Posted by: Caroline Ridgway in Opinion Blog on Feb 03, 2010
Toyota has long been the gold standard among business world thought-leaders for how it has managed to exemplify a seemingly impossible collection of achievements: optimal efficiency, optimal quality, and optimal profit. As it turns out, Toyota's seemingly impossible success may be turning out to have been actually impossible. Without commenting too deeply on the issue, because I don't know enough about it to come to any reasonable conclusions, it appears as though something in their famously regimented production and control systems fell by the wayside. With Toyota's image terribly tarnished for years and years to come, what companies do you think might take up the place at head of the line for quality and accomplishment? What do you think are the likely lessons to be learned from this experience?