Carl Klemm Former Head of Toyota and Author of The Balance of Excellence
Today Lee has the immense pleasure of interviewing much lauded author of ‘The Balance of Excellence’ Carl Klemm. The former head of Toyota plants shares his story and wisdom on manufacturing management culture, success and failure, leadership, coaching, writing, team structure, training good habits and learning.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Carl started off as a young apprentice with Vauxhall Motors and continued with them for 23 years ending up as a general manager in charge of plant quality. He then took up a post as General Manager for Quality Assurance with Toyota. He started his own management consultancy sharing his wealth of knowledge he has gathered over so many years in the motor manufacturing industry. The shift between GM and Toyota was a culture shock. GM was a competitive, non cooperative command and control structure. Toyota, however, was a collaborative, planning, teamwork structure. A real issue for organisations effecting change is if the upper management or CEO does not want to accept the changes to their own job. There has to be a steady flow throughout the power structure. Top management is busy. They don’t have any spare time so are trained for fast decisions. Persuading them to consider the problem at the point of problem is difficult so get them to do it at least 12 times and they will adopt it as a habit. Learning is forever changing and evolving due to the nature of the journey.
BEST MOMENTS
‘And the President only asked one question, he asked “Why do you want to join Toyota” and I said “I spent four years studying Toyota for GM, including the plant in Fremont in California. Then I came back and tried to implement it and I failed miserably. But I want to succeed so I want to join and I want to learn how its done and then I want to share it.”’ - Carl
‘Coming from being a very successful General Manager in GM to a General Manager in Toyota but realising very quickly that I was an apprentice was really hard to swallow.’ -Carl
‘There is no other way, actually, than doing it. That’s why my first sentence is “I swore never to write this book.” - Carl
‘I’m working with a national organisation at the minute and I had no influence on where they started and the pilot location, and we are at a point now where we’ve created a rhythm and a communication flow within a single location. What it has highlighted is that before I work with them they’ll have a monthly meeting structure, but then when you introduce a daily meeting structure and its feeding into a monthly meeting structure there’s a huge disconnect there.’ – Lee
‘I’ve written it from a selfish point of view to help me to explain to people, especially top management people, what it is we are talking about and how it all fits together and which bit of it we are working on now.’ - Carl
VALUABLE RESOURCES
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ABOUT THE HOST
For the last 15 years, I have been a multi-sector internal or external business improvement consultant, building the improved capability of individuals, teams and businesses.
In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my two young children Jack & India. I also enjoy listening to and reading business & personal development material.
Lee Houghton is “THE Business Problem Solver”, a Management Consultant, CX Specialist and Keynote Speaker.
CONTACT METHOD
You can contact Lee Houghton on 07813342194
Lee@leehoughton.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lhoughton/
