It’s a start to know you have a problem…

Good to be back from break.  Over the years, I’ve found that the paradox of a really good vacation is that by the end I’m raring to get back home and off to work.

Yesterday, I saw a great WSJ article on the travails of Toyota (here) that shows even great companies stumble — the company is facing its first operating loss in 70 years.  The author highlights recent quality issues and strategic missteps, especially over-expansion of capacity.  Toyota is taking steps to fix these issues, though

[t]he best news for Toyota is that [President Katsuaki] Watanabe seems worried.  As he told the Reuters news agency last February, before the current crisis struck: “I’m constantly trying to drive home the message that long-lasting success is elusive.”

Earlier in the article, Mr. Watanabe laid out the challenge in starker terms: “It’s a kind of emergency that we’ve never experienced before.”  The same challenge lays ahead for me and many of our firms.  We will need to make wrenching personal and organizational changes to survive and thrive. 

To that end, I expect to spend much of 2009 exploring how to prepare ourselves for the needed changes.