For decades, Toyota has been setting standards that are the envy—and
goal—of organizations worldwide. Its legendary management principles and business
philosophy, first documented by Jeffrey K. Liker in his influential book The Toyota Way,
changed the business world's approach to operational excellence.
Granted unprecedented access to Toyota's facilities worldwide, Liker,
along with Timothy N. Ogden, investigated the inside story of how Toyota faced the
challenges of the recession and the recall crisis of 2009–2010.
In both cases, the company was caught off guard—and found that a root cause of the
challenges it faced was its failure to live up to its own principles. But the fundamentals
were still there, and the company has ultimately come out of the most challenging years of
its postwar existence even stronger than before.
Toyota Under Fire chronicles all the events of the recession and the recall
crisis in detail, providing valuable lessons any business leader can use to survive and
thrive in a crisis, no matter how large:
- Crisis response must start by building a strong culture long before the crisis
hits.
- Culture matters far more than decisions made by top executives.
- Investing in people, even in the depths of a recession, is the surest path to
long-term profitability.
Because it had founded its culture on such principles, Toyota didn’t need to amass an
army of public relations, marketing, and legal experts to "put out the fire";
instead, it redoubled efforts to live up to its founding tenet, going "back to
basics." Toyota began solving this crisis more than 70 years ago, when its
organizational culture was first established.
Apply the lessons of Toyota Under Fire to your company, and you'll meet any
future management challenge calmly, responsibly, and effectively—the Toyota Way.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Rise of Toyota incl. Toyota Way and TBP;
Chapter 2: Oil Crisis and Recession;
Chapter 3: Recall;
Chapter 4: Recovery;
Chapter 5: Lessons
208 pages, Hardcover