양현석 김태호!!!! 창의성의 중요성!!

A : "어른들이 20대를 보고 청춘이라고 많이 말씀들 하시잖아요? 그런데 대학에 들어오니까, 또 학점으로 친구들과 경쟁을 하고 있더라고요. 그리고 또 다른 친구들과 비교가 되는 스펙을 쌓기 위해 또 많은 노력을 하고. 어떤 평가의 기준에 따라가기만 바빴던 것 같아요. 좀 일깨울 수 있는 말씀을 듣고 싶어요." 

B : "그 학점을 따려고 하는 게 본인이 하려고 하는 것과 아주 직접적으로 큰 영향을 끼치나요?"
A : "네."

B : "어떤 일을 하실 건데요?"
A : "저는 니트 패션 디자이너가 꿈이에요." 

B : "패션 디자이너가 꿈이세요? 음…. 패션은 특히 음악과 마찬가지로 창의력이 제일 중요한 거 아닌가요? 창의력은 누구한테 배워서 되는 게 아닌데…."

만약 방송국에 들어가고 싶다면...

▲  MBC 다큐멘터리 <남극의 눈물> 제작진들. 왼쪽부터 김재영 PD, 송인혁 촬영감독, 김진만 PD.
ⓒ MBC	관련사진보기

누구와 누구의 대화일까. A는 대학생, 쉽게 추측이 가능하다. 그럼 B는? 양현석 YG 엔터테인먼트 대표. 그는 최근 SBS <힐링캠프>에 출연해 한 대학생과 이야기를 나눴다. 학점이나 스펙에 너무 연연하지 말라는 취지의 말, 대학생들 입장에서는 현실을 몰라도 너무 모르는 말 같았을 게다. 이날 대학생의 반론 역시 그랬다. "그런데 기업들은 무엇을 즐기며 노력했는가보다는 스펙을 더 많이 보지 않나요." 양현석은 이렇게 답변했다.

"대기업에 가서 경험을 쌓으면 유명한 패션 디자이너가 되나요? 저는 갇힐 거 같은데? 세상에 유명한 아티스트나 패션 디자이너들은 그런 식의 정규 교육과 학점을 따기 위해서 공부하지 않았다고 생각합니다. (중략) 뭐, 클럽에 놀러 가는 친구들과 어울리기도 하고, 좋아하는 사람이 있으면 거침없이 사귀시기도 하고, 학교를 안 다니더라도 정말 똑똑한 친구들과 만나서 커뮤니케이션도 하고…. 여러 문화에 대해 좀 더 영향을 많이 받아야 할 것 같아요."

이 답변에 창의력을 연구한 교수님들은 아마 고개를 끄덕였을 것이다. 한국적 창의성 전문가 최인수 교수는 "결국 우리의 상상력은 과거 우리가 경험했던 사물에 대한 지각과 인식으로부터 쉽게 벗어날 수 없다"라고 했다. "창의적 문제 해결은 수많은 준비와 관찰 그리고 추리라는 지난한 과정의 결과이지, 순간적인 통찰에 의해 우연히 이뤄지는 게 결코 아니란 것"이다. 

한 마디로 창의력은 결국 삶이 만들어내는 힘이란 이야기다. 욕조 속에서 갑자기 유레카가 나온 것이 아니라, 욕조 밖 아르키메데스의 삶이 유레카에 이르게 했다는 이야기다. 역시 창의적인 업종에 종사하는 사람, <아마존의 눈물>로 잘 알려진 MBC 김진만 PD의 말 역시 양현석의 그것과 판박이다.

"방송사에서 가장 많이 요구하는 게 창의력이란 얘기를 하죠. 많은 경험을 한 사람들일수록 좀 더 창의적인 생각을 많이 할 수 있는 것은 맞거든요. 아무것도 경험하지 못하고, 아무 책도 읽지 않았고, 아무 사람도 만나지 않는 데에서 창의적인 생각은 나올 수 없고요. 세상 아래 정말 새롭고 이런 것도 없고요. 

대학에서 정말, 학점 같은 것도 중요하지만, 여러분들이 MBC에 수석으로 입학할 필요는 없잖아요. 학점이나 필기 시험이나 그냥 기본, 통과할 수 있을 정도로만 한다면, 그외 시간들은 많은 여행을 다니고요, 많은 책을 만나고, 많은 사람들을 만나고, 그런 것들이 가장 큰 도움이 될 수 있을 거라 생각해요. 심사위원들도 그 사람이 갖고 있는 독특한 경험 같은 것들에 흥미를 많이 느끼거든요."(2012년 5월 12일, 여의도 MBC 방송대학)

삶이 만들어내는 힘, 창의력

▲  김태호 PD.
ⓒ MBC	관련사진보기

창의력을 키우는 데 왕도는 없다. 나쁜 길만 아니라면 가리지 말고 이런 길, 저런 길 기꺼이 걸어야 한다. 사람들로 하여금 '어떻게 저런 생각을 해내지?'라는 물음을 갖게 만드는 <무한도전>, 그 중심에 있는 김태호의 결론 또한 마찬가지다.

"아이디어를 어떻게 얻느냐는 질문을 많이 받는데요. 대단히 새로운 건 없어요. 창의력이라는 게 제가 살아온 경험이 부딪쳐서 생기는 것 같아요. 다양한 인식과 경험이 만나면서 새로운 생각이 튀어나오는 거죠."

이 말에는 창의력에 대한 이해를 높일 수 있는 단서가 숨어있다. 자신이 살아온 경험이 부딪쳐서 창의력이 생기는 것 같다고 했다. 자꾸 부딪치다 보면 그 무엇이든 녹슬거나 마모되기 마련이다. 경험 또한 그렇다. 머리에서 빼 쓰는 데 한계가 있다. 그러니까 경험은 명절 고스톱 판에서 일종의 밑천이다. 밑천이 딸리면 '고'를 외칠 수 없다.

일반적으로 나이가 들수록 상상력이 감퇴하는 것도 이와 무관치 않다. 새로운 경험을 두려워하거나 소극적으로 대하는 경우가 많기 때문이다. 이어령 선생의 에버노트에 1만4000개의 노트가 저장돼 있다는 이야기는 그래서 시사하는 바가 크다. 모든 성취에는 다 그만한 이유가 있기 마련이다.

아나운서로도 데뷔할 뻔한 김태호

물론 이어령 선생은 대단히 드문 경우다. 그래서 창의력을 녹슬지 않도록 하기 위해 학자들이 추천하는 좋은 방법은 생소한 경험에 도전하는 것이다. 멜로물만 보던 사람이라면 액션물을 보고, 된장찌개만 먹던 이라면 인도 음식을 접해 보라고 권한다. 김태호 역시 즐겨 쓰는 방법이다.

2006년이었을 게다. 김태호는 아나운서국에 지원한 적이 있다고 한다. 이유는 단순했다. 거기 가서 '우리말 나들이'를 연출해보면 재미있겠다는 생각이 들었다나. 누구한테도 말하지 않았던 도전. 김태호가 아직 <무한도전>과 결합하지 않았을 때이니, 살인적인 노동강도에 시달리던 조연출이 잠시 일탈을 꿈꿨던 것일 수 있다. 

하지만 생소한 경험에 대한 도전은 이뿐만이 아니다. <프로젝트 런웨이>(Project Runway), 패션 디자이너의 세계를 소재로 다루는 미국 리얼리티 쇼다. 패션에 대해 남다른 관심이 있는 만큼, 일찍부터 눈여겨본 모양이다. 그쪽에 인턴으로 일해보고 싶다는 메일을 보내기도 했단다. 2008년이었다고 하니, 그때는 <무한도전>이 한창 인기몰이를 하던 시기, 엉뚱하기 그지없다.

트위터 프로필에 '커피 공부 중'이라고 박아놓은 적도 있었다. 커피를 좋아해서, 커피 공부도 하면서 바리스타 학원도 알아봤단다. "100살을 산다고 했을 때 50∼60대까지 방송 일을 한다고 치면, 그 이후에는 어떤 것을 할까 고민하다가 커피를 택한 것 같다", 조국 교수와의 인터뷰에서 김태호가 한 말이다. 그가 즐겨 찾는 곳 또한 다소 의외라면 의외다.

미술관 옆 태호

▲  빈센트 반 고흐의 대표작 중 하나로 꼽히는 '별이 빛나는 밤에'. 김태호 PD가 뉴욕에 갔을 때 1시간 동안 지켜봤던 그림이라고 한다.
ⓒ artntip.com	관련사진보기

"미술관을 자주 다니는 편이에요. 화가들이 그림을 그릴 때 무슨 생각을 했을까, 무슨 생각으로 저 색을 칠했을까? 혼자 유추해보기도 하거든요. 5년 전 입사하고 처음으로 휴가를 갔었는데, 그때 뉴욕에 가서 <별이 빛나는 밤에> 그림을 보고 왔었어요. 1시간 동안 그림 앞에 앉아서 생각을 했었죠. 그림과의 대화를 시도하는 거죠."(2010년 한 대학 신방과 특강에서)

<별이 빛나는 밤에>, 빈센트 반 고흐의 대표작 중 하나로 꼽히는 그림이다. 그는 그림과 대체 어떤 이야기를 나눴다는 걸까. 이 궁금증을 대신 풀어줄 사람이 있다. '현대 생활 백서' '생각이 에너지다' 등 CF를 만든 크리에이티브 디렉터 박웅현, 그도 그림을 좋아해서 외국에 가면 시간을 내서 꼭 미술관에 간다고 한다.

혹시 SK브로드밴드 CF에 흐르던 노래, 더블유 앤 웨일(W&Whale)의 < R.P.G Shine >이라는 노래를 기억하시는가. "건조한 눈빛, 쓰디쓴 그대의 혀, 항상 말만 앞서고 행동하진 못해"라는 가사와 함께 흐르던 이국적인 느낌의 몽환적인 영상. 박웅현은 그 아이디어가 파리에 갔다가 본 그림, 앙리 루소의 < The Dream >(꿈)에서 나왔다고 한다. 

박웅현은 울림이 있는 그림에서 받은 감동의 순간을 뇌리에 각인하고 싶어 그림 엽서들을 책상에 깔아놓곤 한다고 했다. 그리고 3년 후, SK 브로드밴드 CF를 만들다가 문득 떠오른 그림이 앙리 루소의 <꿈>. 박웅현은 "그 광고 아이디어를 나오게 만든 강력한 추진체는 앙리 루소의 그림이었다, 그러니까 아이디어가 나온 곳은 내 책상 위 엽서였다"라고 강조한다. 

그러니까 김태호가 미술관에서 그림과 나누는 이야기도 결국, 자신의 머리에 이미지를 각인시키는 행위인 셈이다. 상상력은 시각적 이미지를 필요로 하기 때문이다. 최근 <에디톨로지>란 책으로 주목을 받고 있는 김정운 여러 가지문제연구소장 역시 늦은 나이에 그림 공부를 시작한 사람. 그는 "창조는 논리적인 사고를 뛰어넘는 것이기에 철저하게 미학적 경험에서 나온다"라고 강조한다. 최인수 교수의 연구 결과 또한 비슷하다. 창의적 인물의 상당수는 어렸을 때부터 정기적으로 박물관에 다녔다고 한다. 

김태호와 양현석의 공통점 '난독'

▲  최근 SBS <힐링캠프>에 출연한 양현석 YG 엔터테인먼트 대표. 사진은 지난 11월 K팝스타 제작 발표회 현장.
ⓒ 이정민	관련사진보기

상상력을 풍부하게 만드는 또 다른 행위는 간접 경험, 책 읽기다. 앞서 소개한 최인수 교수의 시카고 대학 시절 연구에 참여한 창의적 인물들 대부분이 책읽기의 중요성을 강조했다고 한다. 김태호도 물론 독서를 즐기는 것으로 알려져 있다.

그런데 여기에 일종의 반전이 숨어 있다. 그는 난독증이다. 여러 차례 인터뷰를 통해 그는 <한겨레>를 다 읽는데 6시간이 걸릴 정도로 활자 이해가 상당히 느리다고 밝혔다. "책은, 태어나서 한 권도 읽어 본 적이 없다, 책을 읽으면 반 페이지부터 글자들이 움직이기 시작한다", 이건 양현석의 말이다. 그 역시 난독증이라고 <힐링 캠프>를 통해 고백했었다. 대한민국 예능계를 좌지우지하는 두 사람 모두 난독증, 흥미로운 사실이다.

앞서 설명했듯 상상력은 시각적 이미지를 필요로 한다. 이는 김태호의 다음 말과 정확히 일치한다. "어떤 상황이나 맥락을 보통 이미지나 화면으로 기억한다" 또는 "이미지로 사고하는 게 익숙하다". 아마 양현석도 그럴지 모른다. 결국 그들의 창의력은 자신의 단점을 장점으로 전환한 것에서 비롯된 셈이다. 위기와 기회가 한 몸인 것처럼, 그렇다, 사실 장점과 단점도 한몸이다. 

물론 김태호만을 위한 이 글의 결론은 하나 더 있다. 그럼에도 그는 책을 읽으려고 엄청나게 노력한다는 점이다. 김태호는 천재가 아니다. 그를 가까이에서 지켜 본 사람들 이야기다.

그의 머릿속 비밀이 하나 풀리다

"김태호는 창의적이다, 이런 생각을 갖고 대하게 마련이잖아요. 사람이 스타일리쉬하기도 하고, 기본적으로 갖고 있는 재능의 결과겠지, 뭐 이런 거요. 그런데 정작 이야기를 들어보면 그 바쁜 와중에도 어떤 영감을 얻으려고 굉장히 많이 노력한다는 걸 알게 돼요. 베스트셀러는 물론 잡지들도 다 읽는 것 같더라고요.

책만 많이 읽는 게 아니고 미술관도 다닌다고 하고, 공연도 연극, 뮤지컬뿐 아니라 클럽 공연까지 안 가리고 다 가는 것 같았어요. 자기가 좋아해서 그런 것도 있지만, 어떤 영감을 얻어 프로그램과 연결시키려고 그렇게 한다고 그러더라고요. 솔직히 김태호 PD, 그 연차에서는 최고잖아요. 충분히 자만할 수 있는데 그런 게 없었어요."

MBC에 출입하던 한 전직 기자의 말. 지금은 기자 일을 하지 않는 사람이니, 어떤 이해 관계에 얽히지 않고 김태호를 비교적 객관적으로 볼 수 있는 사람의 이야기다. <씨네21> 김혜리 기자는 섬세하고도 묵직한 메시지를 담아 김태호의 성실함을 이렇게 표현하기도 했다. 

"사진을 촬영하는 동안 그의 배낭을 맡았다가 무게에 무릎이 꺾일 뻔했다. 자료 파일과 서류, 그리고 노트북 컴퓨터가 들어 있다고 했다. 그 등짐을 멘 채 김태호 PD는 지인의 결혼식장에 가는 길이었다. 누군가에게 '재미'란 그렇게 지구만큼 거대하고 무거운 것이었다."

선배가 바라보는 김태호 역시 노력파다. 그의 한참 선배, MBC 한 예능 PD는 이렇게 말한다.

"천재성? 그런 건 아니라고 봐요. 무엇보다 절제력이 있어요, 절제력이. 예능판에서는 무엇보다 절제력이 없으면 안 되거든요. 태호가 천재적이라기 보다는 성실하기 때문에 여기까지 왔다고 봐요. 성실하기 때문에 이뤄낼 수 있는 거죠. 9년 넘도록 꾸준히 <무한도전>을 할 수 있다는 것, 무엇보다 성실성이 없으면 안 되는 거죠."

이제까지 '헛다리'를 짚고 있었다. 창의력이 뛰어난 김태호, 그 비결은 머릿속에 있지 않았다. 성실한 '

Toyota

Yoi kangae, yoi shina! that's Toyota-speak for "Good thinking means good products." The slogan is emblazoned on a giant banner hanging across the company's Takaoka assembly plant, an hour outside the city of Nagoya. Plenty of good thinking has gone into the high-tech ballet that's performed here 17 hours a day. Six separate car models -- from the Corolla compact to the new youth-oriented Scion xB -- glide along on a single production line in any of a half-dozen colors. Overhead, car doors flow by on a conveyor belt that descends to floor level and drops off the right door in the correct color for each vehicle. This efficiency means Takaoka workers can build a car in just 20 hours.

The combination of speed and flexibility is world class. More important, a similar dance is happening at 30 Toyota plants worldwide, with some able to make as many as eight different models on the same line. That is leading to a monster increase in productivity and market responsiveness -- all part of the company's obsession with what President Fujio Cho calls "the criticality of speed."

Remember when Japan was going to take over the world? Corporate America was apoplectic at the idea that every Japanese company might be as obsessive, productive, and well-managed as Toyota Motor Corp. (TM). We know what happened next: One of the longest crashes in business history revealed most of Japan Inc. to be debt-addicted, inefficient, and clueless. Today, 13 years after the Nikkei peaked, Japan is still struggling to avoid permanent decline. World domination? Hardly.

Except in one corner. In autos, the Japanese rule. And in Japan, one company -- Toyota -- combines the size, financial clout, and manufacturing excellence needed to dominate the global car industry in a way no company ever has. Sure, Toyota, with $146 billion in sales, may not be tops in every category. GM is bigger -- for now. Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) makes slightly more profit per vehicle in North America, and its U.S. plants are more efficient. Both Nissan and Honda have flexible assembly lines, too. But no car company is as strong as Toyota in so many areas.

Of course, the carmaker has always moved steadily forward: Its executives created the doctrine of kaizen, or continuous improvement. "They find a hole, and they plug it," says auto-industry consultant Maryann Keller. "They methodically study problems, and they solve them." But in the past few years, Toyota has accelerated these gains, raising the bar for the entire industry. Consider:

-- Toyota is closing in on Chrysler to become the third-biggest carmaker in the U.S. Its U.S. share, rising steadily, is now above 11%.

-- At its current rate of expansion, Toyota could pass Ford Motor Co. (F) in mid-decade as the world's No. 2 auto maker. The No. 1 spot -- still occupied by General Motors Corp. (GM), with 15% of the global market -- would be the next target. President Cho's goal is 15% of global sales by 2010, up from 10% today. "They dominate wherever they go," says Nobuhiko Kawamoto, former president of Honda Motor Co. (HMC). "They try to take over everything."

-- Toyota has broken the Japanese curse of running companies simply for sales gains, not profit. Its operating margin of 8%-plus (vs. 2% in 1993) now dwarfs those of Detroit's Big Three. Even with the impact of the strong yen, estimated 2003 profits of $7.2 billion will be double 1999's level. On Nov. 5, the company reported profits of $4.8 billion on sales of $75 billion for the six months ended Sept. 30. Results like that have given Toyota a market capitalization of $110 billion -- more than that of GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler (DCX) combined.

-- The company has not only rounded out its product line in the U.S., with sport-utility vehicles, trucks, and a hit minivan, but it also has seized the psychological advantage in the market with the Prius, an eco-friendly gasoline-electric car. "This is going to be a real paradigm shift for the industry," says board member and top engineer Hiroyuki Watanabe. In October, when the second-generation Prius reached U.S. showrooms, dealers got 10,000 orders before the car was even available.

-- Toyota has launched a joint program with its suppliers to radically cut the number of steps needed to make cars and car parts. In the past year alone, the company chopped $2.6 billion out of its $113 billion in manufacturing costs without any plant closures or layoffs. Toyota expects to cut an additional $2 billion out of its cost base this year.

-- Toyota is putting the finishing touches on a plan to create an integrated, flexible, global manufacturing system. In this new network, plants from Indonesia to Argentina will be designed both to customize cars for local markets and to shift production to quickly satisfy any surges in demand from markets worldwide. By tapping, say, its South African plant to meet a need in Europe, Toyota can save itself the $1 billion normally needed to build a new factory.

If Cho gets this transformation right, he'll end up with an automotive machine that makes the Americans and Germans quake. Cost-cutting and process redesign will chop out billions in expenses. That will keep margins strong and free up cash to develop new models and technologies such as the Prius, to invest in global manufacturing, and to invade markets such as Europe and China. New models and new plants will build share, which will build more clout. And if there's a hiccup -- well, there's a cash-and-securities hoard of $30 billion. "This is a company that does not fear failure," says Cho.

Roadblocks?

Can anything stop Toyota? There are some potential roadblocks. Toyota doesn't always get it right: Its early attempts at the youth market, minivans, and big pickup trucks all disappointed. It remains dependent on the U.S. business for some 70% of earnings. Its Lexus luxury sedans are losing ground to BMW, though Lexus' strong SUV sales are keeping the division in the game. The average Toyota owner is about 46, a number the company must lower or risk going the way of Buick. And most of Toyota's big sellers aren't exactly head-turners.

Meanwhile, Toyota's rivals are hardly sitting still. GM is finishing up a $4.3 billion revamp of Cadillac, and a revival is in the works: Overall GM quality is on an upswing too. "Toyota is a good competitor, but they're not unbeatable," says GM Chairman G. Richard Wagoner Jr. Over at Nissan, CEO Carlos Ghosn doubts Toyota's big bet on hybrids will pay off. "There will be no revolution," he predicts. And Detroit's Big Three are praying that a strong yen will batter Toyota. If the yen sticks at 110 to the dollar over the next 12 months, Toyota could see its pretax profits shrink by $900 million.

A strengthening yen might have hammered Toyota in the 1980s, and it will certainly have an impact next year. But today, three decades after starting its global push, Toyota can't be accused of needing a cheap yen to subsidize exports. Since starting U.S. production in 1986, Toyota has invested nearly $14 billion there. What's more, many of its costs are now set in dollars: Last year, Toyota's purchases of parts and materials from 500 North American suppliers came to $19 billion -- more than the annual sales of Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) or Oracle Corp. (ORCL). The U.S. investment is an enormous natural hedge against the yen. "About 60% of what we sold here, we built here," Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda said in a Sept. 10 speech in Washington.

Better for Toyota, those cars are also among the industry's biggest money-makers. Take SUVs: Ten years ago, Toyota had a puny 4% share. Today, it owns nearly 12% of that high-margin segment with eight models ranging from the $19,000 RAV4 to the $65,000 Lexus LX 470 -- and makes as much as $10,000 on each high-end model it sells. The company is steadily robbing Ford, Chrysler, and GM of their primacy in the cutthroat U.S. SUV market and has largely sat out the latest round of rebates: Toyota's average incentive per car this fall is just $647, compared with $3,812 at GM and $3,665 at Ford, according to market watcher Edmunds.com. This is one war of attrition where Detroit is clearly outgunned.

Toyota's charge into SUVs indicates a new willingness to play tough in the U.S., which it considers vital to its drive for a global 15% share. "The next era is full-size trucks and luxury, environmental, and youth cars," predicts James E. Press, chief operating officer at Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. Toyota is already intent on boosting its 4.5% market share in pickups, the last profit refuge of the Big Three. Toyota is building an $800 million plant in San Antonio, Tex., that will allow it to more than double its Tundra output, to some 250,000 trucks a year by 2006, with rigs powerful and roomy enough to go head to head with Detroit's biggest models.

Toyota plans to extend its early lead in eco-cars by pushing the Prius and adding a hybrid Lexus RX 330 SUV next summer. The Lexus will get as much as 35 miles per gallon, compared with roughly 21 mpg for a conventional RX 330. And Toyota is vigorously attacking the youth market with the $14,500 Scion xB compact, which surprised Toyota-bashers with its angular, minimalist design. Since the Scion's U.S. launch in California in June, Toyota has sold nearly 7,700 of them, 30% better than forecast. Toyota Vice-President James Farley says three out of four buyers of the brand had no intention of buying a Toyota when they started looking. "That's exactly why we started the Scion," he says.

The Scion is evidence that Toyota's growing cash cushion gives it the means to revamp its lackluster designs. When Cho traveled through Germany in 1994, he recalls being asked: Why are Toyota cars so poorly styled? Part of the problem, says Cho, is that too many Toyotas were designed with Japanese consumers in mind and then exported. Some worked; some flopped.

These days, design teams on the West Coast of the U.S., in southern France, and back home compete for projects. That has paid off with models such as the Yaris, Toyota's best-seller in Europe, where the company now has a 4.4% share, compared with less than 3% a decade ago. The Yaris was designed by a Greek, Sotiris Kovos, then imported successfully to Japan because of its "European" look. "Toyota has finally recognized that buyers want to feel like they have some level of style," says Wesley Brown, a consultant with auto researcher Iceology. The redesigned Solara sports coupe is getting high grades, too: A V-shape line flowing up from the grille gives it a more muscular silhouette, and its interior is 20% roomier than before.

Toyota Man

Leading Toyota to this new level of global vigor is Cho. He's Toyota Man personified: Self-effacing, ever smiling, but an executive whose radar seems to pick up every problem and opportunity. "Cho understands as much as anyone I've ever seen what's actually happening on the factory floor," says manufacturing consultant Ronald E. Harbour, whose firm's annual report on productivity is the industry bible.

That feel for the factory didn't come naturally. The 66-year-old company lifer studied law, not business, at the prestigious University of Tokyo and could have easily ended up as a faceless bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance. But Cho learned the car business -- and clearly learned it well -- at the knee of Taichi Ohno, the creator of the legendary Toyota Production System, a series of in-house precepts on efficient manufacturing that changed the industry. Ohno, a brilliant but notoriously hot-headed engineer, lectured Cho about the need to be flexible and to look forward.

That advice is something Cho found invaluable when he was tapped to oversee the 1988 launch of Toyota's key U.S. plant in Georgetown, Ky., now the company's biggest U.S. factory and the maker of the Camry sedan. The good-natured and unpretentious Cho regularly worked the plant floor, making sure to shake hands with each line worker at Christmas to show his appreciation. He spoke at Rotary Club meetings and stopped to make small talk with the folks in Georgetown.

Given Toyota's booming U.S. sales in the late 1990s, few inside the company were surprised when Cho won the top job. Yet equally few had any clue that the new president was about to unleash so many powerful changes. Like his predecessor Okuda, Cho had long been frustrated by Toyota's glacial decision-making process and cultural insularity. Those had led to missed opportunities, such as when product planners at headquarters in Japan resisted calls from their U.S. colleagues to build an eight-cylinder pickup truck. Cho is rectifying that deficiency with a vengeance with the San Antonio plant.

Then three years ago, as Ghosn -- "le cost killer" -- was slashing billions at rival Nissan and cutting its supplier ranks in half, Cho had a revelation: If Nissan could do it, Toyota could do it better. The resulting program, called Construction of Cost Competitiveness for the 21st Century, or CCC21, taps into the company's strengths across the board to build cars more efficiently. It's also turning many operations inside out.

No Detail Too Small

Toyota has always valued frugality. It still turns down the heat at company-owned employee dormitories during working hours and labels its photocopy machines with the cost per copy to discourage overuse. But cost-cutting was often a piecemeal affair. With CCC21, Cho set a bold target of slashing prices on all key components for new models by 30%, which meant working with suppliers and Toyota's own staff to ferret out excess. "Previously, we tried to find waste here and there," says Cho. "But now there is a new dimension of proposals coming in."

In implementing CCC21, no detail is too small. For instance, Toyota designers took a close look at the grip handles mounted above the door inside most cars. By working with suppliers, they managed to cut the number of parts in these handles to five from 34, which helped cut procurement costs by 40%. As a plus, the change slashed the time needed for installation by 75% -- to three seconds. "The pressure is on to cut costs at every stage," says Takashi Araki, a project manager at parts maker Aisin Seiki Co.

Just as Cho believes he can get far more out of suppliers, he thinks Toyota can make its workers vastly more productive. This is classic kaizen, but these days it has gone into overdrive. In the middle of the Kentucky plant, for instance, a Kaizen Team of particularly productive employees works in a barracks-like structure. The group's sole job is coming up with ways to save time and money. Georgetown employees, for instance, recommended removing the radiator support base -- the lower jaw of the car -- until the last stage of assembly. That way, workers can step into the engine compartment to install parts instead of having to lean over the front end and risk straining their backs. "We used to have to duck into the car to install something," explains Darryl Ashley, 41, a soft-spoken Kentucky native who joined Toyota nine years ago.

In Cambridge, Ont., Cho is going even further: He's determined to show the world that Toyota can meet its own highest standards of excellence anywhere in its system. It was once company doctrine that Lexus could only be made in Japan. No longer. Production of the RX 330 SUV started in Cambridge on Sept. 26. If the Canadian hands can deliver the same quality as their Japanese counterparts, Toyota will be able to chop shipping costs by shifting Lexus production to the market where the bulk of those cars are sold.

The Japanese bosses put the Canadians through their paces. The 700 workers on the RX 330 line trained for 12 weeks, including stints in Japan for 200 of them. There, the Canadians managed to beat Japanese teams in quality assessment on a mock Lexus line. Cambridge has taken Toyota's focus on poka-yoke, or foolproofing measures, to another level. The plant has introduced "Circle L" stations where workers must double- and triple-check parts that customers have complained about -- anything from glove boxes to suspension systems. "We know that if we can get this right, we may get to build other Lexus models," says Jason Birt, a 28-year-old Lexus line worker.

The Cambridge workers are aided by a radical piece of manufacturing technology being rolled out to Toyota plants worldwide. The system, called the Global Body Line, holds vehicle frames in place while they're being welded, using just one master brace instead of the dozens of separate braces required in a standard factory. No big deal? Perhaps, but the system is half as expensive to install. Analysts say it lets Toyota save 75% of the cost of refitting a production line to build a different car, and it's key to Toyota's ability to make multiple models on a single line. Better yet, the brace increases the rigidity of the car early in production, which boosts the accuracy of welds and makes for a more stable vehicle. "The end results are improved quality, shortened welding lines, reduced capital investment, and less time to launch new vehicles," says Atsushi Niimi, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America.

Cho and his managers are not just reengineering how Toyota makes its cars -- they want to revolutionize how it creates products. With the rise of e-mail and teleconferencing, teams of designers, engineers, product planners, workers, and suppliers rarely all convened in the same place. Under Cho, they're again required to work face to face, in a process Toyota calls obeya -- literally, "big room." This cuts the time it takes to get a car from the drawing board to the showroom. It took only 19 months to develop the 2003 Solara. That's better than 22 months for the latest Sienna minivan, and 26 months for the latest Camry -- well below the industry average of about three years.

If all this sounds like Toyota is riding a powerful growth wave, well, it is. While Cho is as mild-mannered and modest as they come, the revolution he has kicked off is anything but. Toyota is in the midst of a transformative makeover -- and if Cho succeeds, the entire global auto industry is in for one, too. By Brian Bremner and Chester Dawson

With Kathleen Kerwin in Detroit, Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles, and Paul Magnusson in Washington

Bill Gates Facts

Bill Gates, who for years was the richest man in the world, is also one of the smartest. But even he couldn't figure out how to beat the Internet — how to transition his grand old monopoly software company, Microsoft, into a business that thrives on the Net. And so he begins his retirement today from Microsoft as the PC era's biggest winner, and the Web era's most spectacular casualty.

It's pretty well known by now that the Internet, for all its world-flattening glory, is a destroyer of businesses without parallel. How many companies roared along for decades, minting money, only to see the Internet eat their business plans? We live in a media age and the media industry is Exhibit A in the murder trial. Newspapers, magazines, music, television, movies — all of the traditional models are dead or dying as bloodied moguls everywhere scramble to survive. But the Net has brutalized old-line business across most industries — retail, telecom, financial services — and the technology industry itself, is, ironically, no exception.

Few companies not born on the Web have figured out how to thrive there. (Apple, with its post-PC iPhone, could be the shining exception.) As Gates turns his attention full time to philanthropy, I wonder what will be left of the great company he founded, Microsoft, by the time Gates picks up a Nobel Prize for Peace. Clearly, a business with $26 billion in cash reserves isn't exactly at death's door. And Microsoft continues to be enormously profitable, thanks to its operating system monopoly. Thanks, that is, to Gates's genius.

But big, complicated operating systems such as Microsoft's latest, Vista, aren't necessary in the Web Age, where applications are delivered for free and on demand — often without users' even being aware of it. The Net is where the money is, and it's the one place that Gates — like so many others — hasn't left his mark.

He saw the Internet missile coming, of course. But by the time he sounded the alarm, it may have been too late. (Read his famous "Internet Tidal Wave" memo, sent to the troops May 26, 1995, over a year after the browser company known as Netscape launched.)

Gates was always more accustomed to being a disruptor than being disrupted. At the age of 25, he licensed a primitive operating system, PC-DOS, to IBM for $80,000 rather than sell it outright, a move that's usually ranked as one of the Greatest Business Moves of All Time. Gates figured that many PC makers would copy IBM's open architecture, and make their own PCs; they'd need to license an operating system, too. PC-DOS soon became MS-DOS, an operating system for all IBM clones, and Microsoft was on its way to becoming the one thing that billions of PCs around the world would have in common.

From 1980 until 1994, when Mosaic/Netscape emerged, Gates played a scratch game, parlaying his little "Micro- Soft" company into an empire that defined the PC Era. By opening up Windows to third-party developers, he created a platform that made many developers rich, and built out an ecosystem that put a desktop in almost every home.

But there is no greater blinder than success, even for a visionary like Bill Gates. By the time he realized the tech world was quickly shifting from PCs to the network that connected them, his moves were limited. A fiercely competitive man, he reached for the obvious lever, and attempted to tie the late-starter Internet Explorer browser to the monopoly he created, the Windows operating system. The move was mercilessly effective and beat back rival Netscape, which immediately saw its commanding share of the browser market disappear.

It was also illegal. With Netscape crying foul, the Feds successfully pressed an antitrust suit against Microsoft. The PR damage — Gates acting insolent on the witness stand, showing a convenient lack of memory about key business decisions — turned out to be short-lived and is all but forgotten as Gates remakes himself as a philanthropist. But the court's decree forced the great general to march cautiously into the future. He may have won the Battle of the Browser, but he would start to see major casualties in the Internet War.

Gates built or bought all manner of things to conquer the Net, but few managed to be anything more than also-rans in the innovation game. In 1995, he launched a gated online service, MSN; a Web-based email client, Hotmail was purchased in 1997; a search engine, MSN Search, launched in 1998 using a third-party product as its core; a chat client, Messenger, was released in 1999; and last year it bought an online advertising platform, aQuantive and became a significant, though minority investor, in social network Facebook.

While Microsoft is exponentially larger than Google — number 44 on the Fortune 500 list versus Google at 150 — Google's Web business (advertising mostly) is growing so fast, it's poised to rivalRedmond's operating system revenues by 2010. And that's the problem. As more and more of what Windows does moves up into the cloud — into Google's always-on, give-'em-whatever-they-want-for-free servers — what becomes of the company that Gates built?

The smartest move Gates could make right now is to get out of the way. (Steve Ballmer should, too; pursuing Yahoo is a pretty good hint that his master plan for the Web is, like Gates's was, to try to buy Microsoft's way into the game.) There are many smart and talented people inside Microsoft who know what to do. (Blow up Vista and abandon its next iteration, Windows 7, and start from scratch, is but one excellent idea).

That will probably work. And if not? Maybe we'll see Gates return, a Nobel in his pocket, ready to wrestle with the Web once again.

must read books

100 The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein

WH Auden thought this tale of fantastic creatures looking for lost jewellery was a “masterpiece”.

99 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A child’s-eye view of racial prejudice and freaky neighbours in Thirties Alabama.

98 The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore

A rich Bengali noble lives happily until a radical revolutionary appears.

97 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Earth is demolished to make way for a Hyperspatial Express Route. Don’t panic.

96 One Thousand and One Nights Anon

A Persian king’s new bride tells tales to stall post-coital execution.

95 The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Werther loves Charlotte, but she’s already engaged. Woe is he!

94 Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

The children of poor Hindus and wealthy Muslims are switched at birth.

93 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

Nursery rhyme provides the code names for British spies suspected of treason.

92 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Hilarious satire on doom-laden rural romances. “Something nasty” has been observed in the woodshed.

91 The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki

The life and loves of an emperor’s son. And the world’s first novel?

90 Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

A feckless writer has dealings with a canine movie star. Comedy and philosophy combined.

89 The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Lessing considers communism and women’s liberation in what Margaret Drabble calls “inner space fiction”.

88 Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

Passion, poetry and pistols in this verse novel of thwarted love.

87 On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Beat generation boys aim to “burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles”.

86 Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

A disillusioning dose of Bourbon Restoration realism. The anti-hero “Rastingnac” became a byword for ruthless social climbing.

85 The Red and the Black by Stendhal

Plebian hero struggles against the materialism and hypocrisy of French society with his “force d’ame”.

84 The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

“One for all and all for one”: the eponymous swashbucklers battle the mysterious Milady.

83 Germinal by Emile Zola

Written to “germinate” social change, Germinal unflinchingly documents the starvation of French miners.

82 The Stranger by Albert Camus

Frenchman kills an Arab friend in Algiers and accepts “the gentle indifference of the world”.

81The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Illuminating historical whodunnit set in a 14th-century Italian monastry.

READ: The best books of 2014

80 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

An Australian heiress bets an Anglican priest he can’t move a glass church 400km.

79 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Prequel to Jane Eyre giving moving, human voice to the mad woman in the attic.

78 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Carroll’s ludic logic makes it possible to believe six impossible things before breakfast.

77 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Yossarian feels a homicidal impulse to machine gun total strangers. Isn’t that crazy?

76 The Trial by Franz Kafka

K proclaims he’s innocent when unexpectedly arrested. But “innocent of what”?

75 Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

Protagonist’s “first long secret drink of golden fire” is under a hay wagon.

74 Waiting for the Mahatma by RK Narayan

Gentle comedy in which a Gandhi-inspired Indian youth becomes an anti-British extremist.

73 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

The horror of the Great War as seen by a teenage soldier.

72 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

Three siblings are differently affected by their parents’ unexplained separation.

71 The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin

Profound and panoramic insight into 18th-century Chinese society.

70 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Garibaldi’s Redshirts sweep through Sicily, the “jackals” ousting the nobility, or “leopards”.

69 If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

International book fraud is exposed in this playful postmodernist puzzle.

68 Crash by JG Ballard

Former TV scientist preaches “a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology”.

67 A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul

East African Indian Salim travels to the heart of Africa and finds “The world is what it is.”

66 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Boy meets pawnbroker. Boy kills pawnbroker with an axe. Guilt, breakdown, Siberia, redemption.

65 Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Romantic young doctor’s idealism is trampled by the atrocities of the Russian Revolution.

64 The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz

Follows three generations of Cairenes from the First World War to the coup of 1952.

63 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson’s “bogey tale” came to him in a dream.

62 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Swift’s scribulous satire on travellers’ tall tales (the Lilliputian Court is really George I’s).

61 My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

A painter is murdered in Istanbul in 1591. Unusually, we hear from the corpse.

60 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Myth and reality melt magically together in this Colombian family saga.

59 London Fields by Martin Amis

A failed novelist steals a woman’s trashed diaries which reveal she’s plotting her own murder.

58 The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Gang of South American poets travel the world, sleep around, challenge critics to duels.

57 The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse

Intellectuals withdraw from life to play a game of musical and mathematical rules.

56 The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

Madhouse memories of the Second World War. Key text of European magic realism.

55 Austerlitz by WG Sebald

Paragraph-less novel in which a Czech-born historian traces his own history back to the Holocaust.

54 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Scholar’s sexual obsession with a prepubescent “nymphet” is complicated by her mother’s passion for him.

53 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

After nuclear war has rendered most sterile, fertile women are enslaved for breeding.

52 The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Expelled from a “phony” prep school, adolescent anti-hero goes through a difficult phase.

51 Underworld by Don DeLillo

From baseball to nuclear waste, all late-20th-century American life is here.

50 Beloved by Toni Morrison

Brutal, haunting, jazz-inflected journey down the darkest narrative rivers of American slavery.

49 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

“Okies” set out from the Depression dustbowl seeking decent wages and dignity.

48 Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin

Explores the role of the Christian Church in Harlem’s African-American community.

47The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

A doctor’s infidelities distress his wife. But if life means nothing, it can’t matter.

46 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

A meddling teacher is betrayed by a favourite pupil who becomes a nun.

45 The Voyeur by Alain Robbe-Grillet

Did the watch salesman kill the girl on the beach. If so, who heard?

44 Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

A historian becomes increasingly sickened by his existence, but decides to muddle on.

43 The Rabbit books by John Updike

A former high school basketball star is unsatisfied by marriage, fatherhood and sales jobs.

42 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A boy and a runaway slave set sail on the Mississippi, away from Antebellum “sivilisation”.

41 The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

A drug addict chases a ghostly dog across the midnight moors.

40 The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Lily Bart craves luxury too much to marry for love. Scandal and sleeping pills ensue.

39 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

A Nigerian yam farmer’s local leadership is shaken by accidental death and a missionary’s arrival.

38 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

A mysterious millionaire’s love for a woman with “a voice full of money” gets him in trouble.

37 The Warden by Anthony Trollope

“Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money,” said W?H Auden.

36 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

An ex-convict struggles to become a force for good, but it ends badly.

35 Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

An uncommitted history lecturer clashes with his pompous boss, gets drunk and gets the girl.

34 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts” in this hardboiled crime noir.

33 Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

Epistolary adventure whose heroine’s bodice is savagely unlaced by the brothel-keeping Robert Lovelace.

32 A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell

Twelve-book saga whose most celebrated character wears “the wrong kind of overcoat”.

31 Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky

Published 60 years after their author was gassed, these two novellas portray city and village life in Nazi-occupied France.

30 Atonement by Ian McEwan

Puts the “c” word in the classic English country house novel.

29 Life: a User’s Manual by Georges Perec

The jigsaw puzzle of lives in a Parisian apartment block. Plus empty rooms.

28 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Thigh-thwacking yarn of a foundling boy sewing his wild oats before marrying the girl next door.

27 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Human endeavours “to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world” have tragic consequences.

26 Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Northern villagers turn their bonnets against the social changes accompanying the industrial revolution.

25 The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Hailed by TS Eliot as “the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels”.

24 Ulysses by James Joyce

Modernist masterpiece reworking of Homer with humour. Contains one of the longest “sentences” in English literature: 4,391 words.

23 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Buying the lies of romance novels leads a provincial doctor’s wife to an agonising end.

22 A Passage to India by EM Forster

A false accusation exposes the racist oppression of British rule in India.

21 1984 by George Orwell

In which Big Brother is even more sinister than the TV series it inspired.

20 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

Samuel Johnson thought Sterne’s bawdy, experimental novel was too odd to last. Pah!

19 The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

Bloodsucking Martian invaders are wiped out by a dose of the sniffles.

18 Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

Waugh based the hapless junior reporter in this journalistic farce on former Telegraph editor Bill Deedes.

17 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Sexual double standards are held up to the cold, Wessex light in this rural tragedy.

16 Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

A seaside sociopath mucks up murder and marriage in Greene’s literary Punch and Judy show.

15 The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse

A scrape-prone toff and pals are suavely manipulated by his gentleman’s personal gentleman.

14 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Out on the winding, windy moors Cathy and Heathcliff become each other’s “souls”. Then he storms off.

13 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Debt and deception in Dickens’s semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman crammed with cads, creeps and capital fellows.

12 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

A slave trader is shipwrecked but finds God, and a native to convert, on a desert island.

11 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Every proud posh boy deserves a prejudiced girl. And a stately pile.

10 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Picaresque tale about quinquagenarian gent on a skinny horse tilting at windmills.

9 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Septimus’s suicide doesn’t spoil our heroine’s stream-of-consciousness party.

8 Disgrace by JM Coetzee

An English professor in post-apartheid South Africa loses everything after seducing a student.

7 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Poor and obscure and plain as she is, Mr Rochester wants to marry her. Illegally.

6 In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

Seven-volume meditation on memory, featuring literature’s most celebrated lemony cake.

5 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

“The conquest of the earth,” said Conrad, “is not a pretty thing.”

4 The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

An American heiress in Europe “affronts her destiny” by marrying an adulterous egoist.

3 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s doomed adulteress grew from a daydream of “a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow”.

2 Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Monomaniacal Captain Ahab seeks vengeance on the white whale which ate his leg.

1 Middlemarch by George Eliot

“One of the few English novels written for grown-up people,” said Virginia Woolf.