Lean Strategy Formulation

If you just finished planning seasoning and feel like OKRs are a four-letter word, I promise you this talk I had with Jeff Gothelf "aka the Gotfather of OKRs" will change your mind. Key takeaways: 1️⃣ Addressing The Dreaded "Planning Season" We’ve all dealt with big off-sites, hours lost in spreadsheets, and the year-long product roadmap—only to watch half the “strategic plan” unravel. Jeff says that's garbage. “Why does planning need a season?” The market doesn’t wait, your customers don’t wait, why should you? He suggests continuous, lightweight planning—think weeks, not months—recognizing your plan as a best guess. When unexpected events arise (and they will), you can quickly pivot and act on new insights. 2️⃣ Clear Strategy First, Then the OKRs Many teams jump straight into OKRs in a vacuum and wonder why they fail. Jeff’s Lean Strategy Canvas helps clarify direction: identify the big internal goal, obstacles, “where to play,” and how you’ll win. OKRs that don’t flow from a bigger-picture strategy are bound to disappoint. “If we set goals in that way [i.e. customer-centric key results], it fundamentally changes how the organization works.” Start with a long-term objective—like “become the easiest way to onboard a new team member”—and define *measurable behavior changes* (“increase the percentage of first-time admins who set up a new user flow without support”). Without a strategy anchoring your OKRs, you’re just picking numbers and hoping they work. 3️⃣ Actionable Key Results Should Measure A Change In Behavior Every successful product or feature drives a change in user behavior: 🔸 They use your product more often 🔸 They complete key workflows at a higher rate 🔸 They finish workflows faster 🔸 They report higher satisfaction Effective Key Results capture that shift by answering three questions: ✨ Who? ✨ Does What? ✨ By How Much? Instead of celebrating a launch date, measure how many users complete a core workflow with the new feature. This can be tricky for early-stage products, but start with rough indicators. Talk to users every week. Over time, refine these metrics to prove you're delivering real value. It’s far better than shipping blindly, hoping something sticks. 4️⃣ Acknowledge The Uncertainty Of It All Even the best OKRs fail if your culture punishes learning. Teams often know they’re off track but stick to the plan out of fear. As Jeff said, “If we’re going to do discovery work, we’re going to learn that we were wrong about some stuff.” Leadership must handle that truth if you want the real benefits of OKRs. Stop clinging to the illusion of certainty that comes with a 12-month roadmap. Confirmation bias will push you to stick with whatever you put on there, even if better opportunities emerge. Embrace continuous discovery. Update your OKRs as you learn. Measure the user behaviors that matter. Trust your team to adapt as the world shifts. Stop waiting for “planning season” to make your next move!

The Agnes Formula for Lean Over the years, I’ve worked with organizations that had every Lean tool imaginable. SOPs. VSM. TPM. TPS. Kanban. DMS. Visual boards everywhere. And yet, many of them were still struggling. At the same time, I’ve seen teams with far fewer tools achieve remarkable results. That made me ask a simple question: What really makes Lean work? After years of leading operational improvements, supporting transformations, and spending countless hours at the Gemba, I realized that Lean success can be explained with a surprisingly simple formula: 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘯 = (𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 × 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 × 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 × 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 × 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵) ÷ (𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 × 𝘝𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 × 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦) It represents the key factors that determine whether Lean becomes a sustainable culture or just another initiative. ✅ Purpose Every successful Lean journey starts with purpose. Why are we improving? What problem are we solving? How does it create value for the customer? Without purpose, Lean becomes activity without direction. ✅ People Processes don’t improve themselves. People do. The strongest organizations develop problem-solvers, encourage ownership, and create an environment where ideas can thrive. Lean starts and ends with people. ✅ Leadership Lean cannot be delegated. Leaders must go to the Gemba, understand reality, remove barriers, and support problem-solving. Without leadership, Lean becomes a project. With leadership, Lean becomes culture. ✅ Standardization Without a standard, there is no baseline. Without a baseline, there is no improvement. Standardization creates stability, and stability creates opportunities to improve. ✅ Continuous Improvement The best organizations never stop learning. They adapt, improve, and challenge the status quo every day. This is what keeps Lean alive long after the initial transformation. Now let’s look at what weakens Lean. ❌ Waste Activities that consume resources without creating value. ❌ Variability Different ways of performing the same process create inconsistency, defects, and delays. ❌ Resistance Often the biggest obstacle to improvement. Not a lack of tools. Not a lack of data. Resistance to change. Resistance to new ideas. Resistance to leaving the comfort zone. What I find most interesting about this formula is that it behaves exactly like real Lean transformations. When one factor in the numerator weakens, results suffer. When waste, variability, or resistance increase, the impact of improvement decreases. The equation reminds us that Lean is not about implementing tools. It is about creating the right conditions for people to solve problems, improve processes, and deliver value consistently. For me, Lean has never been about perfection. It’s about building stronger foundations, developing people, and making tomorrow better than today. What’s missing from your organization’s Lean formula?

Lean = Profit. Not Philosophy “If digitization shows you the problem… Lean is what solves it.” In the last post, we discussed how many factories already have production scanning and real-time data, yet performance does not improve. So what is the real challenge? It is not a lack of machines or data, but the reality that factories are running with , unstable flow, and constant firefighting, where work moves in batches, problems are discovered late, and decisions remain reactive, slowly turning waste into a norm and firefighting into a culture. This is why Lean is essential—not as a toolkit, but as a strategy to fix flow and build a culture of problem solving. By reducing WIP, balancing lines, and solving problems at root cause every day, flow becomes stable, variation reduces, and teams move from reacting to controlling. The mistake most companies make is jumping straight to digitization and expecting transformation. But digitization only makes problems visible faster—it does not solve them. That’s why many factories have data but no action, visibility but no improvement. The real answer is simple: Lean is the strategy, digitization is the enabler. When combined, digitization accelerates Lean by making flow visible in real time, exposing bottlenecks instantly, and triggering faster response, while also making a culture of problem solving easier to sustain because problems cannot hide and data drives daily action. Most factories miss this synergy. They either have digitization without direction or Lean without speed. But together, they create a system where problems are not just seen, but solved every day. Digitization enables . Lean builds the capability to improve it. Together, they turn data into action and action into results.

WHY ARE LEAN TOPICAL FORMULATION SYSTEMATICALLY SUPERIOR TO COMPLEX ONES? I recently read Subtract by Leidy Klotz. In this book, Klotz explains that humans tend to have an "additive bias." We tend to add things to solve problems. Biological, cultural, and economic forces push us toward adding. It is easier to justify adding than subtracting. However, subtracting is often an efficient and sustainable way to improve a product or situation. Two important pieces of advice are: ➡️ 1) Subtracting is not an alternative to adding; they go together. Subtracting must not be forgotten as an option. "Think add and subtract." ➡️ 2) Start subtracting in the conceptual phase. "Subtract before you act." This resonated with me because it's what we do when designing formulations at RaDes. It's an aspect of rational design. Topical semi-solid formulations are often empirically designed and complex. Leaner formulations with fewer excipients are systematically superior to complex ones. ❓Why? 💡The first reason is: What you can subtract doesn't add value. Unnecessary excipients complicate formulations. They also obscure a formulation's ability to be fully understood. Understanding the underlying physical and chemical mechanisms is essential for developing the best possible products. Lean systems are easier to understand, optimize, and troubleshoot. If you clearly understand the contribution of each excipient, you can design and adjust more powerful solubilizing systems to increase drug concentration and improve penetration and chemical stability. Additionally, any added excipient can introduce variability, quality issues, supply challenges, control efforts, and costs. 💡The second reason is that if you consider both "add" and "subtract," you double your creative potential to solve problems. For example, if you find that an active ingredient is not penetrating sufficiently, you might be inclined to add solvents to increase the concentration. However, the best solution may be to reduce the API concentration and create a more thermodynamically powerful solvent system. We've seen cases where halving the concentration doubled the penetration. Chemical stability may be improved by removing an antioxidant rather than adding another one. So why are even recently approved topical semisolids often so complex? ➡️Rational design of topicals, as offered by RaDes GmbH, is not yet widespread. It requires deep expertise and ambition. ➡️Some formulators are influenced by cosmetics paradigms which cannot be applied to pharmaceutical (apart from the fact that it is important to make also formulations cosmetically nice so that patients like to use them) ➡️There are few true formulation experts in the field, and many clients accept lower standards than those for other dosage forms (have you noticed how lean solids and injectables typically are?). I recommend never compromising on formulation. They may make or break your project. Challenge them. Ask why.

✨Happy 2026 ✨ A new year is often a good excuse to slow down for a moment, and rethink what we take for granted. Especially when it comes to #strategy. Because strategy rarely fails loudly. It fails quietly, when the world changes, and our mental models don’t. Two books make this contrast remarkably clear. 📗 In The Lords of Strategy, Walter Kiechel tells the story of how modern strategy was shaped: - Bruce Henderson (Boston Consulting Group (BCG)) introduced competition as a dynamic game, with experience curves and analytical advantage, - Bain & Company emphasized sharp focus, scale, and doubling down on a few winning bets, - McKinsey & Company institutionalized strategy as a top-management discipline, structured analyses, fact-based recommendations and execution through hierarchy, - Michael Porter gave us positioning, trade-offs, and competitive advantage through structure. What emerges is a shared assumption across the great strategists of the postwar era: 👉 strategy is primarily an analytical act, performed upstream of execution. These approaches were powerful. They worked, in a world of relative #stability. 📘 In the Lean Strategy (Michael Ballé, Daniel Jones, Jacques Chaize and Orest Fiume), strategy starts from a very different observation: In today’s world, competitive failure rarely comes from poor analysis. 👉 It comes from the inability of organizations to #learn fast enough. Lean strategy does not reject strategic choice. It redefines how strategy is discovered. Through the #4F cycle: 1️⃣ Find real customer and operational problems at the Gemba, 2️⃣ Face them instead of hiding them behind buffers and plans, 3️⃣ Frame learning through flow, standards, and clear responsibilities, 4️⃣ Form people so the system keeps improving. This is a break from classical strategy. 👉Where traditional models optimize decisions before execution, 👉Lean builds advantage through execution itself. Lean's enterprises do not win by predicting the future better. They win by discovering better answers faster, every day. That's the power of #Kaizen. That’s why Lean is not an operational overlay. It is a strategic alternative. And that’s why companies that remain locked in yesterday’s strategic logic will struggle not because they lack intelligence or discipline, but because their strategy no longer matches how value is created. 💥 Lean is awesome — not as a slogan, but as a serious answer to how organizations can still make sense, learn, and succeed. Wishing you all a thoughtful, demanding, and learning-rich 2026. #LeanIsAwesome

Most companies deploy Continuous Improvement backwards. They start with Six Sigma—complex stats, certifications, black belts— and forget the foundation that makes it all work. They chase the “final weapon” before building the armor. --- Here’s the truth: You don’t implement CI. You build it—like a living system that evolves from structure to intelligence. Real transformation begins in silence—on the shop floor, in the meeting rooms, in the way people see their work. --- Step 1: Create the foundation — 5S Order is clarity. Clarity is speed. Speed is power. 5S isn’t housekeeping. It’s the operating system of improvement. When everything has a place, thinking becomes visible. You remove friction from both physical and mental flow. If you can’t standardize your environment, you’ll never standardize your results. --- Step 2: Align direction — Hoshin Kanri Most companies drown in disconnected projects. Everyone’s busy. Nobody’s aligned. Hoshin Kanri turns chaos into coherence. It links daily work to long-term purpose. It turns “strategy” from a PowerPoint fantasy into an executable plan. This is where the true leverage lives—clarity of intent multiplied by alignment of effort. --- Step 3: Coach mindset — Toyota Kata Systems alone don’t create transformation. Behavior does. Toyota Kata trains people to think scientifically, to act deliberately, to improve continuously. It’s how you embed learning loops inside your culture. When combined with Hoshin Kanri, it turns strategy into a dojo— where every goal becomes a learning experiment. --- Step 4: Deploy Lean fundamentals Before tools, teach principles. Before projects, build habits. Flow, pull, value, waste—these aren’t buzzwords. They’re the physics of business. Master them, and your organization stops pushing harder—it starts moving smarter. --- Step 5: Activate Kaizen events Once structure and strategy exist, Kaizen becomes explosive. Now your people have direction, tools, and mindset. Every event becomes a spark in a controlled fire of progress. You don’t need slogans about empowerment—people feel it. --- Step 6: Unleash Six Sigma This is the precision weapon. When your culture is mature, Six Sigma isn’t bureaucracy—it’s refinement. It transforms “good” processes into world-class ones. It’s how world class enterprises turn consistency into dominance. But without the earlier layers, Six Sigma becomes a decorative sword—impressive, but useless. --- The paradox: Continuous Improvement isn’t about adding complexity. It’s about removing noise until only excellence remains. Stop chasing belts. Start building systems. Structure and strategy first. Then flow, Kaizen, and finally precision. That’s how you build a self-improving organization. Not a program. A living intelligence.

Most “profit margin improvement” talks sound like this: ✅ “Increase revenue.” ✅ “Reduce COGS.” …then everyone goes back to firefighting. Let’s make it real (and Lean): Profit Margin = Revenue – COGS Lean is not “cost cutting.” Lean is removing waste so value flows — and margin improves as a result. 1) Revenue: Grow without adding chaos Revenue is not just “sell more.” It’s sold better + deliver better. Lean levers that lift Revenue: OTIF / Lead time reduction → customers reorder more (and complain less) Quality at the source → fewer returns, fewer credits, higher trust Flexibility (SMED, smaller batches) → handle mix changes without premium cost Faster quote-to-cash → less waiting, more conversion, better cash cycle Reality check: If your demand increases but your flow is broken, you don’t scale revenue — you scale problems. 2) COGS: Attack the real cost drivers (not the people) COGS usually bleeds from the same places: scrap, rework, downtime, waiting, expediting, freight, excess WIP, low yield. Lean levers that reduce COGS: Stability first (standard work, TPM/AM) → less downtime, less overtime, less firefighting Scrap reduction via physics + root cause → direct material savings + less conversion cost Flow + pull (WIP control) → less handling, less space, less hidden defects Right-first-time quality → rework is “invisible factory” cost Line balance + problem solving → more output with same resources Key mindset: Don’t “cut cost.” Cut the causes of cost. 3) The CFO-friendly translation Lean outcomes become finance outcomes: Lead time ↓ → inventory ↓ → cash ↑ Scrap ↓ → material usage ↓ → gross margin ↑ Downtime ↓ → capacity ↑ → unit cost ↓ OTIF ↑ → revenue stability ↑ → less premium freight Simple starting point (tomorrow morning) Pick ONE product family and track weekly: Lead time Scrap / rework Overtime / expediting / freight Output vs demand Then run Kaizen on the biggest constraint. Lean is a profit strategy. Not because it “reduces cost" But because it removes waste and makes value easier to deliver. 😊 #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen #Manufacturing #Operations #Costing #Finance #ProfitMargin #COGS #ValueStream

How do you effectively formulate your strategy in a simple way? There’s various ways to do so, but I prefer the 5P approach to Strategy Formulation Strategy formulation is notoriously problematic. Clearly formulating your strategy is tremendously important. After all, if you can’t communicate it effectively, your strategy basically doesn’t exist. Having worked with different formats and models, I’ve found that the following approach works well. I’ve called it the 5P Model of Strategy Formulation. 👉 Purpose: Why The reason you’re doing what you do. Call it mission, values, impact or anything else, your Purpose describes how you want to make a difference and thus WHY your organization should exist. 👉 Perspective: How The future image of your organization, envisioning as clearly as possible what it should look like a few years from now. It makes it clear HOW your Purpose could be realized. 👉 Priorities: What The focus you will have in terms of attention, effort and budget. To realize your Perspective, there’s always too much to do. Therefore you need to prioritize so that it is clear WHAT you are going to do. 👉 Plan: When The plans you make to achieve your priorities. This adds a time dimension to your objectives so that it is clear WHEN you are going to do what and in which order. 👉 People: Who The people who will do all of this. Nothing happens without people. Therefore, it is essential to identify WHO is going to do what—while keeping into account they have other things to do as well. Is the 5P Model entirely original? Of course not. It looks, for example, like the Pyramid of Purpose. But it is different as well (such as a different order of the Why, How, What questions). What matters most, though, is that it makes sense. We can see that by looking at the relationships between the 5Ps. There’s a a cycle that goes two ways. Clockwise: Purpose gives meaning to the Perspective Perspective creates coherence for the Priorities Priorities define what the Plan should cover Plan shows what People should do People define the Purpose Counter-clockwise: People execute the Plan Plan makes the Priorities actionable Priorities make the Perspective tangible Perspective outlines how the Purpose can be achieved Purpose drives the People You see? It is coherent and complete in both directions. === If you want to further upgrade your strategy and implementation skills, should have a look at our Certified Strategy & Implementation Consultant (CSIC) program. We go public with the open registration for our February 2025 cohort in two weeks, but you can already preregister now. Check our website https://lnkd.in/eQYY8cFE. #communicationdevelopment #strategyplanning #peoplemanagement

#Strategy isn’t just about the destination — it’s as much about how you get there.   In my experience, when organisations take strategic decisions as one-off, they lose time, clarity, and momentum. They end up with inconsistency in decision making and perhaps end up with poor choices and missed opportunities. In fact, I would not call them strategy at all. They are just that - one-off decisions.   The latest Harvard Business Review article on Lean Strategy Making strongly resonates with me inasmuch as strategic decisions are concerned. It argues that strategy should be treated as standard work—structured, repeatable, and deliberate. Much like operations. Such an approach reduces waste and improves outcomes.   It begins with taking decisions grounded in facts, exploring multiple alternatives, and committing to a focused, resourced choice. For this kind of approach, one has to keep at the centre, a strategic priority pipeline. This is nothing but a dynamic list of high-value goals, ranked by urgency and impact. Moreover, every outcome—whether pursued, delayed, or dropped—is logged and tracked. It becomes a learning for future decisions.   At Spice Money, we follow a similar model. Our mission to empower #Bharat is disaggregated as clear priorities. Be it expanding our #Adhikari network or entering underserved regions or launching inclusive services - each initiative goes through the same disciplined flow: gather data, evaluate options, act decisively, and track outcomes. This structure helps us move ahead with confidence and stay aligned with our larger purpose - of growing and growing right.   If you’re looking to make strategy a true capability in your organisation, this HBR article is worth your time: https://lnkd.in/d8BiRBiV   #LeanStrategy #PurposeDrivenLeadership #SpiceMoney #StrategyExecution #DigitalBharat Ramesh Venkataraman| Rashmi Aggarwal | Ram Rastogi 🇮🇳| Harsh Mittal| Usha Murali| Kuldeep Pawar | Venkatramu J | CA. SUNIL KUMAR KAPOOR | sameer nagpal | Rohit Ahuja| Pankaj Vaish | Dr. Binu Varghese | Rohit Sood| Srikrishna Narasimhan | Pankaj Vaish | veena mankar I Subramanian Murali | Mayank Jain