The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership : Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development

TOYOTA. The name signifies greatness? world-class cars and game-changing business thinking. One key to the Toyota Motor Company?s unprecedented success is its famous production system and its lesser-known product development program. These strategies consider the end user at every turn and have become the model for the global lean business movement.

All too often, organizations adopting lean miss the most critical ingredient?lean leadership. Toyota makes enormous investments in carefully selecting and intensively developing leaders who fit its unique philosophy and culture. Thanks to the company?s lean leadership approach, explains Toyota Way author Jeffrey Liker and former Toyota executive Gary Convis, the celebrated carmaker has set into motion a drive for continuous improvement at all levels of its business. This has allowed for:

• Constant growth: Toyota increased profitability for 58 consecutive years?slowing down only in the face of 2008?s worldwide financial difficulties, the recall crisis, and the worst Japanese earthquake of the century.
• Unstoppable inventiveness: Toyota?s approach to innovative thinking and problem solving has resulted in top industry ratings and incredible customer satisfaction, while allowing the company to weather these three crises in rapid succession and to come out stronger.
• Strong branding and respect: Toyota?s reputation was instrumental in the company?s ability to withstand the recalls-driven media storm of 2010.

But what looked to some to be a sinking ship is once again running under a full head of steam. Perhaps the Toyota culture had weakened, but lean leadership was the beacon that showed the way back.

Foreword by Akio Toyoda
Prologue  : Toyota as a Model in Light of a Period of Intense Challenges
Introduction : The Roots of Toyota?s Global Business Leadership

Chapter 1 : Leading in the Toyota Way : A Lifelong Journey
Chapter 2 : Self-Development : Reliably Identifying and Coaching Developing Leaders at the Gemba
Chapter 3 : Coach and Develop Others
Chapter 4 : Daily Kaizen : Continually Developing Leadership from the Bottom Up
Chapter 5 : Hoshin Kanri : Align Vision, Goals, and Plans for Continuous Improvement
Chapter 6 : Toyota Leadership Turning Around Dana Corporation
Chapter 7 : Learning from Toyota Leadership

Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

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