Rodney Johnson - Without Warning

There is an old saying that ”A fish rots from the head down.” This saying gets to the heart of why and where many organizations fail. This of course being leadership. As the Toyota story continues to unfold, I’ve been pondering from where is the Toyota fish rotting? From the head (corporate & leadership), from the tail (dealers), or from the midsection (manufacturing & engineering)? Let’s take a brief look at some of these areas.

• Without a doubt, Toyota’s manufacturing system has been untouched. It continues to be the crown jewel.
• In most respects, even engineering hasn’t been implicated. Granted, Toyota’s problems have ties to engineering, but engineering doesn’t appear to be at fault. The reason being, engineering is dependent on continuous and timely feedback so it can adjust, refine and improve the system. It’s apparent that engineering has been every bit as much in the dark about Toyota’s problems as is the customer.
• And what about Toyota’s dealers? Although there have been stories of arrogance (Toyota is the best…), it doesn’t appear that dealers have been at the source of the problem. Maybe somewhat complacent, but not the source.

So where does the root of Toyota’s problems lie? Here I started to compress every news article I’ve read over the past couple of months (and believe me, it is a long list). After a few days of pondering the answer, problem identification is becoming clear, it’s the corporate mothership and its leadership. Yes, a fish rots from the head down seems to apply. Let me present a few of the scenarios at play here.

1.  In today’s Wall Street Journal, they have a story titled “Toyota Woes Put Focus On Black Box.” The story delves into the black box (similar to the black box of an airplane) that sits inside every car and how Toyota defies releasing the information that lies within. The WSJ goes on to state, “U.S. auto makers General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have provided their black-box data formats to Bosch Diagnostics, a unit of German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH that makes tools that download crash logs from vehicles made by those auto makers. Those tools are widely used by police, crash investigators and attorneys, and the auto makers don’t question the accuracy of the data retrieved with them.”
2. Toyota has been dragging their feet. “Toyota’s relationship with industry regulators, as The New York Times, was a “kabuki dance” that even involved an unprecedented trip to Japan by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Secretary Ray LaHood. Toyota execs were reportedly “dragging things out” and “offering excuses that didn’t make any sense.”
3. Another WSJ article discusses the Japanese culture and its relation to the problem. “In Japan there is a proverb, “If it stinks, put a lid on it.” Alas, this seems to have been Toyota’s approach to its burgeoning safety crisis, initially denying, minimizing and mitigating the problems involving brakes that don’t brake and accelerators that have a mind of their own. President Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, was MIA for two weeks and the company has appeared less than forthcoming about critical safety issues, risking the trust of its customers world-wide.”

As stated earlier, the where does the fish rot scenario is an important question to answer, because it is the starting point from which change must occur. My analysis points to Toyota corporate and its leadership team as the problem, since they’ve been the willing agents that have embraced silent problems along the way. And this creates a significant challenge to Toyota, and their recovery. How can an organization change, now that the rules of the game are quickly changing. How can a culture or secrecy be transformed to one of transparency overnight? How can an organization of complexity be transformed into one of simplicity? How can an organization that conforms evolve into an organization that is agile and willing to speak up?

These are the issues facing Toyota and is why Toyota’s future is so uncertain.