difficult and take a lot of time before it proves to be successful, he added. People focused on short-term wins and therefore doubted him and were not supportive of his choice, Toyoda said.
Toyoda is due to officially step down as CEO and president on April 1, and will then become chairman of the board. His successor Sato is currently chief branding officer and is the head of Toyota’s racing arm Gazoo and its Lexus division.   More

“Pent-up demand is being released as many people rush to scenic spots, watch firework shows and crowd into restaurants and hotels,” Nomura’s chief China economist Ting Lu said in a report Thursday.
Within China, reservations for stays at bed and breakfasts more than doubled from a year ago, while ticket sales for attractions grew by more than fivefold, according to Trip.com data for the first four days of the Lunar New Year.
It’s less clear whether the surge in tourism implies consumption in China is well on its way to recovering from the slump of the last three years.

BEIJING — People in China are moving past the pandemic and going out to travel, preliminary data for the Lunar New Year holiday show.
“Pent-up demand is being released as many people rush to scenic spots, watch firework shows and crowd into restaurants and hotels,” Nomura’s chief China economist Ting Lu said in a report Thursday.

China’s Covid “exit wave” is quickly ending as official data show a drop in infections, hospitalizations and deaths, he said. “China has been rapidly reaching its Covid herd immunity, as the government estimates about 80% of the population has already been infected with Covid.”
The country saw a surge in Covid infections in December, just as Beijing ended nearly three years of stringent contact tracing and border controls. The seven-day Lunar New Year, which officially began Saturday, is the first major holiday since the end of China’s Covid restrictions.
Within the country, reservations for stays at bed and breakfasts more than doubled from a year ago, while ticket sales for attractions grew by more than fivefold, according to Trip.com data for the first four days of the Lunar New Year.
The travel booking site claimed that for those four days, reservations for hotels and other tourist activities exceeded levels seen for the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.

People in mainland China were also eager to travel abroad.

Flight bookings for travel from the mainland to overseas destinations during the first four days of the holiday quadrupled from a year ago, while related hotel reservations doubled, Trip.com said.

Travel vs. big-ticket spending

It’s less clear whether the surge in tourism implies consumption in China is well on its way to recovering from the slump of the last three years. Retail sales fell by 0.2% in 2022.
Domestic daily trips for the Lunar New Year holiday travel period so far — since Jan. 8 — are up by about 50% from a year ago, according to the Ministry of Transport.
But even the tens of millions of trips each day is still down sharply from 2019 levels, the ministry said.
“Shopping mall foot traffic, new home purchases and auto sales data suggest big-ticket consumption may remain subdued,” Nomura’s Lu said.
“Growth in passenger car retail sales in volume terms dropped noticeably to -21.0% y-o-y during 1-15 January from 3.0% in December, following the ending of the seven-month 50% purchase tax cut,” he said in the report.
Chinese households’ penchant to save reached record highs last year amid uncertainties about future income and a slump in the property market. The bulk of household wealth in China is in real estate.
For people in China planning to spend more at physical stores this year, supermarkets ranked the highest, followed by convenience stores, according to an Oliver Wyman survey in December. Shopping malls ranked lower.

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However, sentiment can shift quickly.
The study found that within just a week in late December, survey respondents became significantly more comfortable with venturing out.
“We think that’s a very positive sign of resilience and how quickly consumer confidence will improve,” Oliver Wyman partner Imke Wouters said in a phone interview earlier this month. “Retail sales are directly linked to consumer confidence.” More

The FDA pulled Evusheld from the market because it is not effective against more than 90% of the Covid subvariants that are currently circulating in the U.S.
People with compromised immune systems, such as cancer chemotherapy and organ-transplant patients, are some of the groups most vulnerable to severe disease from Covid.
Many take Evusheld as an additional layer of protection because the vaccines do not trigger a strong immune response for them.

Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab) injection, a new COVID-19 treatment that people can take before becoming symptomatic. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Chris Sweda | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday pulled its authorization for AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, an antibody injection that people with weak immune systems relied on for additional protection against Covid-19.
The FDA pulled Evusheld from the market because it is not effective against more than 90% of the Covid subvariants that are currently circulating in the U.S.

The omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant, which is adept at evading antibodies that block infection, has quickly risen in the U.S. and is now causing 49% of new cases, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Evusheld is also not effective against the BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and XBB subvariants. Taken together with XBB.1.5, versions of Covid that are resistant to Evusheld now represent nearly 93% of new cases in the U.S.
“Today’s action to limit the use of Evusheld prevents exposing patients to possible side effects of Evusheld such as allergic reactions, which can be potentially serious, at a time when fewer than 10% of circulating variants in the U.S. causing infection are susceptible to the product,” the FDA said in a statement Thursday.
People with compromised immune systems, such as cancer chemotherapy and organ-transplant patients, are some of the groups most vulnerable to severe disease from Covid. Many take Evusheld as an additional layer of protection because the vaccines do not trigger a strong immune response for them.
The decision to pull Evusheld comes more than a month after the FDA withdrew an antibody treatment called bebtelovimab because it was not effective against the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 subvariants.

Evusheld is taken as a preventive measure before exposure to Covid. It is a combination of antibodies, cilgavimab and tixagevimab, taken as two injections every six months.
Just over one million doses of Evusheld have been distributed in the U.S. since the FDA authorized the injections in December 2021, according to data from the Health and Human Services Department. About 720,000 of those doses have actually been administered to patients.
More than 7 million adults in the U.S. have a compromised immune system. They represented about 12% of Covid hospitalizations, despite making up just 3% of the population, according to a study from the CDC that looked at data from 10 states.
There is currently no replacement for Evusheld. Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, has blamed Congress for the dwindling number of treatments. He said lawmakers’ failure to pass additional Covid funding means there isn’t money to invest in new antibodies.
“We had hoped that over time as the pandemic went along, as our fight against this virus went along, we would be expanding our medicine cabinet,” Jha told reporters in October. “Because of lack of congressional funding, that medicine cabinet has actually shrunk and that does put vulnerable people at risk.”
President Joe Biden told people with compromised immune systems to consult with a doctor.
“New variants may make some existing protections ineffective for the immunocompromised,” the president said in October. “Sadly, this means you may be at a special risk this winter. I urge you to consult your doctors on the right steps to protect yourself, take extra precautions.”

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Hong Kong and Macao were the most popular spots, said Trip.com, citing flight bookings on its platform for the first four days of the Lunar New Year.
The seven-day holiday kicked off on Saturday, and marks the first leisure travel period after Beijing relaxed its Covid-related border controls..

BEIJING — Travelers from mainland China stuck close to home in Asia during the Lunar New Year, the first holiday after Beijing relaxed its Covid-related border controls.
Hong Kong and Macao were the most popular spots, said Trip.com, citing flight bookings on its platform for the first four days of the Lunar New Year. The seven-day holiday kicked off on Saturday.

Here are the next three most popular overseas destinations for mainland travelers, according to Trip.com:
3. Bangkok
4. Singapore
5. Phuket, Thailand
Flight bookings for travel from the mainland to overseas destinations during the first four days of the holiday quadrupled from a year ago, Trip.com said.

In late December, Beijing announced that beginning Jan. 8 travelers would no longer need to quarantine upon arrival on the mainland, and that Chinese citizens could start to resume leisure travel abroad. The change ended nearly three years of border controls.
However, Japan and South Korea — both popular among Chinese tourists — subsequently imposed temporary restrictions on travelers from China, including limits on visas and quarantining Covid-positive individuals.

Singapore has not announced any changes, while Thailand scrapped its plan to require international visitors to show proof of Covid vaccination, just days after announcing it.
China has seen a wave of Covid infections after Beijing ended most domestic Covid controls in early December. A negative Covid test is still required for travel to the mainland.
In 2019, Chinese outbound tourists spent $54.7 billion on shopping, according to Euromonitor International. More

The rear glass of the Audi “Activesphere” vehicle can slide forward, opening the flat trunk of the SUV and creating an open-air space for hauling objects.
Augmented reality glasses are used to view the gauges, controls and other elements that would typically be displayed via screens.
Automakers routinely use concept vehicles to gauge customer interest or show the future direction of a vehicle or brand. The vehicles are not meant to be sold to consumers.

Audi Activesphere EV concept

Audi’s new concept vehicle is an all-electric luxury SUV that uses augmented reality glasses and can double as a small pickup truck, signaling potential future technologies for the Volkswagen luxury brand.
The rear glass of the “Activesphere” vehicle can slide forward, opening the flatbed trunk of the SUV and creating an open-air space for hauling objects. Audi’s calling the modular open cargo bed an “active back,” but consumers shouldn’t necessarily expect to see a production vehicle with the unique feature anytime soon.

“It’s a completely new range and a new possibility it affords to us,” Philipp Gündert, Audi brand strategy, said during a media briefing. “We at Audi are well known for trying out new things with cars … there’s also an Audi tradition to say, ‘Never say never.’ Although there’s no concrete plans, yet.”

Audi Activesphere EV concept

Automakers routinely use concept vehicles to gauge customer interest or show the future direction of a vehicle or brand. The vehicles are not meant to be sold to consumers.
The augmented reality glasses are used to view the gauges, controls and other elements that would typically be displayed via screens. With no screens, the dashboard is clean and unobstructed, allowing occupants to focus on their external surroundings or design elements of the vehicle.  
Audi describes the controls as an “invisible” or “digital” layer of vehicle controls and information. The displays, which it’s calling “Audi Dimensions,” change based on where the driver is looking as well as their expected needs. Everything can be controlled with hand gestures.

Audi Activesphere EV concept

The glasses could hypothetically be used inside the vehicle as well as during activities such as golf or hiking for distances, navigation and other things. Augmented reality glasses layer things over actual things as opposed to virtual reality, which is an all-encompassing separate environment.

Like the “active back,” the augmented reality glasses are a concept of what could be in future vehicles but aren’t necessarily meant for production vehicles anytime soon.
Audi emphasized that it has no plans to make its own augmented reality glasses. Instead, it would work with partners to integrate the technology with the vehicle.
The vehicle features a retractable steering wheel for human driving that would stow away when the vehicle is in self-driving mode, a technology included in all of Audi’s “sphere” concept vehicles.

Audi Activesphere EV concept

The term “sphere” is meant to symbolize the interior space of the vehicles for drivers and passengers, according to Audi, essentially turning vehicles into another personal experience or living space. This is its fourth “sphere” concept since 2021.
Previous vehicles were the Skysphere roadster in 2021, followed by the Grandsphere sedan and Urbansphere in April 2022. All the vehicles share futuristic design elements and are all modular.
Gündert said there are elements of all the concept vehicles that will make it into production but signaled things such as lights and design. He said the performance Grandsphere is the one closest to a production vehicle.

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