lean journey

For many startups pivoting means moving away from what they are doing that isn’t working, but for larger organizations, the pivot is often about expanding and leveraging. Your pivot points come from your business model canvas, which gives you your base menu you can build your strategic plan off of.

Blind spots occur in business when we naturally move toward the areas of business we are most comfortable and interested in and neglect the areas that don’t hold our focus. The business model canvas helps bring into focus neglected areas so that we can take action and improve the business.

Your business model helps identify who needs to be brought into the conversation when you are making a change in the company. The phrase, “I don’t know” means that you are missing key people in your conversation.

The business model canvas is not solely for the benefit of entrepreneurs, all businesses can benefit from it especially when evaluating changes in their business model. The business model canvas is a tool that businesses can use to facilitate a dialog around where your business model currently is, where it needs

In Part 1 of this series (Going Beyond Lean Thinking to Define Value). I challenged how the lean tenet regarding delivering value to our customer has been practiced.  In Part 2 I wrote for Industry Week, I examine how clearly understanding what the customers value and why they value it

Last year I was invited to be a guest on the Iowa Lean Consortium Radio Network Podcast with host Steve Wilson. The Iowa Lean Consortium is a dynamic, member-driven, non-profit dedicated to advancing lean in all sectors of the economy . Driven by members needs, the ILC provides the philosophy, tools,

In my most the recent column I wrote for IndustryWeek I explore the importance of your own personal lean journey. Your organization may not be started on its lean journey but that doesn’t mean you can’t be. When signing copies of my book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean, I would

Through my IndustryWeek column, Lessons from the Road, I’ve been exploring some of the issues associated with the ongoing maturing of a lean journey. In this installment, Beyond the Lean Initiative, I explore issues with making lean an integral part of the organization. It can no longer be an initiative.

Recently Industry Week published an article called Lean Confusion. In it was the following data from their surveys: What really shocks me is that 25 percent of companies feel that their lean journey is “complete”. How is this possible? Here’s my real struggle with this idea. If they have gotten

I witness lean change agents get in their own way all the time. I’m sure I do it too. This is a common example that really can hold back an entire organization on the journey. It is the response to an inflection point. Change agents, of any kind of change,