The Toyota company entered the American car market with a little sub-compact car at the bottom of the market. It was so affordable and accessible that college graduates could buy it. In comparison to General Motors and Ford that produced big cars for big people, Toyota decided not to enter the American market with its big car, Lexus. Instead, the company gradually introduced its cars from low-end to high-end of the market one by one. As the theory by Professor Christensen suggests that disruptive innovations make products affordable and accessible and create growth, Toyota followed this strategy to get market growth. Toyota was forced to make more products as they made cars available to any person; this required to allocate resources to make, sell, and service cars. The strategy of the company was on the second concentric ring discussed by Professor Christensen because Toyota decided to target a large portion of customers with lower income, and they went after companies that were competing against non-consumption with big cars.
The initial responses of the American auto companies on the invasion of Toyota cars were several. On the one hand, American producers were thinking of introducing Pinto, the sub-compact car, to sell it into the marketplace. Still, they gave up on this strategy due to the impossibility to measure the disruption brought by Toyota cars incumbent as is explained by Professor Christensen. On the other hand, finance specialists of competitors understood that there is no point in serving the low-end part of the market when they can produce even bigger cars for more prominent people. The strategy of some companies succeeded and led to innovations in the American auto market (for example, the Ford F150) due to the plan of establishing individual independent units that were allowed to produce the new profit formula for the product. Toyota was not the first entrant in the market of cars, but it entered the market at the bottom and won by distributing disruptive innovations. However, now Toyota is disrupted by other competitors from South Korea and China.