Something Revolutionary Seen as Ordinary
In my previous blog post, “The Lean Movement’s Strategic Errors,” I noted five strategic errors that were made in how Lean management was presented to business leaders and subsequent efforts over the last 30 years to promote and advance Lean management:
Presentation of Lean as a method for wealth creation
Ignoring leadership’s critical role in enabling Lean transformations
Failure to learn from earlier efforts to promote Scientific Management
Failure to comprehend leaders’ attraction to new tools and their disinterest in any new system of management
Lack of teamwork among Lean advocates
The first strategic error, wealth creation, bears additional discussion. The fundamental challenge 20 or 30 years ago was how to present something revolutionary, Toyota’s production (and overall management) system, to business leaders. It seems logical to present it in light of what seemingly is of greatest interests to them: wealth creation (stock price, market capitalization, cash flow, profits). This is a…
