Tuesday, January 2

Toyota presumed imperfect


For some, a New Year's resolution is all about planning and personal improvement. I decided against making a resolution after reading about Toyota's obsession with improvement. So maybe instead of signing up for that book diet or gym membership, you may want to take a page from Toyota -- Fast Company.

They don't set goals in the sense of striving to reach a plateau. The company is thriving, while the big three are suffering. Their culture is rooted in being self-critical with "a pervasive lack of complacency with whatever was accomplished yesterday."

Matthew E. May is the author of Elegant Solution: Toyota’s Formula for Mastering Innovation and you can download a copy of Matthew E. May's manifesto on ChangeThis.

Will this approach to incremental improvement help your organization or BI engagement? I'm sure there are new innovative ways to impress management and customers. The goal shouldn't be to cross a finish line in one, unchanging step.

In fact, for Toyota, there is no finish line. Could each of your products or services be looked at with an eye to "how can we make this better today for us and our customers."

So how will you break the mold and continuously improve.

No comments: