“Haji”.

It’s Japanese for “shame”.

When Toyota president Akio Toyoda stepped up to take his licks in late February, it was with a healthy dose of haji at the predicament the company found itself in.

The core of the problem? Growing too big, too fast mucked up quality, leading to disaster—literal disaster for some unfortunate drivers, and financial disaster for Toyota, faced with recalling millions of cars and a heavily-dented brand.

The car maker could take a lesson from a people who have little to do with its craft. What Toyota could have used—and which they are now forced into showing—is a healthy dose of Amish “Demut”.

Demut is Pennsylvania German for “humility”.

Demut influences a range of aspects of Amish business, from size to marketing to their approach to competitors. Demut is a key contributor to their 95% five-year business survival rate.

Modern businesses large and small can learn lessons from this cultural value shared by 9,000 thriving Amish firms.

In this manifesto, I’d like to outline a few of those lessons.

Specifically, I’d like to show how the humility-laced Amish approach brings benefits by: 1) promoting a sustainable approach to size and growth, 2) counter-intuitively strengthening the Amish “brand”, and 3) by promoting cooperation and discouraging cutthroat competition—for shared benefit.

About erikwesner: | Erik Wesner is the author of "Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive" (Jossey-Bass, March 22, 2010). A former research fellow at Elizabethtown College's Young Center, Erik studies Amish business and writes the Amish America blog. He previously worked for a decade in sales and management for a Nashville publisher, setting an international sales record. Erik has contributed to articles on Amish business in Entrepreneur magazine and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

Web site: http://amishamerica.com/