People

As we wind down the year of 2010 and begin to look forward to 2011, I can't help but reflect on some of the best times we had this year - not in terms of number of Greenbelts or Blackbelts we graduated, but in terms of the quality of people we had in our programs.

Here are some just of the photos from our past programs.  We were truly inspired by their commitment to lean and to transform the world.

Thank you to all for your support

Merry Christmas!

LSI and I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas. It's hard to believe that 2010 is cominng to end already.

Did you know that LSI is launching a new blockbuster movie tomorrow?  It's going to be a story about LSI's Christmas journey!

Here's the trailer.....

Simple Message

As we reflect back on 2010 and think about the future, we have a simple message:

"Go Transform the World"

Blackbelt saves $11.9 million!

There are many interesting aspects of our Blackbelt programs, to share, but the most impressive achievement is the amount of waste they remove and the resulting cost reductions during the program.

Our most recent Blackbelt posted the largest cost savings ever in our history: $11.9 million.  The savings - achieved from the combined efforts of the participants' classroom projects and their assignments - include a variety of topics from supply chain to change management.

The cost saving is not the key focus of the Blackbelt program, but it's nice to know that the participants' companies definitely received their payback!

Just for Fun

Have fun!

Guess who?

At the LSI Christmas party, two LSI people dressed up as "frosty" and "polar bear"!  Can you guess who they were?

LSI Executive Christmas Dinner 2010

Thank you to all executives and sponsors who were able to come to LSI's annual Executive Christmas Dinner.  We had a fantastic time last week!  It was a great networking event and the food was amazing as well.

Congratulations to Mike Nader who won the top door prize: an Executive Europe Lean Tour event to be held in May of 2011 (benchmarking trip to the Porsche and Lamborghini factory).

Three executives also received their Executive Certification plaque - congratulations!

The complete album:

Blackbelt Final Module 2010 Fall

Fall 2010 Blackbelt Class Graduation

After 3 months of challenging work, our Fall 2010 Blackbelt class has finally completed their 4 modules and gradudated from North America's most respected certification program!  Congratulations to all.

Complete photo album below:

Blackbelt Final Week!

Our Blackbelt Certification class is finally reaching its fourth module, to be completed this week!  The group just completed a challenging "extreme makeover" assignment at a growing telecommunications company and is ready to do their final presentation today.

We will be uploading more information today and tomorrow. Please stay tuned.

Global Innovation

The Global Innovation 1000

Every year since 2005, Booz & Company has conducted the Global Innovation 1000 study, which investigates the relationship between how much companies spend on R&D and their overall financial performance. And every year, we reinforce the conclusion that there is no correlation between the two. Our findings and further analysis of what makes the most successful innovators great led The Economist to call the Global Innovation 1000 "the most comprehensive assessment of the relationship between R&D investment and corporate performance," and Tom Peters praised it as a "provocative, research-based article that is sure to get you thinking."

Since its inception, the study has been mentioned in more than 150 publications in 27 countries, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. In 2007, we received the Special Achievement Award for Advancing the Innovation Dialog from Innovate Forum, and in 2008 the Product Development & Management Association presented us with its Best of Visions award. And we were privileged to present the study’s results to the National Academy of Sciences & Engineering.

Since its inception, the study has included an analysis of corporate R&D by industry — the healthcare and software & internet sectors consistently spend the greatest proportion of their sales on R&D — and on global trends in innovation. Over the years, we have expanded the scope of the study to include critical issues such as the importance of customer-driven innovation and the recession's effect on R&D spending. Every year, the study has produced quantifiable insights and invaluable lessons for helping companies make more productive use of the R&D dollars they spend.

2010: How the Top Innovators Keep Winning

Succeeding at innovation requires two key elements: a focused set of innovation capabilities that is carefully tuned to a company’s innovation strategy, and the ability to align the innovation strategy with overall corporate strategy. This year’s Global Innovation 1000 reveals the capabilities best suited for each innovation strategy, whether it be need seekers, market readers, or technology drivers. Companies that achieve this, and then succeed in aligning their R&D efforts with overall strategy outperform their industry peers in terms of both profit margins and market capitalization growth.

To download the actual study in PDF, please click below:

Global Innovation 1000

Latest JD Power Report on Customer Retention

J.D. Power and Associates Reports:
Desire for a Fun Driving Experience Increases in Importance as a Reason for Brand Loyalty, While Expected Resale Value Becomes Less Important

Ford and Honda Each Rank Highest in Owner Retention, in a Tie

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 9 December 2010 - New-vehicle owners are increasingly citing fun-to-drive vehicles as a top reason to remain loyal to their brand, while shifting away from expected resale value as a loyalty reason, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Customer Retention Study released today.

Now in its eighth year, the study measures the rate at which automotive brands retain their existing customers and the reasons why owners remain loyal. Customer retention is critical to a brand's market success, particularly during the current period of slow recovery, in which each new-vehicle sale is vital.

The study finds that the importance of fun-to-drive vehicles as a reason for owner loyalty has increased by eight percentage points in 2010, compared with 2009. Meanwhile, the importance of resale value as a reason to stay loyal has decreased by 10 percentage points from 2009.

In addition to customer retention, the study also examines rates at which automotive brands capture customers from their competitors, known as conquesting. The importance of a fun-to-drive vehicle has also increased as a reason why brands conquest new customers from their competitors, as has vehicle styling.

"Now that economic and market conditions have improved somewhat, vehicle owners are increasingly citing emotional, rather than practical, reasons for staying with their vehicle brand or switching to a different one," said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive product research at J.D. Power and Associates. "In light of this, developing new models with attractive styling and that are perceived as fun to drive is increasingly critical for automakers in order to retain and conquest customers as the market continues to recover."

Ford and Honda rank highest in a tie among automotive brands in retaining vehicle owners. Each brand retains 62 percent of owners. Ford's retention rate is primarily driven by the Edge, F-Series and Fusion models, while for Honda, retention is driven by the Accord, CR-V and Pilot. Comparing the two brands, Ford owners are more likely than are Honda owners to indicate they have remained with their brand due to the perception that their new vehicle is fun to drive or has good styling. Honda owners are more likely than Ford owners to cite resale value and safety as reasons for repurchasing the brand.

Following Ford and Honda in the rankings are Hyundai, Lexus and Toyota, in a three-way tie, each with a customer retention rate of 60 percent. Kia posts the greatest improvement in customer retention rate from 2009, improving by 21 percentage points to 58 percent in 2010.

Overall customer retention has remained stable from 2009 at 48 percent. In 2010, 16 of the 34 ranked brands have improved their customer retention rates from 2009, while 14 have declined and four have remained flat.

The study finds that customer retention among domestic brands, as a whole, has improved slightly from 2009. In 2010, 69 percent of owners who traded in a vehicle from a domestic brand purchased another domestic vehicle, compared with 68 percent in 2009. However, retention rates among domestic brands continue to lag behind those of import brands. In 2010, 90 percent of owners who traded in a vehicle from an import brand purchased another import vehicle-a level that has remained consistently high during recent years.

Compared with their retention rates, domestic brands have made more substantial progress during the past two years in conquesting customers from import brands. In 2010, 14 percent of buyers of domestic brand vehicles previously owned an import, up from 10 percent in 2008.

"While import brands still have notably higher customer conquest rates than domestic brands, the gap is beginning to narrow," said Festekjian. "In recent years, domestic brands have achieved parity or even surpassed the performance of import brands in initial quality and new-vehicle appeal, and customer perceptions of these nameplates seem to be evolving accordingly. It will be interesting to see how the performance gains by domestic brands affect retention and conquest rates in the coming years."

The 2010 Customer Retention Study is based on responses from 123,601 new-vehicle buyers and lessees, of which 81,350 replaced a vehicle that was previously acquired new. The study was fielded between February and May and August and October 2010.

Christmas Wishes

Here's a wish from LSI support staff!  Enjoy!

Manitoba Greenbelt Graduation

We are proud to graduate 22 people from the Greenbelt program in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  In partnership with CME Manitoba (Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters), we have been offering Greenbelt in central Canada for the past several years with much success.

CME and LSI haven been working together on numerous projects in Manitoba and we are excited to continue offering a variety of lean programs in Manitoba in 2011 and beyond.

Lean Blackbelt Program

Our most advanced lean certification program is the Blackbelt program, in which participants learn "leading edge" lean materials designed to create world-class lean leaders.
Constantly updated since its launch in 2002, LSI's Blackbelt is the most respected lean program in North America and is now considered the standard in this industry. Unlike other classroom based courses, LSI's Blackbelt focus 80% of its materials on hands-on kaizen and strategy development.  Furthermore, the Blackbelt program includes the benchmark trip to Japan - the only Blackbelt in the world which includes such a trip.
Our next Blackbelt program starts in September, 2011, with a trip to Japan scheduled for November of 2011.  Please contact us for further details (click below to see our youtube video on Blackbelt).

Christmas Wishes from LSI

It's hard to believe but Christmas is just around the corner....here's LSI Coaches' Christmas Wish for you!

Canada and Vancouver

After Travelling to: Sydney, San Diego, Los Angeles, Bentenville, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Portland, Baltimore, Washington DC, Virginia, Boston, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Singapore, Kyoto, Yokohama, Osaka, Nara, Tokyo, Frankfurt Germany, Munich, Rome, London UK, Paris, Belgium, and of course Vancouver all in the last 12 months or so....I come to the same conclusion over and over again. Canada is the Best Country in the world and Vancouver is the Best Place to live!!

Thank you Malaysia Team!

We just wrapped up another important executive program with the Johnson & Johnson team in Malaysia. We want to thank the entire team for their great effort and for producing amazing results!  We were excited to be a part of their session and hope that the Lean Problem Solving methodology will help them solve more issues in the future.  It's been one of the most engaging and exciting teams we've ever had!

Thank you once again.

Congratulations Calgary Greenbelt

Calgary had quite the freeze early last week, and getting around was quite a challenge. But despite the challenges, we are very proud to announce that everyone in our Calgary Greenbelt Class of 2010 Fall graduated to obtain their Lean Greenbelt Certification.


Congratulations to you all!
(sorry that we don't have a group photo!)

Thank you Singapore

A big "thank you" to the entire Johnson & Johnson team in Singapore this week as we successfully completed a comprehensive Lean Problem Solving Executive workshop.  Designed to immerse them into an advanced form of problem solving called LPS by Lean Sensei, the session brought new challenges to the participants.  Superb coordination by the local team helped to make this session a true success.

LSI in Singapore - MONSOON

Soon after Japan, LSI is now in Singapore conducting an Executive workshop on Lean Problem Solving.  However, on our first day we hit a "monsoon"!  Wow, I never realized that rain can hit ground so hard and so fast...