文/ 姜汝祥
艺术与商业历来泾渭分明，但在这看似风牛马不相及的关系背后，却存在着莫大的联系，那就是人性的精神与力量。没有对人性精神的恪守与极致追求，就没有企业生生不息、基业长青的动力源。同样，没有对人性精神的积淀与弘扬，就没有画作的传世与艺术的繁荣。
那么，艺术应该如何向商业学习？丰田在二者之间建立一栋桥梁，在创造丰田70年长盛不衰的丰田模式中，蕴含着大量的艺术智慧。艺术家可以在丰田模式中寻找经验和智慧。
艺术家为何要向丰田学习？丰田弘扬人性、彰显个人价值的力量
自人类进入工业时代以来，当物质财富以我们不可想象的速度增长时，我们应该感谢工业文明带给我们的一切。但是，不可否认的是，我们的人性精神也渐渐被侵蚀。相信，我们可以从多年前的电影《摩登时代》中卓别林的滑稽动作感受到。在一切都工业化与规范化的追求中，作为主体的人被物化了，人的情感、需求等心理成了工业社会遗忘的角落。正是这个背景推动了现代艺术的发展，作为一种反映自我、反映人性觉醒的方式，艺术需要、也必须弥补工业的空洞与缺陷，去弘扬人性、去激发人性的觉醒。显然，在工业时代艺术更加重要。
事物的演化之流永远不会停息，工业文明自身的反思带来了人性的回归。丰田正是这场进步的一个典范，丰田用它的成功证明了一件事：人性可以与工业化完美的结合。丰田之道的支柱是什么？是尊重员工，是通过持续的改善来彰显每一个人的智慧与价值。
我们可以从丰田与通用联合经营的工厂中一位原通用的工人的讲述中体会到：“如果没有丰田，再过100万年我也不会觉得我的工作富有创造性。丰田教会我们如何解决问题，这就把我们解放出来了！丰田认为我可以让这个体系变得更好。这个想法改变了我的人生。突然间，我开始寻找解决问题、改进生产的办法了！我的办法就是消除一切愚蠢的事物，消除浪费，让操作变得更加完美。突然间，我开始运用我的大脑了！现在我就是专家，我可以创造新的工艺流程！我猜这是一种艺术，这种艺术可以为我找回一些骄傲和尊严。”
这值得任何艺术的关注。试想：丰田通过枯燥的、甚至可以说是反人性的工业生产，赋予了人的骄傲与尊严，释放了人性的光辉，那么作为一种审美愉悦的艺术，如果想弘扬人性，赋予人生意义和价值，还难吗？艺术家应当向丰田取经。
艺术家向丰田学习什么？寻找艺术生命力、竞争力与出路
那么，应该从哪些角度学习丰田呢？包括三个层面：
一、没有准宗教精神基因的注入，就没有丰田的代代相传。艺术家可以从丰田模式中寻找获得艺术生命力的方式。
我们发现，在丰田发展的征程中，丰田家族在大部分时间里，都是经营活动的主角。时值丰田的首次亏损，丰田家族的第四代丰田章男接过经营传递棒，更是被赋予“大政奉还”的意义。
丰田家族的传承，都归功于丰田佐吉在创建丰田之初，就为丰田注入了准宗教一样的精神基因。从始祖丰田佐吉“丰田纲领”，到丰田复兴之祖石田退三的“丰田经营成功的七条原则”，再到《丰田模式2001》中以“尊重员工，持续改善”为支柱的创始人哲学，丰田一直在丰田佐吉设定的道路上前进。而今面对危机，丰田更是投入巨资，以重新概括丰田模式。
丰田的延续与传承之道，就是艺术家寻求的艺术生命力源泉。事实上，这已经在艺术领域被证明。很多大画家都有为宗教作画的经历，很多传世的画作都是反映宗教生活，这背后是一种精神的力量。
丰田的延续与传承之道，就是艺术家寻求的艺术生命力源泉。事实上，这已经在艺术领域被证明。很多大画家都有为宗教作画的经历，很多传世的画作都是反映宗教生活，这背后是一种精神的力量。
二、丰田真正重要的不是机器与技术，而是人与人的关系，是人性化的改善系统。艺术家可以从丰田模式中寻找艺术竞争力的源泉。
谈到丰田模式，我们就会马上想到准时化、均衡化、标准化等等技术方式。这些都是丰田模式的构成部分，都很重要，也值得学习，但不是最有价值的部分。丰田模式最有价值的部分是人与人的关系，是人性化的改善系统，这才是丰田竞争力的源泉。无人能成功复制丰田，问题就出现在这个地方。
在丰田，对于那些渐进地、微小的改善与进步，员工往往眉飞色舞，在他们看来，那是一件伟大的事情。丰田员工在改善中有了归属感，感到人生的意义，工作场变成了一个个人修炼人品的地方。丰田对人性的关注，激活了员工的智慧，员工的智慧转化成了企业与产品的竞争力。
艺术家更应该关注人性因素，通过画作帮助人们在不确定的时代找到心灵的安宁，帮助人们找到人生的意义。这样的画作怎么会不具备市场竞争力？艺术价值大而市场竞争力小，艺术价值小而市场竞争力大这样的困惑还会有吗？艺术和商业是可以会通的。
三、丰田持续的成长与成功，源于人性传统与西方管理的双向合璧。艺术家可以从丰田管理模式寻找中国艺术的出路。
丰田如何能保持70年的长盛不衰，成为世界汽车工业当之无愧的霸主？。任何持续的繁荣与成功，都是建立在人性传统的基础上的。丰田的成功，是管理模式的成功。丰田成功地从自身文化传统和人性特点出发，结合西方的管理制度，形成了独一无二的管理模式，成为唯一一家向世界输出管理模式的亚洲公司。
这是当前中国最值得学习的地方。事实上，中国企业的问题不是技术的困境，而是人性的困境。中国企业要成长为世界顶级企业，就必须以传统文化为精神资源，结合西方的管理制度，发展出中国式管理模式。
中国艺术也面临同样的问题，虽然改革开放以来，中国艺术蓬勃发展，但是就像获得国际大奖的建筑师马岩松说的那样，“中国正在建设的建筑缺乏自己的文化底蕴。”中国艺术更大的成功与出路在于与传统文化的结合。
当下，艺术家承载着更重要的意义，奈斯比特在《中国大趋势》对于中国的艺术着墨颇多，赞誉也很多。在他看来，艺术彰显国家个性，反映社会，“没有艺术家和知识分子的引领，任何社会都是不会进步的”。艺术家将会成为唤醒人性，弘扬人性，中国崛起的推动力。而这个过程中，除了丰田，还有更好的榜样吗？
Convergence of Art and Commerce:
What Can Artists Learn from the Toyota Way?
Text/ Jiang Ruxiang
Despite the clear division between art and commerce, these two worlds that seem to have absolutely nothing in common are closely tied to each other through the human spirit and power. Without unswerving pursuit of human-oriented management, there would be no the unfading and everlasting motive force for the development of enterprise. Likewise, the charm of humanity is the key ingredient in the classical value of paintings and has created the prosperity of art.
But what can artists possibly learn from the commercial enterprise? The answer is the “Toyota way”, which can lead artists to the rich legacy of art and wisdom created by generations of legendary Toyota presidencies in the past 7o years. It is experience and wisdom that art practitioners can draw from the Toyota Way.
Why do artists need to learn from Toyota? Toyota promotes human creativity and gives full scope to the display of personal values.
Owing to the industrial revolution, man’s material wealth has been expanding at an unthinkable rate, but another undeniable truth is industrial civilization has been gradually eroding human nature, which, I believe, has been best acted out by the hilarious character in Charles Chaplin’s film Modern Times. In a general pursuit for industrialization and normalization, man as the subject is constantly being materialized and our emotional needs and psychological aspects have become forsaken territories of the present industrial society. Against this background modern art emerged as a means for expressing the self and affirming the consciousness of humanity. It is both an obligation and innate needs for art to play a role in amending the holes and defects in human world resulted from industrialization and to uphold human value and arouse a humanistic consciousness. This has become more necessary today than ever before.
The stream of evolution of things will never be broken. Criticism over industrial civilization has ushered the return of humanistic concerns. The Toyota Way is considered to be a model of this improvement. The legend of Toyota production system has proved one thing: the perfect marriage of humanity and industrialization does exist. The first principle of the Toyota Way is to respect people working for the organization and give individual intelligence and personal values a full play through encouraging continual improvement.
This principle is well exemplified in the words from a worker who previously worked for GM and now at the joint-venture of Toyota and GM, “If not for the Toyota philosophy, I wouldn’t find creative possibility in my work even after a billion years. The Toyota Way taught us how to solve problems and liberate our minds! I was made to believe that I can practically improve the production system myself. This idea has changed my life. Suddenly I began to use my brain to think how to solve the problems and improve the production line. My solution is to discern pointlessness and waste and perfect operational details. I started thinking! Now I am an expert inventing new production line! I guess this is art, which help me rediscover pride and dignity as a human being.”
This matter deserves interest from every art field. Just try to picture that: through the seemingly mundane and even counter-humanistic Toyota industrial production, man has been crowned with pride and dignity and the humanistic considerations are attended in the process. And art as an advanced aesthetic means will not find it hard to achieve the same goal, which is to affirm human value and endow meaning to life. From this point of view artists need to learn from Toyota.
What can artists learn from Toyota? Creative energy, competitive advantage and even the future.
There are three ways to penetrate into the core of Toyota concept:
I. The pre-religious spirit encoded in the genetic makeup of Toyota family members have transmitted through successive generations. Artists can decipher genetic creativity hidden in the Toyota Way.
Throughout the history of Toyota, considerable influence is still exercised by members of the founding Toyota family. In face of losses for the first time, the company turns to Toyota family member Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the founder. It is considered to be a symbolic and meaningful act of “returning the presidency to the founding family”.
The first cornerstone of Toyota family’s tradition was set up by the founder Sakichi Toyota, who has infused pre-religious spiritual genes into the company’s operation procedure. Since then Toyota has been steadily moving forward on the course designed by Sakichi Toyota: from the Toyota Production System created by the founder, to the “Inside the Mind of Toyota: Management Principles for Enduring Growth” concluded by the father of Toyota renaissance Taizo Ishida, to “The Toyota Way 2001” a founding philosophy centered on “Continuous Improvement and Employee Empowerment”. Today on the wake of crisis Toyota increased capital input to redefine the Toyota philosophy.
Beneath the foundation of Toyota’s long-term success lies the fountain of artistic creativity. In fact this has been well-proved by art history. Driven by the spiritual power of their faith, many artists have painted religious subject matters, or produced works portraying religious life.
II. The heart of Toyota production system is not facility and technology, but the dynamic relation among people and employee empowerment for improving quality. Artists can find the source of competitive advantage in the Toyota Way.
Talking about the Toyota Way, we naturally would think about technical terms, such as punctuality, equalization, standardization, etc. Of course, these are also important dimensions of the Toyota Way and worth a through understanding. But the heart of Toyota and the source of Toyota’s competitive advantage is efficient communication among workers, and the employee empowerment system for improving products. This is the reason why the Toyota Way is difficult for other companies to duplicate.
Toyota employees always find great pleasure in their contribution to the system, no matter how petty it is. At Toyota, through building continual improvement employees feel they belong to a home team and restore the meaning of life by making the workshop into a place for people to cultivate the moral character and nourish the nature. The emphasis on human element activated employees’ creativity, and transformed it into competitive advantage for the enterprise and products.
Artists should give more consideration to human element in their work, helping people living in the time of uncertainty find peace in heart and restoring meaning to our lives. How could paintings with such potential lose their advantage? Is the disproportional relation between the value of art and its competitive advantage going to be a problem in market? In this way, art and commerce have something in common.
III. The continual growth and success of Toyota derives from the perfect union of human tradition and western management. Artists can seek for the future of art through the Toyota Way.
What is the secret behind Toyota’s 70 years of long-term success and the unquestionable leadership in world car companies? As we know, humanistic tradition is the universal foundation for all kinds of continued prosperity and success. The accomplishment of Toyota is established on the renowned management model, which is a perfect example that combines the native cultural tradition and humanistic characteristics with western management system. Thus the company has created a unique system and become the only Asian firm that sets an example for world enterprises on management models.
Toyota’s management system should be learned by Chinese enterprises, which are actually stuck in humanistic predicament instead of technological swamp. To rank among world top firms, Chinese companies should develop a management model with Chinese characteristics that not only draws resources from the spiritual legacy of our traditional culture, also borrows experiences from the western systems.
Art in China is also having the same problem. Despite the blossom of art ever since the reform and opening-up policy in China, “Chinese architectures under development all lack an ingenious cultural heritage.” the architect and world prize winner Yansong Ma says. The future of Chinese art and an even greater success rests with a better union with traditional culture.
In contemporary society artists play a remarkable role as John Naisbitt comments on art of China in a large chapter in his book China’s Megatrends. From his viewpoint, art embodies a nation’s character and society, and a society without guidance of artists and intellectuals will not progress.” Artists’ work can arouse human spirits, uphold humanity and give impetus to the rise of China. On the way to that day, Toyota will be the best example for us to take after.