Respect for People, Toyota.co.jp
Respect for People has always been important to Toyota, and nowhere is this more evident than in the relationship among Toyota associates.
…
There has been only one exception to this rule throughout Toyota’s entire history. In June 1950, during a postwar period of great hardship in Japan, the company was forced to choose between corporate restructuring or risking complete collapse. Then-President Kiichiro Toyoda battled for months for the sake of his employees, but ever-worsening conditions showed the company to be unsustainable without significant change.
…
Management then vowed that this would be the first and last time such an event would come to pass at Toyota, and, in a gesture of respect to former employees, Kiichiro resigned from his position as president of the company.
A bit different than laying off tens of thousands of workers and then taking huge bonuses. And in case you don’t know, I think Toyota’s approach is more honorable and what should be aimed for (I wouldn’t say the president always should resign but it should be a significant admission of failure).
Does this mean no workers ever come into conflict with Toyota management? No. But Toyota’s respect for workers is qualitatively different than that of most companies.
November 22nd, 2006 at 9:00 am
Deceptively simple, like so much of the Toyota Production System. And that simplicity and the action is so important to successful application of the ideas…
December 16th, 2006 at 8:38 am
[...] So many companies talk about how people are the companies most important asset, so few act that way. “the only reason we are in business is because of the quality of people that we’re able to attract and retain” [...]