Against All Odds: The Story of the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Family That Created It

by Yukiyasu Togo, William Wartman

The Chairman of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. presents the remarkable history of the most efficient, most profitable automobile maker in the world and its revolutionary "just-in-time" production process, accompanied by sixteen pages of photographs.

Genres: Business

260 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1993

Reviews

[Anil Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are legend companies. Companies that have set new Engineering and Excellence standards. The companies that have demonstrated how to rule the world with constant perseverance, excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Agile approach is so popular in the software industry today. The roots of this approach somewhere goes back to the "Toyota Production system", "Just In Time approach", the Kaizen and Continuous improvement, and Total Quality Management.
All of these industry buzzwords that we talk now, all of these approaches are contributed by Toyota -- in its journey of more than about 100 years now. Toyota as a brand in automobile came much later than many popular brands like Ford, GM, Crystler etc. Still they were able to capture Industry leadership and provide the world the quality products with affordable prices.
Offcourse, like most, the Toyota journey to its success has not been free from troubles and obstacles. There have been many times when the company actually were on the edge of bankruptcy. How to create opportunities against the odds, and how to ride on them..

[Wolfgang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich war auf der Suche nach der Motivation von Lean, Kanban und Just-in-Time. In dem Buch wurde ich fündig. Und obwohl das Buch eigentlich eine Firmenbiographie ist, ist es eines der besten Management-Bücher, das ich in den letzten paar Jahren gelesen habe. Und das waren einige.

[Venelin Todorov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story for the beginning, development and success of Toyota -the biggest car producer in the world. Perseverance matter!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A large biography of the company, from its origins until the 1980's. Not a horrible read either, especially if you like cars or reading about businesses. However, Eiji Toyoda's book (Toyota: Fifty Years in Motion) is a bit better read, although sometimes less helpful.