It's Not the Crisis; It's How You Respond to It

He probably didn't ask for a problem of quite this magnitude, but like it or not, Akio Toyoda has his crisis. Akio took the reigns with a proclamation that he wanted to change the company, to rid it of (his words) "pervasive hubris and arrogance" or, (my words) the same Big Company disease that he saw grip GM so deeply for so long. For about a year now Akio has been saying that he wants to take the company "back to basics." No less an authority than Taiichi Ohno said you need a crisis to truly embrace TPS. So, Akio has his opportunity. 

As always with things like this (Toyota's crisis, if it doesn't go without saying) it's not the crisis; it's how you respond to it. So far Toyota hasn't responded well. The company will pay a price for that. But, if they problem-solve their way out of the quality and cost issues, the public may forgive them quickly enough.

Read John Shook's Lean Management Column here: http://www.lean.org/shook/2010/02/its-not-crisis-its-how-you-respond-to.html