quietly excellent

There was an article in the WSJ today about Toyota and Jim Press, their north american CEO.

Â http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118236836933942337.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

Late last year in a New York conference room, Mr. Press quietly listened to a pitch from Japanese advertising agency Dentsu Inc. for a campaign that used Toyota’s growing American work force as a way to deflect potential criticism over the company’s strength in the U.S. Then he politely sent the Dentsu team back to the drawing board.

“I really appreciate your efforts,” he said. But “isn’t diversity something you don’t tout publicly but something you just carry out quietly inside the company?”


Toyota does not try to win awards as they believe the effort involved to apply for an award is also waste.Â  Instead of trying to win a Shingo Prize, they openly teach their methods to others.

Quiet excellence gives a sense of being deeply real and fundamentally true.Â  Because it usually is.