Toyota Culture

I attended a luncheon yesterday where the keynote speaker was Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way. He has recently published two additional books called, Toyota Culture and Toyota Talent. He discussed how Toyota has two value streams, their product value stream and their people value stream. They put as much effort into development of the right people processes as they do their product processes. This includes selection, job training, development, and culture engagement.

I think this is one of the things that sets Toyota apart from the average company. Few companies invest so much effort into the people systems, yet we hear that “people are our most important asset.” Because they invest so heavily into selecting the right people and making sure they get engaged in the culture, the employees are able to also get engaged in the product systems and the philosophy of continuous improvement, thereby keeping Toyota at the top of the heap in customer satisfaction.

The biggest difference I heard Mr. Liker say was that they hire someone with the idea that they have taken them into the company for life. Therefore, it is worth their investment to develop them. I think this is very different from the average company and therefore the average employee who see each other as expendable. It is the rare company that takes the time and effort to really engage their employees so they will want to stay and then provide them development opportunities so they can grow to be the best employee possible. Partly because of this, it is the rare employee who sees a company as a partnership for life where they can grow, contribute, and take pride in ownership of its success.