The Toyota Leaders "An Executive Guide" by Masaaki Sato is a good read about leaders that built Toyota.
While perusing my local library I came across this book and was i happy I did.
Written in 2008 by Masaaki Sato this book delves into the history of the leaders themselves, the decisions they made and some of the reasons why. The book is not about TPS, JIT or Jidoka but about the leaders that created them
The authors experience in Japan's auto industry dates back to the 1980's when he worked for Nikkei (the Japanese Wall Street Journal). The book was originally written in Japanese and then translated to English and it covers everyone from Sakichi Toyoda to Katsuaki Watanabe (1867 - 2008)
The book is well crafted and after a while I began to relate to the executives like they were characters in a novel. The Toyota Executives became: Eiji, Hiroshi, Shoichiro and Kichiro as opposed to President, SVP, CFO or COO.
The content was great and now I have a better understanding of the executives and what influenced their decision making: Economic climate, international relations, Ford, GM, Nissan, Chrysler and Honda to name a few.
The only negative I would say would be that the chronological order of events seemed to skip around a bit much. I don't know if this was a matter of the writers style, the translation or just my expectations but it did not deter my reading or my enjoyment of this book.
If you are looking for a book that has more to do with the leadership style that is instilled in every manager, director and executive at Toyota then you should check out my review on How Toyota Became #1 by David Magee
