Sunday

Are Toyota and GE going through a cultural crisis?

I recently read Jim Collin's latest book "How the Mighty Fall". The book is an easy, useful and actionable read and I highly recommend it.

Timing was brilliant on Jim Collins' part as many, over the last year, wondered how it was possible that such successful institutions could fail that way...especially after so many books had been published lauding the practices of these giants.

The need for Collins' book became even more obvious this week as two of these "giants of performance" publicly faced scrutiny. This week's Economist's front page shows a picture of a "Banana on wheels" with the title "Toyota slips up". The Globe - one of Canada's top papers - provided coverage of GE's cultural crisis, quoting Immelt's new practices for getting a better pulse on the market.

What's your view on the change in fate of such admired companies? Are there key business performance principles they missed? Which ones do you think they should implement to turn it around?

Join the discussion on the Culture of Performance LinkedIn group @ http://tinyurl.com/o89vep

Best,
Bruno Aziza
Co-author, Drive Business Performance
Follow @ http://ping.fm/in2Py
Join on Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/ykcwkap

References:
Economist leader's article @ http://ping.fm/hW4AC
Globe's article on GE @ http://ping.fm/CtBDD