Chapter 6

Toyota Leadership Turning Around Dana Corporation

Rough waters are truer tests of leadership. In calm water, every ship has a good captain.

—Swedish proverb

We believe that it is too easy for other companies to take away the wrong lessons from Toyota—by focusing on tools rather than on culture or on metrics rather than on leadership, for instance. But it’s also easy to simply reject the Toyota approach on the grounds that it would “never work here.” It’s no doubt true that the Toyota culture is distinct from, and even foreign to, the standards and practices that have become the norm in most global companies. Taking the long view, patiently developing people and leaders, and treating employees as appreciating assets is not always within the power of even the most senior executives of a company, who must answer to shareholders and the board of directors.