God’s Way
God’s Way
Sakichi Toyoda was born February 14, 1867, in a remote farming community in Japan. His dad was not a farmer but a carpenter who loved to tinker with things. Sakichi was like his father and would eventually be known as the “King of Japanese Inventors.”
The young man was inspired by Samuel Smiles’ book, Self-Help, which tells the stories of some of history’s greatest inventors. Smiles emphasized the value of self-help, suggesting we should pay attention to everything.
This focus on innovation prompted the young entrepreneur to design a power-driven loom after watching his mother and grandmother slowly weave on their manual looms. He eventually started a new company, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. He believed progress was based on trial and error; calling it, genchi genbutsu, or “go and see.” The innovation he introduced proved to be a driving force behind the textile industry’s reformation.
Sakichi eventually founded a business which still bears his last name, Toyoda Industries. The company changed its’ name to Toyota in 1936 and expanded as his son, Kiichiro, shifted their focus from loom manufacturing to primarily making automobiles.
In 1950, Sakichi’s nephew Eiji, organized a 12-week trip for his engineers to visit American automobile manufacturers. The Toyota team was amazed at how inefficient America’s assembly lines were and decided they could build better vehicles more efficiently and sell them for less, a goal which eventually led to unimaginable success.
Today, Toyota is the world’s largest automobile manufacturer. It became the first company to produce more than 10 million autos per year in 2012. Eleven years later, in September 2023, the company’s 300 millionth vehicle rolled off the line.
Toyota’s incredible success began with an innovative carpenter’s son who loved to tinker. Toyoda’s tinkering led to his company first making motorized looms and then to manufacturing more automobiles than any company ever has. Sakichi and his descendants became successful because they were willing to consistently make small improvements.
When change happens quickly we rarely manage it well. God told his people this as they prepared to enter the promised land and drive out the nations who lived there. “…I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply and threaten you. I will drive them out a little at a time until your population has increased enough to take possession of the land.” (Exodus 23:29-30, NLT, bold is my emphasis)
Few of us can quickly handle significant changes. The Toyoda family demonstrates what can happen when people are committed to learning and making small, consistent improvements. In Exodus we discover God often works, “a little at a time.”
None of us will change the world in a day, but each of us can make minor changes which God may use in ways we cannot imagine. This is how God worked when he led his people into the promised land, and it is how he typically works today.