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The Lean Post / Articles / Why Lean Gets Business Backwards (and why that’s a good thing)

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Executive Leadership

Why Lean Gets Business Backwards (and why that’s a good thing)

By Michael Ballé

October 28, 2013

Michael Balle explains why lean is a completely different approach to business than the traditional one.

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Most executives think their role is to first define a strategy, then the organizational structure needed to implement the strategy, and then the systems needed to sustain the strategy. “And they’ve learned they also need some kind of involvement program,” said Michael Ballé, coauthor of The Lean Manager and The Gold Mine, popular business novels about lean transformations.

Lean takes the opposite approach, according to Ballé. “The basic assertion of lean is that if every year you are serious about improving your safety, your quality, your flexibility, and your productivity by involving everybody every day, your strategy will emerge, your organizational structure will set itself right, the systems you need will become apparent, and of course involvement will be built in.”

Watch the short video to learn more about how this impacts you, customers, and suppliers.

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Written by:

Michael Ballé

About Michael Ballé

Michael Ballé is co-author of The Gold Mine, a best-selling business novel of lean turnaround, and recently The Lean Manager, a novel of lean transformation, both published by the Lean Enterprise Institute. For the past 25 years, he has studied lean transformation and helped companies develop a lean culture. He is…

Read more about Michael Ballé

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