You Can't Replicate Culture

Listening to the “This American Life” episode on the GM/Toyota NUMMI plant recently, one particular part struck me as interesting when it comes to culture.

Culture is something that everyone would love to be able to easily replicate. Companies like Etsy, Netflix and others are forging ahead with openness, open source and empowering employees when it comes to their production systems.

NUMMI was an attempt to bring Toyota’s principles in building cars to General Motors, the automotive giant that...