12/01/2009 by Phil.

I don’t know if you were as shocked as I was to hear the news that Toyota announced losses for the first time in 70 years. That should either give us all extra encouragement that even Toyota, at the cutting edge of Lean thinking, can get it wrong, OR lay down a marker as to just how deep this recession will cut, if even they can get bitten.

They are now looking to increase their number of LEAN managers to help them through the crisis. It seems that as they also got onboard the global expansion bandwagon they omitted to keep pace with the need to have enough Lean, Change managers on board. With so many famous names, especially on the high street, failing to keep pace with the rate of change and facing closure, it should make us all consider whether what we offer our customers is what they want? Is it relavant and up to date? What is our Unique Selling Point (USP)? Do we have enough Change managers in our organisation.

Toyota will come through the other side stronger and more able cope with even more difficult situations in the future. The question we should ask ourselves is will we be able to say the same?

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12/01/2009 by admin.

EMS runs Team Building and Man Management Workshops.  - John Hill writes

One subject covered is Dealing with Failure, and the accepted wisdom of ‘Give praise in public and be critical in private’ is discussed. Consider this then. Phil Brown is the manager of Hull City FC playing away to Manchester City FC in the Barclays Premier League. Hull are 4 nil down at half time. What does Phil Brown do?  Does he take his team to the dressing rooms ASAP to inspire them for the second half? No he does not. He keeps his players on the field and in front of over 45,000 football fans and live TV he gives them a verbal lashing.Hull held Manchester City 1 – 1 in the second half, with the final score 5 – 1

Is that good or bad Man Management?  Or is he just a brilliant leader?

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