The Dispersion of Toyota Talent

One of the most fascinating trends out of there is the spread of
Toyota folks into other old-line automakers or parts suppliers –
Gary Convis, Jim Press, and Jim Farley, to name three. What impact
can they have outside of Toyota? It remains to be seen and it’s a
story worth following. How much impact can one man have on the
culture of an entire organization, even if they’re at the top?

The big news this week was
the hiring of retired Toyota executive Gary Convis as CEO at
Dana, a parts maker and auto supplier. Convis is one of my favorite
role models and examples of Lean leadership. Even though Dana has
had some success with Lean practices (including
some Shingo Prizes), it didn’t save the company from
bankruptcy.

Dana Puts Convis at the Wheel -
WSJ.com

From the WSJ article:

Toledo automobile-components supplier Dana Corp. will
announce Thursday the hiring of longtime Toyota Motor Corp.
manufacturing whiz Gary
Convis as its new chief executive.

I’d argue that “manufacturing whiz” only scratches the surface of
his leadership talent. When you see quotes from Convis like this
(from previous articles):

•

“You respect people, you listen to them, you work
together. You don’t blame them. Maybe the process was not set
up well, so it was easy to make a mistake.”

That type of mindset and leadership should translate well to an
entire company. Will Convis be able to stem the tide of traditional
blaming and strict top-down leadership? Will Convis be able to
spread the “respect for people” philosophy throughout Dana? Will he
have the runway to be able to do that? Or will Wall Street and the
investors want short-term focus? Will Convis be able to live the
Toyota Way? Will he even try, given this is Dana?

Back to the WSJ article, it gives the required analyst quote, for
whatever dubious value they add to the conversation:

Lehman Brothers automotive analyst Brian Johnson
said the paring of Mr. Convis with Mr. Devine should give the
company a management team that is capable of strengthening
relations with customers and Wall Street.

He said Mr. Convis’s immediate challenge is
“delivering the performance improvement” and driving the company
“to a leaner manufacturing
philosophy.”

Well, duh, of course Convis is supposed to help improve
performance. You might think, from his choice of words, that this
analyst doesn’t understand the Lean approach. “Leaner?” Lean isn’t
an end point, it’s a philosophy and a business system. What does
“leaner” mean? That Dana will have MORE of a long-term focus than
Toyota? What the heck does that mean? It would be more accurate to
say something like “driving the company to more fully implement the
lean manufacturing methods and philosophies.” Or how else would you
put it?

Either way, I hope Convis is wildly successful at Dana. That would
be a nice data point to prove that the Toyota Production System
works well in other companies.

A Star a Toyota, a
Believer at Ford - NY Times

The second related story is about Jim Farley and his move from
Toyota to Ford. It’s a fascinating profile - we learn, among other
things, that he is a cousin of the departed comedian Chris
Farley (there is a passing resemblance).

More importantly, Farley shares his passion for Ford and his drive
to help save the company.

Now Farley isn’t leading change from the top, but he can influence
the culture. Hopefully, he can bring the customer obsession from
Toyota:

Mr. Farley rode the fast track at Toyota. He moved to Europe in
1995 and helped introduce versions of the Yaris minicar and the
Corolla compact. He also became obsessed with what cars people
drove and why.

“I used to walk parking lots all the time, all over
Europe,” he said. “When I’m in a new situation,
my formula is to really find the
truth in things, to observe and get close to the
truth.”

The truth, as he saw it at Toyota, was all about the customer
— unlike at some other automakers that let executives dictate
what cars to build.

“One of the many things that Toyota does really, really
well is that it can put the voice of the customer right there at
the table in front of the chairman of the company, in a way that
even he can’t change it,” he said.

Farley learned to go to the “gemba,” to actually observe and talk
with customers. This is a long-standing pattern in Toyota
(including the stories of Japanese employees coming to the U.S. to
drive minivans across the continent to understand customer needs
here).

It also sounds like he will open up channels of communication:

“At Ford, it was like the boss was always right,” he
said. “But it is fascinating how quickly the people I work
with were able to shift to where they had their own opinions and
expressed them.”

Tie that back to the Convis quote. Convis is a servant leader. He
listens to his employees. That’s the magic. I hope that’s what they
can both help bring to Dana and Ford. If it can work there, it can
work anywhere.