The woman who represents Toyota’s change

Tokyo Sinead Kaiya has been globally active in the software world for a long time, including in Germany. From 2011 she worked directly as chief of staff with the then SAP bosses Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott. Now she sees herself as a trendsetter in Japan: As COO of Toyota’s start-up Woven Planet, she should develop the ambitious company into a global software giant.

“I find the trend very interesting that executives who grew up in the software industry are now switching directly to the automotive industry,” said Kaiya on Monday in an interview with the Handelsblatt. She would have the feeling that with the change from the car companies to mobility providers, “there are very interesting career opportunities and a platform to make a contribution.”

For her, the important role of Woven Planet for the largest car manufacturer in the world triggered the desire to switch. The start-up is a “catalyst and inspiration for Toyota, what it really means to produce software,” says Kaiya somewhat modestly. In fact, the company is a central component of Toyota’s cultural transformation into a mobility company and is responsible for the most important software projects.

This also shows an important personality. Woven Planets boss James Kuffner, who previously co-initiated the development of Google’s autonomous car, is also Toyota’s Chief Digital Officer. Technologies for autonomous driving, a platform for high-precision car cards that renew themselves, and the construction of Toyota’s Smart City Woven City are just three entries in its specification sheet. At the top of the priority list is a project with which Toyota wants to become the platform for the connected cars of the future: Arene.

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Toyota’s dream of becoming a global platform provider

This is a development platform for the cars of the future as well as an operating system for the fully networked vehicle, Kuffner explained to a small group last week. But Toyota only has a world market share of ten percent, according to the software expert. “So our dream is to launch Arene beyond Toyota and really change the entire industry.”

This approach is “critical”, says Kaiya – for the success of the company as well as for herself. “If you look at who the market leaders are, then they are all platform providers,” says the software expert. “I’ve seen SAP go through this transformation, especially in the last ten years.”

The hope of helping to build a giant herself has drawn her to Toyota’s start-up. The success of the adventure is by no means certain. Because a fierce battle has broken out between car manufacturers, Internet and electronics companies over the car platform of the future. It is still completely open which ideas will prevail over the long term. But Kaiya’s employment shows that the young company wants to grow faster globally.

At the beginning, a software company concentrates on its own product, she describes the typical maturation process. But then there would be this point after about 18 to 24 months at which such a start-up would recognize that it was actually building two things, a product and a company. And start looking for a special COO.

From SAP to Woven Planet

In that regard, Woven Planet was ripe. The company was founded in Tokyo in 2018 as a spin-off of the California Toyota Research Institute (TRI) as the “Toyota Research Institute Advanced Development” in order to integrate new technologies into the group more quickly. At the beginning of 2021, the start-up dropped its bulky name in order to underline its planetary aspirations in a more memorable way.

Kaiya should now bring the global perspective and understanding of software into the organizational structure. After all, the former Japanese studies student has been traveling around the world in the service of SAP since 2007. She moved to the French research laboratory via the software company’s Canadian development department. Afterwards she was involved in the most important strategic projects of the group in the CEO office for four years before she became Global COO for Products & Innovations.

Before joining Woven Planet in July, she was Head of Innovation for Asia, Pacific, Japan and headed the Tokyo Innovation Laboratory. Now she is responsible for ensuring that, with rapid growth, neither efficiency nor leadership or the development of a corporate culture are neglected. Kaiya does not have much time to familiarize himself with. Toyota has provided Woven Planet with an investment fund of $ 800 million, which Kuffner quickly converts into company acquisitions.

“We are currently expanding rapidly in the USA,” says the manager. “The goal is simply to continue to strengthen the team with great talent.” And the company finds it. One reason for the manager is the early founding of the TRI with luminaries like Kuffner in 2016, with whom the carmaker established its brand early in Silicon Valley as a large company ready for innovation.

But even more important for them is the ambition of software experts to change the world. “Every software engineer’s dream is to see their application in the hands of millions and millions of users,” says Kaiya. And at Woven Planet, they know that they have one of the largest automotive customers in the world behind them.

More: Challenge to VW, Tesla and Google: Toyota wants to develop its own operating system

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