Who is this mysterious person that said the following awful things about Toyota?

Was it the company’s biggest stockholder? An outside critic who monitors the company? A disgruntled employee?

Here are the comments made by this mystery person:

- The company is grieving about a fatal crash that led to a recall of 3.8 million cars. The crash and recall calls into question the company’s long tradition of safe cars.

- The company regrets its expected second annual loss.

- The company is sorry about its decision to close the company’s first American factory in California.

- The company was terribly unprepared for the global economic crisis.

- Automakers such as Toyota “have abandoned our passion for cars.”

- The company is one little step away from “capitulation to irrelevance or death.”

- The company is “gasping for salvation.”

* * *

Do you know who made these comments recently to the Japan National Press Club?

The answer:

Akio Toyoda.

He is the president of the company.

* * *

When was the last time you heard an American CEO make these kinds of honest comments?

I suggest NEVER – unless the American CEO is standing before a judge making a plea of guilty to all charges.

* * *

To learn more about this amazing confessional, read the New York Times report.

Every day of every week, I get mail and e-mails from Americans who want help fighting corruption and stupidity in government and business.

Today, for example, I heard from Bill, who has been trying for weeks to get someone from a local hospital to help him with a bill that he says he doesn’t owe.

I heard from Cecelia, an 80-year-old woman who has called her satellite TV company many times without success to complain about poor wiring. When she finally cancelled, they sent a collection agency to harass her “with daily calls, morning, noon and night. I have medical conditions that have been aggravated by these calls.”

And I heard from Gwen, 88, whose cable TV company assured her the installation charge would be $9.99. Instead, she got a bill for $149.95.

Fortunately, I’ve been doing this long enough so that I know key executives at each of these companies. I’ve already sent copies of letters from Bill, Cecelia and Gwen. I expect all three will hear from these companies in the next few days.

But this silly procedure of mine – taking complaints and passing them on – doesn’t get to the root of the problem. It’s a temporary fix. I help one, but thousands suffer from the same problem.

Each of these companies has broken or struggling customer-service cultures. OK, that’s putting it kindly. They stink. They rot to hell. They ruin days and nights for their customers with their never-ending incompetence.

And that’s the reason I can’t get David Avrin’s story out of my mind. I always wondered what happens behind the secretive doors of America’s top corporations when top executives figure out that they need to bring somebody in from the outside to help their employees see the light.

Avrin, known as The Visibility Coach, is one of the smartest people I’ve met when it comes to image-building and branding. He understands the trinity of media, public relations and advertising as well as anyonee’s a classy guy, too – Don Draper without the adultery. His specialty is coaching chief executive officers.

And that’s how he ended up telling the story about how he was called into a major corporation to help settle internal customer-service issues. But then, as he explains, he walks into a huge trap of his own making. He’s sitting there, facing the CEO, and because of his own boneheaded move, he has nothing left to give.

Avrin’s brutal honestly in his story helps me see how Bill, Cecelia and Gwen can’t get satisfaction. Please read David Avrin’s moving story here – and find out how he became part of the problem he was supposed to fix.