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Here are five choice articles from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to about leadership, co-leadership, innovation, and Ford and GM in the wake of the Toyota recall.

From SMU: Thinking of leading? Think about winning first!
"As a 34-year veteran of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, Pradeep Pant, President of Kraft Foods Asia Pacific, can say quite convincingly that he knows the key to successful leadership."

Wally's Comment: Let's move quickly past the "key to successful leadership." There isn't one. Or maybe there are lots of them. In any case, that's not what makes this article worth reading. It's the author's take on what a "winning mindset" is and what it might mean for you.

From the Economist: The trouble with tandems
"AS ANYONE who has tried knows only too well, riding a tandem bicycle, with two seats and two sets of pedals, takes some getting used to. Even a small misunderstanding between the riders over the direction in which they want to go can cause the bicycle to wobble worryingly or spin out of control. Trying to steer a large company in tandem requires a similarly delicate balancing act, because a lack of co-ordination between joint chief executives can destabilise the business. Yet in spite of such concerns, two well-known companies have recently plumped for dual leadership."

Wally's Comment: I heard it again and again while I was coming up: "You can only have one boss." Mostly I still believe that. The Economist takes aim at co-leadership of companies and how such an arrangement might work or might not work.

From Strategy + Business: Five Gates to Innovation
"Corning Inc.’s process for developing inventive products actually works, a claim that few companies can make."

Wally's Comment: It may turn out that product innovation is a lot like mergers and acquisitions. Lots of companies do them. Few do them well. The ones that do usually learned by doing a lot of them and then developing a "playbook" which they use over and over again. This article is about Corning's innovation playbook for one kind of innovation. There arethree kinds of innovation and that they require different practices.

From HBS Working Knowledge: A Golden Opportunity for Ford and GM
"Toyota's tragic automobile recalls offer a historic opportunity for Ford's CEO Alan Mulally and General Motors' new CEO Ed Whitacre. After years of decline, they can reestablish the preeminence of American-made autos if they are wise at leading through this crisis. "

Wally's Comment: Since I did my post on recent articles about Toyota and its recall problems, the topics of many articles have shifted. The articles were about either how Toyota could have gotten into this mess or how it screwed up the recall/investigation. Now more articles seem to be about the details of handling the issue (e.g. Frank Ahrens on why it's hard to explain an engineering problem to legislators) or about how US companies can strike while the iron is hot.

From the NY Times: G.M. and Ford Channel Toyota to Beat Toyota
"For the first time in decades, shoppers who once would have headed directly to the nearest Toyota dealership are taking a look at American automakers. A rare opportunity has knocked. But are G.M. and Ford ready to answer? Absolutely, the companies say, and analysts and consumer surveys suggest that both companies have made substantial, if rather overdue, strides in the last three years in improving vehicle reliability. The fuller picture is more complicated."

Wally's Comment: This excellent article by David Segal of the New York Times is about now Ford and GM, but mostly GM, are responding to both the challenge of selling more and better cars, making a profit and exploiting the Toyota recall.

The article is mostly about quality and for some of us it's like déjà vu all over again. Jamie Hresko, GM’s VP for quality, is a key figure in the article and he recounts learning some simple things when he was assigned to the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, after Toyota took over management of the plant which GM had run before.

What's not here is the basic NUMMI story. It was an awful plant when GM ran it. It turned excellent when Toyota ran it with the same workers. There's more detail in my post "Put Your Trust in Systems, Not in Genius."

GM said it wanted to learn about Toyota's methods from the joint venture. They sent people like Mr. Hresko, to the plant for that purpose. Those people sent back reports. But nothing changed.

The human-centered Toyota approached clashed with GM's preference for engineered/technological solutions. The cooperative Toyota methods for dealing with workers and suppliers clashed with GM's preference for the competitive and adversarial. The Toyota emphasis on small innovations clashed the GM's preference for home runs.

Perhaps it will be different this time. It's only taken a quarter century and one bankruptcy.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.