How could he be so cruel as to raise the bar so high? Turning a philosophy
into practice in spurts is tough enough, but making it so natural that it’s practiced
consistently every day can seem downright impossible.
To make matters worse, the responsibility for living the philosophy falls
straight on the shoulders of a particular and easily identifiable group: leadership.
All executives, managers, directors, supervisors, group leaders, or whatever else
you call them have to live the philosophy “every day in a very consistent man-
ner.” Leaders have to lead by example... consistently.
To do this requires a major commitment, starting from the very top of the
company. It is not just an abstract philosophical commitment to support “lean.” It
is a commitment to a “way”—a way of looking at the business purpose, of look-
ing at processes, of looking at people, and a way forward in learning to learn as
an organization.
The various commitments that leaders must be prepared to make are summa-
rized in the 4P model in Figure 2-2, below. We show the Toyota Way management
principles as a set of leadership commitments essential to moving forward in
learning from the Toyota Way. Each of the management principles is associated
with a philosophy—a way of thinking about purpose, process, people, and prob-
lem solving. When President Cho issued the “Toyota Way 2001” as an internal
document, he was reinforcing the needed commitment of all leaders. Toyota
then proceeded to develop a comprehensive training program to help leaders
think in the Toyota Way. The training includes detailed case studies where man-
agers critique a plant manager’s approach to a plant launch based on all of the
Toyota Way principles. It includes managers leading projects to improve
processes using appropriate Toyota Way methods. No manager is exempt. It
takes about six months, and it is one small part of reinforcing commitment to
the Toyota Way.
Making a Social Pact with Employees and Partners
On the people side, if this is to be a community of learning together for the long
term, then some long-term agreements need to be made. In Japan there is much
less reliance on formal documents and litigation than we see in the United States.
In Japan face-to-face meetings, word of mouth, and basic understandings
between people play a larger role in commerce. Toyota has never written down
an employment guarantee or a guarantee that suppliers will retain the business
if they are doing a good job. But there is certainly a strong and well-understood
social pact.
The social pact was clarified in 1948 when Toyota Motor Company president
and founder Kiichiro Toyoda resigned. The Japanese economy was in terrible
shape, and Toyota’s debt was eight times its capital. Kiichiro tried to solve the
Chapter 2. Define Your Company Purpose and Begin to Live It 25