Podcast #158 – Art Byrne, Former CEO of Wiremold on The Lean Turnaround

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My guest for podcast #158 is Art Byrne, author of the new book The Lean Turnaround: How Business Leaders Use Lean Principles to Create Value and Transform Their Company.

Art is very well known in the Lean community for his successful run as CEO of Wiremold, having previously worked at GE and Danaher.  He is currently Operating Partner at the private equity firm J. W. Childs Associates L.P. In this podcast, Art talks about operations improvement as a business strategy, why the CEO needs to be directly involved in a Lean transformation, why “stretch goals” aren't demoralizing when you have the right leadership and culture, and more.

Also, listen to my podcast with Bob Emiliani (who documented the Wiremold story in the book Better Thinking, Better Results: Case Study and Analysis of an Enterprise-Wide Lean Transformation), where he talks about what happened to Lean at Wiremold after the company was purchased and Art left.

For a link to this episode, refer people to  www.leanblog.org/158/.

For earlier episodes, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS or via Apple Podcasts.

If you have feedback on the podcast, or any questions for me or my guests, you can email me at leanpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave a voicemail by calling the “Lean Line” at (817) 993-0630 or contact me via Skype id “mgraban”. Please give your location and your first name. Any comments (email or voicemail) might be used in follow ups to the podcast.


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Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker, and podcaster with experience in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. Mark's new book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. He is also the author of Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, and the anthology Practicing Lean. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Hey Mark-

    Listened to the podcast this morning, and I have to say, this was one of the best in the series. Art Byrne’s accomplishments proceed him, as any reader of Better Thinking, Better Results knows well, but hearing from him directly is even more inspiring. Thanks for bringing this interview to the Lean community – I’m going to go buy his book now :-).

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