Extreme Toyota: Radical Contradictions That Drive Success at the World's Best Manufacturer

10.7. Conclusion

The five risks presented in this chapter pose a clear danger that imperils Toyota's position as the industry's top carmaker and present a true test of the company's extreme performance model of business management. If Toyota tries to overcome these risks by emphasizing expansion at the expense of integration, it will undermine the cohesiveness of its cultural integrity and dilute the values binding the organization together. Likewise, if it opts to reinforce existing operational and cultural norms that increase organizational inertia, it will constrain its ability to innovate and self-renew towards higher levels of achievement.

However, if Toyota persists to test new solutions that mitigate the risks it faces and foster healthy instability and tension among the six forces, it will strengthen its ability to cope with risk and tackle ever-greater challenges as it reaches new levels of extreme performance. Doing so requires recasting each risk not as an obstacle to be stamped out, but as a challenge to be overcome. This may lead to new contradictions and paradoxes, which when embraced will serve as catalysts for further change and growth. Only then will Toyota solidify its reputation as the top carmaker, and bear the standard of organizational and operational excellence as the world's greatest manufacturer for years to come.