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

2.2. Forces of Integration

While the expansive forces extend Toyota's organizational and knowledge boundaries, a set of integrative forces weave the company together and keep it from spinning out of control. These are: the founders' philosophies, the nerve system, and up-and-in human resource management (Figure 2.1). These forces combine to center Toyota and perpetuate its culture while stabilizing its continuous expansion and absorption of new perspectives.

Founders' Philosophies

The following individuals—Sakichi Toyoda, who created the parent company (Toyoda Automatic Loom Works), Kiichiro Toyoda, the son of Sakichi (founder of Toyota Motor Corporation), Taiichi Ohno, (creator of the Toyota Production System), Eiji Toyoda (first cousin of Kiichiro and former President), Shotaro Kamiya, (developer of Toyota's domestic and global sales network), Shoichiro Toyoda, (son of Kiichiro and also a former President), Robert B. McCurry (former Vice Chairman of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.), and Alex Warren (former Senior Vice President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky)—share a common trait: they cultivated and passed on the practices and values that define Toyota's corporate culture. These include the mindset of kaizen or continuous improvement, the values of respect for people and their individual capabilities, teamwork, humility, putting the customer first, and genchi genbutsu or seeing things firsthand. These simple philosophies are the basis of Toyota's corporate values and have ...