After six years of research, six case studies, and more than 220 interviews with Toyota employees, distributors, and dealers across the globe, the authors provide fascinating insights on the inner workings of the Toyota company and why it is so successful.

In 2001, Toyota's Executive Vice President in charge of overseas marketing and sales, Yoshio Ishizaka, granted all three authors rare access to the company. The aim was to understand the vital elements of Toyota that make it unique as an industrial manufacturer. Toyota agreed to a hands-off policy and gave the authors full access and complete editorial control. The central question was why does Toyota continue to outperform its competitors? What is the source of its capability for self-renewal? After six years of research, six case studies, and more than 220 interviews with Toyota employees, distributors, and dealers across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Japan, the authors have fascinating insights on the inner workings of this company and why it is so successful. The book offers the first peek at a unique global approach to organizational behavior in the era of the global knowledge worker. Toyota has transformed an old industry for the new paradigm by learning to manage human creativity, which is always growing yet always incomplete and often contradictory. This will be the first book to argue that it is the way Toyota approaches the hard and the soft sides that allows it to continue outperforming its competitors. The human ability to create knowledge is the most valuable resource in the knowledge era. As Jim Press, the newly appointed American on the corporate board, says, Toyota should always remain a green tomato. This is the first book to look at the big picture of Toyota from the inside, with all the company's contradictions, paradoxes, and opposites.

• Chapter 1. Extreme Toyota: An Organization Powered by Creative Contradictions.An Amazing Track Record.The 'Hard' Side of Toyota.How Toyota is Like a Failed, Stagnant Company: The Powerful and Mysterious 'Soft' Side.Management Orchestrated Contradictions, Opposites, and Paradoxes.Moving Gradually and Taking a Big Leap.A Frugal Big Spender.Operationally Efficient and Redundant.Stable and Paranoid.Hierarchical and Free to Dissent.Simplified and Complex Communication.Embracing Contradiction is a Way of Life.Moving Toyota Onward and Upward.Chapter 2. Six Opposing Forces That Drive the Company's Expansion - and Keep it From Breaking Apart.Forces of Expansion.Impossible Goals.Experimentation.Local Customization.Forces of Integration.Founders' Philosophies.Nerve System."
• Up-and-in"
• Human Resource Management.Six Forces Working Together.Resource Base.Six Forces that Created the Lexus.Chapter 3. The Force of Impossible Goals.Meet Every Customer Need.The U.S. Youth Segment.The U.S. Trucker Segment.Developing Other Markets.The Finest Cars, the Finest Dealers: Anti-aging the Lexus.The Finest Cars Ever Built.The Finest Dealer Network.Anti-aging the Lexus.Bypassing Japan to Make a Global Car.Making Impossible Goals a Reality.Chapter 4. Eagerness to Experiment.Experimentation Hardware: The Eight-step and A3 Processes.The Objective of the Objective: The Starting Point of an A3 Analysis.Breaking Down the Problem.Start Small and Take Incremental Steps.Repeat Experiments Even If They Fail.Institutionalizing Successful Practices.Continue to Raise the Standard.Experimentation Software: Values.Taking Decisive Action.Tolerating Failure.Being Honest.Doing Good.Never Giving Up.Conclusion.Chapter 5. Local Customization.The Underdog Even at Home.Customizing the IMV in Asia.The Challenges and Benefits of Local Customization.Customizing the Yaris for Europe.Customizing the Scion for the U.S. The Custom Features.Customizing Operations.Customizing the Tundra for the U.S.Disseminating Local Best Practices Throughout the World.Conclusion.Chapter 6. The Founders' Philosophies.Tomorrow Will be Better than Today.Seeing Obstacles as Challenges to be Overcome.Never Being Satisfied with the Status Quo.Everybody Should Win.Factory Workers as Knowledge Workers.Dealers as Partners.Teamwork as a Ring of Power.Customer First, Dealers Second, and Manufacturer Last.The Lexus Covenant and Recall.Customer First in Service.Genchi Genbutsu.ConclusionChapter 7. Toyota's Nerve System - A Human Version of the World Wide Web.Open and Lateral Dissemination of Know-how.Freedom to Voice Contrary Opinions.Face-to-face Interaction.Making Tacit Knowledge Explicit: The Toyota Way 2001.Formal and Informal Support Mechanisms.Conclusion.Chapter 8. Up-and-in"
• Human Resource Management.Stable, Long-term Employment.Training, Training, Training.Power as a Team.Action Oriented.Learning-based Evaluation.Conclusion.Chapter 9. Toyota's Resource Base.Investing in Efficiency.Running an Efficient Production System.Investing in Manufacturing and Development Capacity.Cultivating Organizational Capability and People.Building Better Dealerships.Building the Brand.Developing People.Global Training.The University of Toyota.The Global Knowledge Center.The Global Production Center.The Toyota Institute.Conclusion.Chapter 10. A Company Always in Danger.Organizational Growth Pains.Employee Complacency.Cultural Rigidity.Workforce Diversity.Insular Approach to the Capital Markets.The Rise of New Competitors.Chapter 11. What Your Organization Can Learn From Toyota: Ten Powerful Contradictions.Emulating Toyota: Embrace Contradictions.Contradiction 1 - Impossible Goals: "
• Know Where Reality Stands to take on Impossibly High Goals"
• .Contradiction 2 - Experimentation: "
• Conduct Small, Interim Experiments to Realize the Occasional Big Jump"
• .Contradiction 3 - Local Customization: "
• Localize to Become Global"
• .Contradiction 4 - Founders' Philosophies: "
• Cherish the Founders' Philosophies to Nurture Future Leaders"
• .Contradiction 5 - Founders' Philosophies: "
• Remain Incomplete in Order to Grow"
• Contradiction 6 - Nerve System: "
• Creating an Interconnected World through An Analog Web in the Digital Age"
• .Contradiction 7 - Nerve System: "
• Bad News First to Become a Good Corporate Citizen"
• .Contradiction 8 - Up-and-in Human Resource Management: "
• To Maximize Productivity, Don't Let Go of People"
• .Contradiction 9 - Up-and-in Human Resource Management: "
• Appeal to Human Compassion to Increase Industrial Production"
• .Contradiction 10 - Resource Base: "
• Say No to Shortcuts for Long-term Gains"
• .Conclusion.Appendix A. Graphs.Chapter 1 - Extreme Toyota.Chapter 2 - Six Forces.Chapter 3 - Impossible Goals.Chapter 9 - Resources.Appendix B. - Literature Review on Toyota.About the Literature Review Methodology.Selected English Book Publications on Toyota - 1980 to 2006.Selected English Articles on Toyota - 1980 to 2006.

Heavily footed and studded with graphs and charts, this insider's view of one of the world's leading manufacturers is somewhat academic in tone yet has enough anecdotes to make it interesting. (Library Journal, May 15, 2008)