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?