Chart Your Path

Lean transformation is much more than just a tools deployment process. It entails an evolutionary learning process; only, the lessons are never the same for all.

- Jeffrey Liker And James Morgan

The Machine that Changed the World called ‘lean production’ a paradigm shift, a new way of looking at the enterprise focusing on flow of value to customers rather than efficiency of individual processes. The model was Toyota. What many missed was that the lean enterprise includes much more than manufacturing and it starts with product and process development. Which products and services will create enough value for our customers to allow us to beat the competition? How can we introduce a stream of desirable products and services efficiently, on time, with high quality? We address these issues in Designing the Future. 1

Is it better to have a disruptive product or service that changes the industry or exceptional execution of a steady stream of new offerings to deliver fast and affordable with high quality? The best companies want both.

Tesla is an example of brilliant vision and product ideation and terrible execution. The result: well, a bit mixed. On one hand, Tesla has shaken up the auto industry and made electric cars cool. So cool that customers have been willing to pay in advance, accept lengthy delays in getting their Tesla, accept quality sloppiness, and deal with inconveniences in getting service and replacement parts. On the other hand, existing auto companies are imitating Tesla features and executing well so customers can pay less, get their vehicles on time, with high quality, and get their vehicles easily serviced. Who will win in the long term?

But Tesla is actually an extremely rare case of a company with a visionary CEO that was able to disrupt an industry—the tip of the innovation iceberg. Most companies compete more incrementally and depend on cost, quality, customer-focused innovation, and timing for competitive advantage.