Building the Fit Organization

The corporate landscape is littered with the carcasses of companies that have failed in their pursuit of the Toyota Way. Their efforts fail precisely because they’re trying to copy Toyota.

Trying to be like Toyota is a mistake. What leaders need to do instead is learn from Toyota—learn how to convert their competent organizations into dynamic, constantly improving, profoundly customer-focused entities. A “fit” organization has the ability to continually improve in a manner that delivers superior performance and results over the long haul.

This talk, based on the new Shingo Research Award-winning book, Building the Fit Organization, distills the lessons from the Toyota Production System into six core concepts, and couches them in the easily understandable language of physical fitness and athletic excellence—no Japanese, no English jargon, and no off-putting references to Toyota. By the end of the talk, you’ll be ready to make your organization faster, more competitive, and better able to win in your market. 

Bio

Dan Markovitz is president of Markovitz Consulting, a firm that helps organizations become faster, stronger, and more agile through the application of lean principles to knowledge work.

He is a faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute and teaches at the Stanford University Continuing Studies Program. He also lectures at the Ohio State University’s Fisher School of Business.

He is an author of two books -- A Factory of One and Building the Fit Organization -- both of which were honored with Shingo Research Awards

Markovitz has published articles in the Harvard Business Review blog, Rotman Management, Quality Progress, Industry Week, and Management Services Journal, among other magazines. In 2015, he keynoted the Lean UK Summit and the Lean Island Conference in Reykjavik. He’s also a regular presenter at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence National Conference and the Outdoor Industry Association.

Markovitz lived in Japan for four years and is fluent in Japanese.  He holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Directions are sent to your email after you RSVP.

Please check to make sure that you have done the following so you have the information:

1. You have provided the Stanford Alumni site and this event registration process with your BEST email address for receiving the confirmation message from a stanford.edu address. Make sure to click: SEND EMAIL AND EXIT. (Note: Sometimes some of us have put an old, unused email address into the Stanford Alumni profile—so check yours just in case.)

2. Check to make sure the emails are not going to spam—sometimes that happens because they look like newsletters.

You can contact Kathryn at kagorges@alumni.stanford.edu if you've tried the above and still haven't found your email confirmation. You'll also get a reminder 2-3 days before the event if you have done the above.