The Lean Machine

CHAPTER 5

Firefighting and the Tipping Point

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more uncertain of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions, and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones.

Niccolo Machiavelli

I was at my desk reading the 2001 model year Launch Assessment report when Kerry interrupted me. She walked into my office carrying two bound booklets. “I found copies of the 1999 and 2000 launch assessments in my files,” she said, placing the ...