Business Analyst Journal

The introduction to the idea of path dependence and its relevance in development of historical Social Sciences begins from very common concept of history and historicity in narration. Contemporary research on this idea can be considered as part of broader intellectual movement which can be explained as quest for historical social sciences. One of the best descriptions of path dependence, in artistic sense, can be found in this book which is Paul Klee’s famous painting, Angelus Novus. The painting in which the angel gazes with mouth wide open and wings extended on the heap of the ruins of history has attracted many interesting interpretations. One interpretation by Walter Benjamin sees a strong wind blowing from paradise which prevents the angel from closing its wings. The wind drives the angel away from the past towards the future. This wind can be called progress. This interpretation has brought many comments: The landscape that angel sees, changes continuously. Can the journey of the angel through this landscape be conceptualized as path dependency? In certain sense yes, because there is no way it can escape its connection to the past.

The book The Toyota way to lean leadership by Jeffery K Liker and Gary L Convis is a piece of comprehensive and exhaustive account of the Toyota as a company and the practice of its successful concept of lean leadership at every level of the management which are responsible to making Toyota one of the most successful car manufacturing companies of all times. It also discusses the reasons for failure the organisation suffered between 2007 to 2011 and the factors which were responsible for it. The book goes in detail about the role of lean leadership in an organisation such a Toyota and the lean leadership in Toyota is discussed in depth which helps us to understand the effort the authors have put to study the company, its processes and systems and also its people to help the readers understand the implications of lean leadership which built world class organisation such as Toyota. It also discusses the five year period where Toyota was going through a crisis and there were lot of issues which pointed at lack of clarity and vision of the top management and the senior leadership in the global markets away from the domestic Japanese market and the lessons that Toyaota learnt from three major issues which impacted its market leadership position.