How Toyota conquered the world

This article tells the story of how Toyota has become the most successful car company in the world ( may need subscription).

Toyota's stock market valuation is $240billion-higher than Ford, GM, Daimler Chrysler, Nissan and Honda combined.And the New York Times writer suggests that if Toyota were a baseball team it would win 150 out of 162 games.

Whilst their competition are over-weight and struggling with over-capacity, downsizing, falling demand, stocks and severe financial challenges, Toyota go from strength to strength.

What did they do right?

Two things stand out.

They focused on small innovations delivering big improvements to production efficiencies, products and output over time. And they maintained an absolute focus on customers. They call it genchi genbutsu, understanding what customers want in cars and where current vehicles are failing them.

They even sent a team of engineers to inspect rusty old trucks in a scrapyard to see how trucks had evolved over 30 years to see if they could gain an insight into how they might develop over the next 30!