article thumbnail

Patience in Japan

Harvard Business Review

Consider the reports of my HBS colleague Hiro Takeuchi, a Japanese national who was working in Tokyo last week when tremors hit the city. There was no pushing and shoving, Takeuchi reported, no honking of car horns, even in long waits for a tank of gas. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School.

article thumbnail

The Secret History of Agile Innovation

Harvard Business Review

Toyota hired Deming to train hundreds of the company’s managers, eventually capitalizing on his expertise to develop the famous Toyota Production System — the primary source of today’s “lean” thinking.