The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection!!
On Christmas Day, I remember the highest teachings of Jesus Christ in the form of Sermon on the Mount, which he taught to his few chosen disciples.
The Gospel of Matthew is part of the new testament and records the Sermon on the Mount. I am most impressed by Matthew 5:48 that quotes Christ as saying, ‘ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’
Humans have been striving for perfection from time immemorial — it is wise counsel and simple to state but very hard to put into action.
Of all the companies in the journey of getting to perfection, Toyota epitomizes this mindset. For this reason alone, I am a huge fan of their corporate culture.
When Toyota created the luxury car brand Lexus, it made this mindset public by attaching the tagline ‘The relentless pursuit of perfection’ to the Lexus brand. The truth is that Toyota has been pursuing perfection in everything it does for a long time — more than a century, to be precise.
As I wrote in my suggestions for great leadership books, five of the seven cars I owned were made by Toyota (two are Lexus). I can vouch that Lexus cars have fantastic quality (amongst other luxury attributes that pamper you silly) — I recently sold — reluctantly, I should add — my 2004 SUV (RX 330) after it clocked 265,000 miles! I kept this car for so long as I was very attached to it (my son was about a year old when I bought it, and he learned to drive it a couple of years back!).
Adopting the Lexus mindset in everything we do can ensure we are never complacent and rest on our laurels.
To understand the Lexus mindset and apply it to your situation at work or home, you can’t go wrong by absorbing the books of Jeffrey Liker and Mike Rother.
While you are at it, check out the Sermon on the Mount — it is Christmas, and a diligent Matthew certainly cared enough to record and write about it !!
Finally, the pic in this blog shows some of these books gracing my coffee table at my home — yes, it is winter in California, and the fireplace is on :-).
