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Current News Behind the Kimono of Toyota's Success: E-Learning Recently, a spate of press articles has surfaced lionizing Toyota as a superior manufacturer. Some examples include: "Toyota ... overtaking General Motors to lead the world's car industry. " (The Economist, January 29th, 2005) "The Smartest Company of the Year" (Business 2.0., January/February 2005) "Indeed, by nearly every measure, Toyota is the world's best auto manufacturer. It may be the world's best manufacturer, period." (RJTtune, February 7, 2005) What has made Toyota such a success? There are some obvious answers - such as the much-admired principles of continuous improvement and kaizen that have been the source of envy and emulation by many manufacturers. But there is a not-so-obvious answer as well - a passionate technology application that is typical of Toyota's early-adopter, innovative spirit and yet has operated somewhat off the radar screen. Behind the Toyota Kimono is a forward thinking, ubiquitous e-Learning culture that keeps all employees, in all geographical locations, at all levels of the company, educated on the brand and product knowledge that keeps the Toyota engine purring. In fact, the empowering spirit guided by the kaizen principle is exactly what has driven the company to adopt smart e-Learning technologies to continuously educate and train its sales force. At the core of Toyota's mission of becoming the largest and most successful auto company in the world is the tactical goal of producing more models and bringing them to market faster than anyone of their competitors. The lean-thinking approach Toyota employs to reach these goals extends into their training activities - where they have eliminated waste and cut costs by keeping the reigns of e-learning firmly in the hands of customer facing sales and marketing teams. As a result, the company's e-:earning infrastructure can be rapidly updated to train the sales force on new product launches and upgrades - with more speed and efficiency than their competitors. Not only can new vehicles be brought to market quicker - but the sales acumen needed to move them off the lot is transferred quicker than Toyota's competitors as well. Keeping the entire company educated on new brand and product knowledge is a heady enterprise. External success has bred internal complexity. Since 1990, Toyota has grown from running 20 plants in 14 foreign countries to 47 plants in 26 overseas markets. The company directly employs over 360,000 people who speak over 30 different languages and produce over two million vehicles a year. Traditional modes of training have historically become an increasingly cumbersome and expensive task - requiring offsite meetings that reduce worker productivity and instructor fees and travel costs that total in the hundreds of millions. 1tue to Toyota's early-adopter spirit, the company has embraced e-Learning to such an extent that it overcomes the geographical hurdles and language barriers that continue to grow as the company expands. We live in a demand-driven economy where consumers wield more power than manufacturers. Real-time access to a wealth of information not available to previous generations has immutably changed the power structure of the salesperson/customer relationship. The point-of-purchase end of the manufacturing supply chain is more important than ever before. Companies that do not employ today's latest learning technologies for its sales force run the risk of losing market share to competitors and making the rest of their own operations obsolete. This reality has made the point-of-purchase the most crucial part of the modem manufacturer's operations. |
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Ubiquitously deployed and consistently updated, e-Learning ensures that all the salespeople in an enterprise - whether they are in Kansas City or Beijing - are kept fully up-to-date on the products, innovations and services that consumers are seeking. E-Learning provides for the rapid transfer of brand and product knowledge from the boardroom, to the factory floor, to the distributor, and ultimately to the dealership. All the lean manufacturing and innovative technologies that are behind the product boil down to the moment a potential customer stands in front of the salesperson. Customers expect salespeople to know about the products they represent, especially with expensive purchases (such as automobiles) or complex products (like power tools). If a salesperson cannot respond to the customer's questions, if he or she cannot impart the competitive advantages that distinguish their product from its competition, chances are the customer will not respond with a purchase. Many companies have taken time to study Toyota's processes. The company continues to be a case study on the success that comes when an enterprise is dedicated to innovation and adapts constantly to a fluctuating marketplace. For many years, Toyota has welcomed eager competitors to take a tour of their facilities and a close view of their operations. Perhaps that's because one of the strongest competitive weapons Toyota employs cannot be seen on the factory floor. A large part of Toyota's success must be attributed to their enterprise-wide, external-facing and continuous learning program. The company's commitment to the efficient and consistent transfer of knowledge about new products and the Toyota-brand promise has helped transform more shopping opportunities into sales than ever before. Peering behind the kimono, one will see that the lean innovative spirit that has driven Toyota's success and has been the source of envy for its competitors extends to all corners of the enterprise. The Economist sums it up in its February 4th issue: "In the case of Toyota, there is one extra ingredient that is somewhat mystical, if not exactly magical. There is such a strong corporate culture that every employee knows the 'Toyota Way' of doing things." |