Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

by Jeffrey K. Liker

Winner of the Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication, 2009 The international bestseller The Toyota Way explained the company's success by introducing a revolutionary 4P model for organizational excellence-Philosophy, People, Process, and Problem Solving. Now, in Toyota Culture , preeminent Toyota authorities Jeffrey Liker and Michael Hoseus reveal how Toyota selects, develops, and motivates its people to become committed to building high-quality products-and how you can do the same for your company. Toyota Culture examines the “human systems” that Toyota has put in place to instill its founding principles of trust, mutual prosperity, and excellence in its plants, dealerships, and offices around the world. Beginning with a look at the evolution of the Toyota culture and why its people are the heart and soul of the Toyota Way, the authors explain the company's four-stage process for building and keeping quality Attract, Develop, Engage, and Inspire. Drawing upon numerous examples from Liker's decades of research as well as Hoseus' insider access as a Toyota manager, Toyota Culture gives you the tools you need

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Cultural, Leadership, Buisness, Productivity

562 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2007

About the author

Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan and principle of Optiprise, Inc. Dr. Liker has authored or co-authored over 75 articles and book chapters and nine books. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer, McGraw-Hill, 2004 which speaks to the underlying philosophy and principles that drive Toyota's quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. The companion (with David Meier) The Toyota Way Fieldbook, McGraw Hill, 2005 details how companies can learn from the Toyota Way principles. His book with Jim Morgan, The Toyota Product Development System, Productivity Press, 2006, is the first that details the product development side of Toyota. He is doing a series of books focused on each of the 4Ps. The first books are (with David Meier), Toyota Talent: Developing exceptional people the Toyota Way (May, 2007) and (with Michael Hoseus) Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (January, 2008). His articles and books have won eight Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence and The Toyota Way also won the 2005 Institute of Industrial Engineers Book of the Year Award and 2007 Sloan Industry Studies Book of the Year. He is a frequent keynote speaker and consultant. Recent clients include Hertz, Caterpillar, AMD, Android, Areva, Rio Tinto Mining, Tenneco Automotive, Jacksonville Naval Air Depot, US Airforce Material Command, Johnson Controls, Harley Davidson, Eaton, and Fujitsu Technical Services.

Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~liker

Reviews

[Matthew Horvat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Hoseus, author of Toyota Culture and the executive director for the Center for Quality People and Organizations just presented at IndustryWeek.com. The presentation is archived now at the website.

I'm just finishing the book with 5 friends where we talk about the main ideas and how they are relevant and what we can do - we review one chapter per week. The author has a keen insight in viewing culture and breaks it down, at the lowest level to what we deeply believe in and act on. I characterize Toyota as designing their relationships with the detail that an engineer would bring. The way that Toyota aligns company goals with employee goals for long term mutual prosperity makes the horizontal nature of the organizational structure a reality.

Coming from a career working at Toyota in Kentucky, the author presents the ideas from the boot laces. He claims it starts at values and with servant leadership, putting the president at the bottom of the pyramid and the suppliers - team members - customers at the top.

If you and your team are already exposed to lean and have chosen this path, this is the book for you. It shows Toyota's detailed human value stream and demonstrates how to organize human resources to thrive.

For more information, watch the session with Mike Hoseus at www.industryweek.com.

[Dena Gregoire · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone beginning their journey into Lean, TPS, Continuous Improvement - I recommend this book. Transformations require companies to look at their culture. A strong foundation is important.

There are real life example stories embedded throughout the book. Some get into too much detail and make the book a bit slow in areas. Fortunately the real life case study bits are italicized so you can scan over and delve deeper if you wish.

[Mike Thelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book has an unbelievable wealth of knowledge to me, I simply haven't been able to finish it. After about 100 pages, I simply get exhausted. It is probably a 5-Star book, and I would give it 5 stars if it was 2 or 3 books, rather than 1 (at approximately 500 pages). Still, in the roughly 200 pages I've read, I will certainly give it 4 stars.

[Alexey Gruzdev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend to everybody, who likes cars and curious of corporations behind specific brands like Toyota. Book is very focused on corporate culture which resulted in Toyota success. Recommended to company enthusiast, executive management and all employees who want to be much more productive in work and in life.

[Monica Meagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Must read for anyone in manufacturing or working at a company who preaches lean but just isn’t making a difference.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a big book, so I’ve still got a ways to go before I’ll finish it, but I have no problem rating it 5 stars based on the information I’ve read so far.

Hands-down one of the best books on company culture I’ve ever read. The author really gets it, and has a way of simplifying the concepts through the fantastic use of easily understandable infographics, illustrations, charts, and even black-and-white photos of Toyota’s actual training, production, and workplace environment sprinkled throughout.

Feels almost the same as how a Toyota service manual would be written for one of their cars—but one that’s specifically intended for a company’s workplace instead.

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had a few inspiring quotes and anecdotes, but failed to really capture the actionable quality of the Toyota Way. A lot of the examples didn't seem scalable, (i.e. create a feeder school system for your workforce that literally starts in kindergarten...) Felt a bit defeated having finished it, since its overarching theme is really that the Toyota Way is so antithetical to corporate America that even Toyota has struggled to assimilate its culture over here.

[Brent Blanchette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding the Toyota Culture is the foundation to successfully adopting the Toyota Production System. If someone is trying to go through a "Lean Transformation" they need to study the culture behind the company that paved the way.

[Aric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great material. It was just difficult to get through. But the material is worth digging through.

[Neeraj Bagi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extensive document to understand the nitty-gritty of the Toyota Way and Culture.

A good read.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku ini merupakan kolaborasi yang baik antara akademisi dan praktisi. Jeffrey Liker, sebagai akademisi, memotret budaya Toyota dari sisi teori manajemen secara komprehensif. Michael Hoseus, sebagai mantan manajer di Toyota, banyak mengungkap kisah-kisah dan praktik nyata pengembangan budaya perusahaan di Toyota. Kolaborasi keduanya saling melengkapi.

Buku ini membawa kita menyelami dan memahami bagaimana manusia-manusia Toyota disosialisasikan terhadap budaya perusahaan. Kita dapat melihat bahwa budaya perusahaan bukanlah slogan catchy yang dihafalkan oleh karyawan berulang-ulang. Budaya perusahaan adalah nilai-nilai yang diyakini dan dipegang bersama oleh semua orang dalam perusahaan. Nilai-nilai ini dirumuskan oleh para pemimpin perusahaan, lalu diajarkan dan diteruskan ke semua orang terutama lewat teladan. Tidak ada cara instan untuk membentuk budaya perusahaan yang hebat.

Buku ini juga cukup berimbang, karena secara objektif juga mengungkap kisah-kisah kegagalan Toyota, terutama terkait dengan budaya perusahaan. Buku ini amat bermanfaat karena mengungkap informasi-informasi belakang layar yang dapat membantu kita memahami mengapa "menyontek" mentah-mentah Toyota Way ke dalam perusahaan lain tidak selalu berhasil.

Toyota Culture adalah referensi untuk memahami betapa pentingnya membentuk budaya perusahaan yang menginspirasi karyawan untuk berkontribusi bagi perusahaan, keluarga, dan komunitas tempat ia tinggal.

[Allisonperkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times this reads like a commercial for the greatness that is Toyota; there is no doubt that Toyota is a company worth studying but I'm not sure it's the greatest company since sliced bread. Still, this in depth look into the Toyota Way has many powerful ideas and practices.

Some of the biggest ideas: grow your people, don't sacrifice the long term for the short term, focus on improving the process, etc are all very strong statements on what a company should do but typically avoids. The process part is one that particularly hits me as I'm from the start up world where process isn't something that gets a lot of thought. Especially from the software world. However when I start to break down some software ideas I do see room for "process" even in an agile start-up (for example how do you write a design document, how do you review a design document, or, more generally, who checklist of questions should you ask and should you answer?). The trick is to make sure the process grows with the organization and that the people who use the process are the ones who make it and improve it.

I'm not sure I can recommend the book as it doesn't read very well but if you are willing to dig a little, there are some worthwhile ideas to pursue.

[Krishna Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This narrative provides a great view into the philosophy and management at Toyota. The long-term thinking and the ideas that shape the creativity and manufacturing process at Toyota is very different from Corporate America. Toyota is out to conquer the world, but not at the expense of quality or the right process. People may not agree with the decade-long nature of their growth, but they cannot argue with how Toyota has shaped the industry. A great company and a book that shows how it became great.

[tomlinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah! Back in the day
when Toyota had
the weirdest version
of Deming's TQM
and I was like many
working in that field
a huge fan

Then the Prius II
came into being
the very year
my old car was dying

I put money down
to order it in advance
and was never happier
that I had done
all the due diligence
that could be done

All the nice things said
about Toyota's Way of engineering
did not let me down

[Vladimir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book about management. I was keep thinking can I apply this or that technique for the life science data mining I am currently doing, and I think I really do. There is a small glitch with the book - I agree that the lean management developed in Toyota really reflects the Japanese culture, thus some approaches could be really difficult to implement. Yet, the book is must read for any project manager.

[Citra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Culture! Something that very important part of a company. What'll this book give? I haven't know much, haven't read it yet. But its subtitle "The heart and soul of the toyota way" sure captured my mind.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense, not for the weary. I really enjoyed the analysis of what makes Toyota successful as well as the sticky subject of "culture." My biggest problem is not looking at other companies or what isn't working for Toyota.

[Bob Schatz]

What a great insight into a positive culture that focuses on process improvement and the general health and well-being of its people. The Toyota Production System puts out a lot more than just good automobiles. Read this!

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of the HR version of "The Toyota Way" (which I haven't read yet).

[Zhi Han]

14 Principles of the Toyota way. I found it very interesting how much impact it has on other areas outside manufacture. Particularly its impact on Agile development and TDD.

[Alexey Averyanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Одна из лучших книг про изменения в корпоративной культуре организации.

[Lina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody love Toyota culture

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great!