Extreme toyota : radical contradictions that drive success at the world's best manufacturer

Extreme Toyota offers the first real, comprehensive inside look at what makes one of the world's best companies run. With unprecedented access to the inner working of Toyota, the authors spent six years researching the company, interviewing hundreds of executives and employees, and discovering the company's secret of success. What they uncovered will surprise you and change the way you think about business. Simultaneously rigidly traditional and seriously innovative, it is precisely those internal contradictions that make the company so successful and admired.

Author Notes

HIROTAKA TAKEUCHI, EMI OSONO, and NORIHIKO SHIMIZU are business school graduates from the University of California, Berkeley, The George Washington University, and Stanford University, respectively. They are professors at one of Japan's top business schools, Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (www.ics.hit-u.ac.jp). Takeuchi works closely with Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard University, with whom he coauthored Can Japan Compete? (2000). All three authors are also frequent speakers at conferences and seminars around the world.

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Library Journal Review

Authors Osono, Norihiko Shimizu, and Hirotaka Takeuchi--all business professors at Hitotsubashi University, Japan--here provide a detailed look at the principles underlying the long-term success of car giant Toyota. They begin by identifying Toyota's central "driving" forces--expansion, impossible goals, experimentation, local customization, integration, founders' philosophies, "nerve system," and "up-and-in human resource management"--and then use case studies of Lexus, Scion, Tundra, and other Toyota brands to show how the company's principles apply to day-to-day management and operations. The contradictory nature of the forces described--some focused on expansion, others on integration--form the framework for the authors' subsequent analysis of the company. A final chapter demonstrates the applicability of Toyota's approach to other types of businesses. Heavily footnoted and studded with graphs and charts, this insider's view of one of the world's leading manufacturers is somewhat academic in tone yet has enough anecdotes to make it interesting. Purchase for academic libraries with business or manufacturing/engineering programs.--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Lib., Oxford, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Preface	p. xi
Chapter 1 Extreme Toyota: An Organization Powered by Creative Contradictions	p. 1
An Amazing Track Record	p. 1
The Hard Side of Toyota	p. 3
The Powerful and Mysterious Soft Side	p. 3
How Toyota Is Like a Failed, Stagnant Company	p. 4
Management Orchestrated Contradictions, Opposites, and Paradoxes	p. 8
Embracing Contradictions as a Way of Life	p. 19
Conclusion	p. 20
Chapter 2 Six Opposing Forces That Drive the Company's Expansion-and Keep It from Breaking Apart	p. 23
Forces of Expansion	p. 25
Forces of Integration	p. 30
Six Forces Working Together	p. 34
Resource Base	p. 35
Six Forces in Action: Case of the Lexus	p. 38
Conclusion	p. 42
Chapter 3 The Force of Impossible Goals	p. 43
Meet Every Customer Need	p. 45
The Finest Cars, the Finest Dealers	p. 51
Bypassing Japan to Make a Global Car	p. 57
Conclusion	p. 64
Chapter 4 Eagerness to Experiment	p. 67
Experimentation Hardware: The Eight-Step and A3 Processes	p. 73
Experimentation Software: Values	p. 86
Conclusion	p. 92
Chapter 5 Local Customization	p. 95
The Underdog Even at Home	p. 98
Customizing the IMV in Asia	p. 99
The Challenges and Benefits of Local Customization	p. 100
Customizing the Yaris for Europe	p. 102
Customizing the Scion for the United States Youth Segment	p. 105
Customizing the Tundra for the United States	p. 115
Disseminating Local Best Practices throughout the World	p. 116
Conclusion	p. 118
Chapter 6 The Founders' Philosophies	p. 121
Tomorrow Will Be Better than Today	p. 124
Everybody Should Win	p. 129
Customer First, Dealers Second, and Manufacturer Last	p. 135
Genchi Genbutsu	p. 139
Conclusion	p. 141
Chapter 7 Toyota's Nerve System-A Human Version of the World Wide Web	p. 143
Open and Lateral Dissemination of Know-How	p. 146
Freedom to Voice Contrary Opinions	p. 149
Frequent Face-to-Face Interaction	p. 154
Making Tacit Knowledge Explicit: The Toyota Way 2001	p. 158
Formal and Informal Support Mechanisms	p. 161
Conclusion	p. 163
Chapter 8 Up-and-In Human Resource Management	p. 165
Stable, Long-Term Employment	p. 169
Emphasis on Training, Training, and More Training	p. 172
Power in Teamwork	p. 177
Action Orientation	p. 178
Learning-Based Evaluation	p. 180
Conclusion	p. 183
Chapter 9 Toyota's Resource Base	p. 185
Investing in Efficiency	p. 187
Cultivating Organizational Capability and People Required for Growth	p. 191
Making a Long-Term Commitment to People	p. 198
Conclusion	p. 206
Chapter 10 A Company Always in Danger	p. 211
Organizational Growth Pains	p. 212
Employee Complacency	p. 214
Cultural Rigidity	p. 216
Workforce Diversity	p. 218
Insular Approach to the Capital Markets	p. 220
Rise of New Competitors	p. 221
Conclusion	p. 223
Chapter 11 What Your Organization Can Learn from Toyota: Ten Powerful Contradictions	p. 225
Embrace Contradictions	p. 229
Conclusion	p. 238
Appendix A Selected Auto Industry Figures and Comparisons	p. 241
Chapter 1 Extreme Toyota	p. 241
Chapter 2 Six Forces	p. 248
Chapter 3 Impossible Goals	p. 253
Chapter 9 Resources	p. 254
Appendix B Literature Review	p. 257
Literature Review Methodology	p. 258
Notes	p. 263
References	p. 287
Index	p. 297

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