ABE Light 18 | Mary Poppendieck | Four Metaphors For Lean

Sometimes lean principles are easier to understand when we find them operating in completely unexpected places. This talk will take you to marketplaces around the world, on arctic expeditions, down whitewater rapids, and into research labs to see lean principles in action. Because sometimes the ideas that seem so counterintuitive in our daily lives become completely obvious when the game has changed.

Digital disruption has hurt a lot of companies: Film companies like Kodak and Fujifilm, Telecom equipment companies like AT&T; and Erickson, mainframe companies like UNIVAC and IBM. The companies that survived – Fujifilm, Erickson, IBM – quickly exited their failing businesses and found ways to redirect their expertise and assets toward new markets. The story was the same during the upheaval of the pandemic: many companies saw their business vanish; the resilient ones rapidly shut down failing operations and directed their smart people and unique assets toward solving new problems.