“Like most people who go on diets, most companies that go lean fool themselves into thinking that the change effort is a time-bounded exercise. The company just needs to eat less and exercise more for now. It doesn’t understand that if it is to stay lean, a company, like a person, has to live lean … forever. It is literally about resetting the corporate metabolism, even restructuring its DNA. That cannot be done just by shifting a process, implementing a methodology, or running a change program. Real systemic change has to happen at a company’s core, with its people. Most critically, it needs to be embodied in the company’s leaders.”

– “The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence through Leadership Development” by Jeffrey K. Liker, Gary L. Convis –