The Lean Strategy

Michael Ballé is an author, speaker and lean executive coach. For the past 20 years he has studied lean thinking and practice, becoming one of the strongest voices in the Lean Community and one of its most prolific authors. His trilogy of business novels - The Gold Mine, The Lean Manager, and Lead with Respect - has inspired thousands of lean practitioners around the world with its engaging narrative and unique insights into the world of lean transformations. In lean, knowledge, learning and doing can't be separated. Learning means doing repeatedly so that intuitions turn into knowledge, and knowledge drives further action. Following the action research methodology, Michael coaches executives in obtaining exceptional performance by transforming their company cultures with lean tools, principles and management attitudes. His main coaching technique is the "gemba visit", where he helps senior executives to learn to see the work that is carried out on their shop floors, teach their people the spirit of kaizen and draw the right conclusions for their business as a whole. He has coached lean transformations in various fields such as manufacturing, engineering, services and healthcare.

Daniel T. Jones was part of the original MIT research team that discovered and codified the system Toyota used to make automobiles and named it Lean. He is the co-author of the classic groundbreaking works The Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking. A bestselling award-winning author researcher advisor to executive teams and keynote speaker Jones is founder and chairman of the non-profit the Lean Enterprise Academy in the UK, and the Lean Global Network of institutes.

Jacques Chaize is a pioneer in developing lean organizations. He was CEO of Danfoss Water Controls - a leading French/Danish water valve specialist that served as a model of lean practice. Since 2011 he has worked as an entrepreneur and consultant serving on the boards of companies in Europe and North America. He is the author of two business books and co-founder and president of SOL (Society for Organizational Learning) France.

Orest (Orry) J. Fiume was chief financial officer and a Director of The Wiremold Company the internationally recognized leader in lean business management. He has taught workshops on Lean Accounting at the Lean Enterprise Institute the TBM Institute the University of Dayton Center for Competitive Change and Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs). He serves on the Board of Directors of The Lean Enterprise Institute.