I read in September about the demise of 100-year-old Eiji Toyoda, and of his commitment to implant lean-oriented visions into his family-owned Toyota industrial enterprise. At the time I was reading Josip Krulic’s book, Histoire de la Yougoslavie: de 1945 à Nos Jours (History of Yugoslavia From 1945 to the Present, Complexe, 1993), and I was struck by some similarities.
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The 1999 Italian edition quotes a Nov. 6, 1947, article from Borba, the Yugoslavian daily newspaper. The article cites the Skopje Imperial Tobacco Manufacturing Co. in Macedonia as having gone beyond its five-year plan, thanks to Svetan Ivanov, “an exceptional leader,” and Boris Taneskerov, “a rationalizer,” i.e., a thinker. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any Internet link to either of them, although there is plenty of information about the factory.
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Comments
Toyoda's Way
Umberto,
Very nice article. I believe that your underlying message is that we, as humans, no matter what our natinality, think alike, bot in a positive way to improve and sometimes, also in our resistance to change. I have been working for a Japanese company that was founded by Toyoda - JTEKT. I've found that we think alike and the only real difference has been in the vocabulary that we use to describe something.
Thanks for writing the article and sharing your perspective. I appreciate your thoughts, both this article and several that you've previously written.
Jim Beckham
Director, TQM
JTEKT North America
Thank you, Jim
Thank you, Jim, for your kind and encouraging words: I'm a newcomer to Quality Digest, and positive comments are obviously welcome. I feel however the need for a clarification: the wording has probably gone astray when editing; the "assault workers" philosophy was not to decrease the working population via mechanization BUT to DECREASE its working hours; the text may look a bit misleading. I like the "Japanese way", though I don't know it directly: I hope to, some day. Best regards.
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