Japanese CEOs and Leadership
Toyota Posts Big Loss, Signals More to Come – WSJ.com I saw this article on Saturday and it reminded me to go ahead and blog about a few other articles I’ve seen about Japanese CEOs lately. The big news about…
Toyota Posts Big Loss, Signals More to Come – WSJ.com I saw this article on Saturday and it reminded me to go ahead and blog about a few other articles I’ve seen about Japanese CEOs lately. The big news about…
In Japan, more CEOs share the pain of tough times – USATODAY.com The USA Today, whether they’re trying or not, is doing a good job recently of highlighting issues at least somewhat related to Toyota and the Deming philosophy. While…

A USA Today article offered a small but telling example of how Toyota applies root cause problem solving and kaizen in everyday work. Even in times of financial pressure–or when business is going well–this kind of employee-driven improvement shows what…
Norman Bodek is once again back for episode #61 of the LeanBlog Podcast, talking about his discovery of a unique system in Japan, at Canon, called the “Super Meister” system that trains employees to be able to build an entire…
I’d love to go on one of these Japan lean study missions at some point. Blogger Jason Yip, who writes about Lean software development and comments here sometimes, wrote about the trip he took with Enna. Japan Lean Study Mission…
Blog reader Kevin wrote with this excellent question (used with his permission): My question is about the idea I see many using in the lean blogosphere…and that being the continued and rampant use of Japanese terms when dealing with lean.…
The Associated Press: Toyota lays off 800 line workers at Japan plant I’m starting to cut Toyota less slack for their claims of not having laid off employees in over 50 years. Japanese automaker Toyota has laid off 800 people…
Fixing East-West clash challenging Prof. Jeffrey Liker keynoted a Lean event in Oklahoma and is quoted as saying: Maybe the cowboy and the samurai best illustrate the chasm between Eastern and Western corporate cultures, author Jeffrey Liker offered Thursday during…
CURRENTS / ‘Toyota way’ inspires lean practices From a Japanese newspaper, an article about the impact the Toyota Production System is having on organizations around the world. The first example is the U.S. military, the Air Force more specifically: Since…
I know a lot of you also read Ron Pereira’s Lean Six Sigma Academy blog, but I wanted to make sure you see his outstanding series of posts about his trip (led by our friends at Gemba Research). Harmony and…