“Who are you?” asked the Scarecrow when he had stretched himself and yawned, “and where are you going?”
“My name is Dorothy,” said the girl, “and I am going to the Emerald City, to ask the great Oz to send me back to
Kansas.”
“Where is the Emerald City?” he inquired; “and who is Oz?”
“Why, don’t you know?” she returned, in surprise.
“No, indeed; I don’t know anything. You see, I am stuffed, so I have no brains at all,” he answered, sadly.
“Oh,” said Dorothy; “I’m awfully sorry for you.”
“Do you think,” he asked, “if I go to the Emerald City with you, that Oz would give me some brains?”
“I cannot tell,” she returned; “but you may come with me, if you like. If Oz will not give you any brains, you will be
no worse off than you are now.”
The Wizard of Oz BY L. FRANK BAUM
Toyota has been putting its brain to work solving a problem others don’t yet “see” or “own.” The world’s third largest automaker has been expanding capacity and building new plants despite an environ- ment of serious global overcapacity, sluggish sales, and plant closings around the world because the plant wants to solve its problems before its problems dissolve the plant. Using its head, while others are losing theirs, the $80 billion company is literally rethinking everything. A recent Fortune magazine article tells the story: “Toyota is big, fam-
ously conservative, and hugely successful. Why mess with a good thing? In fact, the company that the authoritative 1990 Massachusetts Institute of Technology report, ‘The Machine That Changed the World,’
called the most efficient automaker anywhere, is rethinking almost everything it does. Turning Japan’s unnerving stubborn economic slump into an opportunity, Toyota is reorganizing its operations, putting still more high technology into its factories, and reworking its legendary ‘lean production’ system. Even if some of the measures fail, Toyota is likely to emerge an even more vigorous global compet- itor.” Not overreacting to declining profits for a second year, the company continues hammering out solutions for the future. While some European and American automakers are closing plants, Toyota keeps opening new ones, increasing the company’s total capacity to one million vehicles. Instead of shrinking capacity, Toyota would rather rely on cost cutting to improve efficiency. Characteristic of a Solve It company, Toyota is setting the pace for competitors: Accord- ing to Fortune, “Just when the rest of the world started to catch on to Toyota’s lean production system, Toyota is adapting it to accom- modate new workers and advanced technology.” A perpetual problem solver, Toyota thrives on challenges. Always searching for ways to do things better, Toyota executives quickly adapt to change. Donald N. Smith, a manufacturing expert at the University of Michigan’s engineering school and a long-time Toyota watcher warns Toyota’s competitors to assume that Toyota will constantly improve in the fu- ture. To think otherwise would be a costly mistake. We agree. Toyota’s undying and unwavering Solve It attitude will undoubtedly ensure its standout performance among global corporations for years to come. We must issue this warning, however: Solve It means solving real problems, not tackling illusionary ones or just changing for change’s sake. In another Fortune magazine article, reporters recount the saga of Ann Taylor Stores: “Through the 1980s, Ann Taylor was the place for women to shop for stylish, well-made career clothes at better than department store prices. That strategy was still sound in 1989 when Joseph Brooks, former head of Lord & Taylor, and Merrill Lynch bought the company from Campeau Corp. for $430 million.
Brooks took Ann Taylor public in May 1991 for $26 a share. Merrill Lynch owns 54 percent of the shares outstanding.” As chief executive officer, Brooks began what appeared to be changing things for change’s sake, substituting synthetics for silk, linen, and wool blends
and squeezing suppliers. One supplier, Irving Benson, president of Cygne Design, bemoaned the situation to Fortune’s reporters: “You get nothing for nothing. When Brooks told me he wanted to pay less to make a jacket, cuts had to come from either the fabric or how the garment was made.” At the same time, Brooks expanded the operation from 139 to 200 stores. When customers did not materialize, the board forced Brooks to resign in November 1991. The cost? In fiscal 1991, Ann Taylor lost $15.8 million on sales of $438 million. To redirect the company’s problem-solving efforts, the board picked Frame Kasaks who had run Ann Taylor from 1983 to 1985 before she left to take over Talbots and then the Limited’s Abercrombie and Fitch division.
She returned to Ann Taylor in February 1992. According to the For- tune article, “Frame Kasaks is making progress. She has upgraded Ann Taylor’s mostly private-label fashions, installed procedures to monitor sales, and hired specialty retailing veterans. To broaden the store’s appeal, she has added more casual and weekend clothes.” While the results of Kasaks’s efforts have not yet come in, prospects look promising. It doesn’t take a genius to solve the sort of problems Kasaks inherited; it just takes persistent functioning Above The Line, discov- ering real problems, and designing appropriate solutions.
Unfortunately, many people attempt to solve problems without
“seeing” or “owning” reality, which makes the whole problem-solving effort nonsensical and misguided, as in the case of the U.S. Air Force’s fight against ozone depletion. The Wall Street Journal’s sarcastic article entitled “Survivors Will Glow in Happiness, Knowing the World Is a Safer Place,” provides an apt example: “Fear not: The U.S. gov- ernment will protect the ozone layer in the event of a nuclear holo- caust. To do its bit to save the planet, the U.S. Air Force plans to retrofit its nuclear missiles with cooling systems that don’t use chlo- rofluorocarbons. Those CFCs are blamed for depleting the atmosphere’s ozone layer, which protects people from skin cancer, glaucoma and other diseases by screening out harmful rays from the sun. Never mind that each intercontinental ballistic missile packs three to 10 bombs that can wipe out entire cities, making skin cancer and glaucoma moot concerns.” Good PR, perhaps, but silly problem solv- ing.
Simply acknowledging reality and accepting your role in creating your circumstances will achieve little if you fail to take action, solving real problems and removing real obstacles on your road to results.
To do so, you must exercise wisdom.