How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car Company
by David Magee
List Price:
Our Price: $2.20
You Save: $23.75 (92%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David MageeEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-11-01
ISBN: 1591841798
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Book Reviews of How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car Company
Book Review: A good presentation of Toyota's core principles and its production system
Summary: 4 Stars
The subtitle of this book, "Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car Company", let's the reader know that this is really a book targeted to the insatiable market for people looking to develop their business leadership skills rather than a scholarly analysis of Toyota's rise to leadership in the auto industry suggested by the title. We don't get a penetrating analysis of the automobile markets or how the national markets have developed into a global market over the past 50 years or a deep look at the macroeconomic conditions facing the American versus the Japanese (or the European) car makers. Nor do we get a consistent set of measures that capture the shifting ups and downs among the various car companies over decades.
Basically, we get a hagiography of Toyota that does everything right for noble reasons that are justly rewarded by the marketplace and a bunch of bumbling and undeserving American car companies get the pounding they deserve. While those of us who have grown up in Detroit over the past decades know very well that the Big 3 have made huge mistakes and have persisted in behaviors that have exacerbated their decline, we also know there are additional reasons helping Toyota and hurting Detroit. For example, do we even get a simple comparison between the demographics, pay, and benefits in the Japanese plants in America versus the plants of GM, Ford, and Chrysler? Nothing much beyond the $2,500 cost advantage Toyota enjoys and blaming the union contracts with the UAW.
Certainly, there is truth in blaming the US auto companies and praising Toyota, but not much beyond Toyota's ethos is explained in this book. When we did automotive case studies while I was in business school, it became clear that Toyota had earned its success and does do things better than any other car company in the world. However, the book does not discuss this year's explosion on recalls by Toyota and the concerns being raised about Toyota's quality this year. What went wrong? Where were the hallowed principles and the company culture? Who wasn't pulling the cord and why? Why was Toyota management called on the carpet by the Japanese government?
These misgivings aside, we do get a popular history of the development of the firm from its origins as a loom manufacturer. Much of the text focuses on the Toyota Production System and examples of how Toyota has benefited when living its principles and found difficulties when it hasn't. We are told about the power in the more egalitarian ethos of the Japanese executives, the daily striving to find new improvements in quality and finding waste to eliminate. The benefits of long-term investment and building customer trust are highlighted as are importance of learning from mistakes, executing big plans by paying attention to even the tiniest details, why management by example rather than command is more effective, and so on. The appendices cover Toyota's seven guiding principles, a bulleted summary of The Toyota Way, a glossary of Japanese terms used in the Toyota Production System, and a few charts comparing the favorable trends of Toyota's share price, revenue, and net income versus GM and Ford.
If you aren't already a student of Toyota and its production system or the principles that make up its culture, you will find this book an informative and well written overview of what the company is trying to do each and every day. However, if you are already familiar with the TPS and the auto industry, this will likely seem a bit on the light side. And if you work for GM or Ford, even as frustrated as you likely are with the past couple of decades, the way your companies are depicted in this book will likely be more than irritating to you.
I do believe that business leaders who follow the principles stated in this book will do better than those who don't. However, the principles also need to be supported by the corporate culture and there is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. How do you get the culture without people who live these principles? And how do you get people to live these principles if the corporate culture doesn't support and reinforce them? These are important questions to answer and the discussion of NUMMI in the book is not encouraging to the notion that the principles can be transplanted to another company.
I liked the book, but wished for things the book didn't offer. That is not really the author's problem, but mine. He wrote his book and I thank him for it. However, I am still looking for something more.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Summary of How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car Company
What we can all learn from the strategies that have made Toyota the world?s best car companyEveryone who follows the auto industry knows that Toyota has had an amazing twenty-five-year run, rising from humble Japanese start-up to thriving global giant. But the big puzzle is how Toyota did it while so many other car companies have struggled or failed.
Journalist David Magee dug deeply into Toyota?s past and present, interviewing senior executives who rarely talk to the press, along with many other sources. And he found that the company?s famous mastery of lean production is only part of the story. Magee explains the surprising power of Toyota?s corporate culture, which includes:
? Focusing on the long term: While most companies worry about the next quarter, Toyota is thinking about the next quarter century
? Jumping beyond the current trend: When Ford was still ramping up its gas-guzzling SUVs, Toyota was very quietly taking a huge lead on hybrids
? Making quality everyone?s responsibility: Toyota expects people at every level to think and act like quality-control inspectors
? Managing individual strengths: Toyota is revolutionizing the way people are managed, to maximize their strengths instead of criticizing their weaknesses
The lessons that Magee explains here will be valuable for managers in all disciplines and industries.
Company Profiles Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Quality assurance - the Japanese way
Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporationby James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1996-09-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.95
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Roadby Jamie Flinchbaugh, Andy Carlino
Society of Manufacturing Engineers; Published: 2005-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $30.00
How Toyota Became #1: Leadership Lessons from the World's Greatest Car Companyby David Magee
Portfolio Hardcover; Published: 2007-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.05
Price in other shops:
Lean Office Demystifiedby Don Tapping, Anne Dunn
MCS Media, Inc.; Published: 2006-09-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.95
Price in other shops:
One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Wayby Robert Maurer
Workman Publishing Company; Published: 2004-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.20
Price in other shops:
The Lean Manufacturing Employee Training Manualby Kenneth W. Dailey
DW Publishing Co.; Published: 2006-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.25
Six Sigma and Minitab: A complete toolbox guide for all Six Sigma practitioners (2nd edition)by Quentin Stephen Brook
QSB Consulting; Published: 2006-10-23; Spiral-bound; Book
Best price: $49.99
Statistics for Six Sigma Made Easyby Warren Brussee
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2004-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.78
Price in other shops:
Lean Six Sigma for Service : How to Use Lean Speed and Six Sigma Quality to Improve Services and Transactionsby Michael L. George
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2003-06-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.56
Price in other shops:
The Six Sigma Project Planner : A Step-by-Step Guide to Leading a Six Sigma Project Through DMAICby Thomas Pyzdek
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2003-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.55
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Future of Managementby Gary Hamel, Bill Breen
Harvard Business School Press; Published: 2007-10-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.18
Price in other shops:
Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota's PDCA Management Systemby Durward K. Sobek II., Art Smalley
Productivity Press; Published: 2008-03-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $32.00
Price in other shops:
The United States of Toyota: How Detroit Squandered Its Legacy and Enabled Toyota to Become America's Car Companyby Peter M. DeLorenzo
Inkwater Press; Published: 2007-09-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $29.03
Price in other shops:
The Toyota Way Fieldbookby Jeffrey Liker, David Meier
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2005-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.68
Price in other shops:
The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovationby Matthew E. May
Free Press; Published: 2006-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
Kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking - The Scientific Thinking Mechanismby Shigeo Shingo
PCS Inc. and Enna Products Corporation; Published: 2007-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $39.71
Price in other shops:
Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World's Best Manufacturerby Emi Osono, Norihiko Shimizu, Hirotaka Takeuchi
Wiley; Published: 2008-05-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
The Toyota Wayby Jeffrey Liker
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2003-12-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.47
Price in other shops:
Toyota Talentby Jeffrey Liker, David Meier
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2007-04-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops:
Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Wayby Jeffrey Liker, Michael Hoseus
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2007-12-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.84
Price in other shops: